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The talk related to a Canadian Football League franchise coming to Halifax was all positive Thursday despite a lack of funding and a designated stadium location.

“It is entirely rational and logical and exciting to think that the game will not only be the celebration of bringing football here to the region but part of the story of bringing football here for the long term to this great city,” league commissioner Randy Ambrosie said during a news conference in Halifax to announce a July 25 regular-season game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts to be played at Huskies Stadium.

“It’s perfectly rational to think that we’ll have lots of things to talk about. … We’ll have football to talk about and maybe we’ll have other great news to talk about as well.”

That news tucked optimistically into the commissioner’s briefcase would be that the Atlantic Schooners would be going ahead as an expansion team with a proposal for a community stadium in which to play.

A July announcement could be wishful thinking, especially in light of a December decision by Halifax regional council to provide a one-time $20-million contribution to the stadium project provided a new site other than Shannon Park can be found.

The Schooner Sports and Entertainment proposal to council included a stadium with 12,000 permanent seats that would be expanded with temporary seating to accommodate a total of 24,000 spectators to watch a Halifax expansion team play. SSE had long settled on a six- to eight-hectare site at Shannon Park, a surplus military site in north-end Dartmouth, to construct a $100-million stadium.

But a staff report for Halifax council warned that Shannon Park lacks transportation options to get spectators in and out and a stadium there would require millions of dollars in infrastructure investment.

“I have met with Mayor (Mike) Savage and regional council a number of times,” Ambrosie said Thursday. “I am very impressed by their thoughtfulness. If there were reasons that they didn’t think that (Shannon Park) was the right place, who am I? I’m a Torontonian, I live in Toronto. I’m running a league, I don’t think it’s right for me to tell them where it should be. I want it to be where it is ultimately best for the city and best for Schooner Sports and Entertainment. I’m not disappointed by that. I toured that site and I saw its beauty but really for us getting a great stadium built that will service the region for the long term is the most important thing.”

After the December council decision, Anthony LeBlanc, one of three founding SSE partners, listed Dartmouth Crossing, Bayers Lake, the airport, Exhibition Park, the Bedford Common and a Woodside location among potential sites that would be looked at as stadium sites. He said accessibility to a 100-series highway and transit routes were imperative.

Bruce Bowser, another of the founding SSE partners who was at Thursday’s game announcement, said identifying a new site requires time.

“I was a little disappointed because I grew up in Shannon Park and I think it would have been a fabulous site but I’ve never been tied to one location, as long as it is in the greater Halifax-Dartmouth region,” Bowser said.

“We’re keeping open-minded to a lot of sites. Dartmouth Crossing has always been mentioned as one of the sites and that is still very much in play but there are three or four other sites that are being looked at as well.”

Bowser said LeBlanc looked at potential sites last week.

“A decision has not been made as of yet, but I suspect one will be made in the next few weeks,” LeBlanc said in an email. “We have been approached by many site owners regarding their desire to partner with SSE.”

The funding piece of the puzzle might be equally as problematic. Council said the municipality would kick in $20 million at a time when construction of a stadium is substantially completed on a mutually agreed-upon site. That still leaves an $80-million gap in funding and SSE said it is talking with the province about funding arrangements.

A spokesman for the premier said funding options haven’t been talked about recently but Bowser said conversations are ongoing.

“We were very encouraged by the vote by the city of Halifax and our conversations with the province have been positive from Day 1,” Bowser said. “It hasn’t happened yet but it’s going to happen soon that we’re going to get in front of the province. For us, especially for guys like me who are entrepreneurs, the pace is never quick enough but we’re looking at realistically, if everything plays out the way we’d like it to play out, probably a 2023 beginning for a season.”

Ambrosie agreed with allowing the project an appropriate amount of time.

“Somebody once said of me that I’m never in a rush but I’m always in a hurry,” Ambrosie said. “You can take from that that I’m not a patient guy but I think the message from the league governors is that they want us not to get it fast but to get it right. They want to help Schooner Sports and Entertainment make sure that when they are ready to join that we’re ready to have them for a very long and successful journey.

“Your desire is to get everything done quickly, you have that strong feeling but really what’s better is that we get all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. That’s the most important thing of all.”

Mike (Pinball) Clemons, the effervescent general manager of the Argonauts who will play in Halifax in August, called Atlantic Canada one of the best parts of the country and said he has long wanted to see a team in the region.

“We appreciate the dating that’s happened last year and this year but at some point we want to be married,” Clemons said of SSE’s progress.

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