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When the Toronto Argonauts and Calgary Stampeders clash at TD Place in Sunday’s Grey Cup, Eric Sommer intends to give the spectacle a pass.

It was his company that built the distinctive wooden veil that adorns the stadium entrance. Seeing that backdrop, even on television, would simply conjure up too many painful memories.

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Spring Valley Classic Custom — the firm Sommer founded in the 1980s — declared bankruptcy during the final stages of the stadium’s construction two years ago.

Costs for the $4.6-million sub-contract to build the veil had ballooned to $7.1 million after a wind-and-snow study commissioned by the owner, Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, unexpectedly concluded the veil required a significant re-design.

Such were the cost constraints on the overall Lansdowne project that Sommer could not pass along his extra expenses.

And so his world changed.

“I’m not fully recovered,” Sommer, 54, says today from his home in Ancaster, Ont., “but I have a plan for recovery.”