Article content

CALGARY — One of the big events during the last Grey Cup Week was the unveiling of the name of the proposed 10th CFL franchise. On a convention centre stage in Edmonton, commissioner Randy Ambrosie gave his blessing to the Atlantic Schooners, touching off a big celebration that finally gave the East Coast Kitchen Party, a Grey Cup staple, something concrete to cheer about.

Smiling people hugged and drank beer, some of them wearing shirts alluding to the talk of a proposed stadium: “If you build it, they will come,” the shirts said.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or STINSON: Stadium for CFL expansion in Halifax a long way from reality Back to video

A year later, the building part of the equation remains a long way from reality. The stadium was always going to be a stumbling block, and was one of the reasons it was odd to see Ambrosie champion an expansion franchise in Halifax so aggressively given that the details were far from sorted. The events of the past 12 months have only underscored those points.

Schooners Sports and Entertainment, fronted by former Arizona Coyotes co-owner Anthony LeBlanc, announced last spring that it had tentative plans in place to build a stadium on the Dartmouth waterfront, at the site of the former Shannon Park military base. Rather than a 24,000-seat building as originally envisioned, they instead imagined a 12,000-seat “community” stadium to be mostly built with public money, with SSE building temporary stands to bring it up to CFL size.