Jays Buy SkyDome

[n_v]

Further proof that the building is worthless and the end is near for it ....

http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2004/11/29/skydome-041129.html

 

[new2game]

Yep...and we all paid for it

..Can you imagine this dump got built for 600 million back in '89....that would calculate to at least a billion in todays dollars..and now is being sold for 25 million???....that's like 2.5 cents on the dollar....shows you why government should stay the hell out of private enterprise.......we all got jammed....and without any vaseline........
New2game

 

[jwmorrice]

I was pleased to read that because of the sale, new turf, such as they have in Tampa Bay, will be put down for the 2005 season. There's also talk of replacing the now ancient Jumbotron and fixing the place up so that concrete is not the overwhelming theme.

Yeah Skydome now looks pretty crappy compared to the new stadiums with retractable roofs but it was a pioneering effort and for some time a point of civic pride.

jwm

 

[Goober Mcfly]

How long until it's rebadged as the "Rogers Skydome"?

 

[n_v]

Re: Yep...and we all paid for it

..Can you imagine this dump got built for 600 million back in '89....that would calculate to at least a billion in todays dollars..and now is being sold for 25 million???....that's like 2.5 cents on the dollar....shows you why government should stay the hell out of private enterprise.......we all got jammed....and without any vaseline........

The building has lost tens of millions even in private hands. And governments in the States are building sports arenas everywhere. The point is that this particualr stadium was doomed to fail right form the get go regardless. Too many bells and whistles (hotel, fitness centre, nightclubs) and not enough focus on the stadium itself. Word is that the stadium will be torn down before too long.

 

[n_v]

How long until it's rebadged as the "Rogers Skydome"?

Why?? It would make more sense for another company to pay them then to have a company name on it.

 

[jwmorrice]

Re: Re: Yep...and we all paid for it

The building has lost tens of millions even in private hands. And governments in the States are building sports arenas everywhere. The point is that this particualr stadium was doomed to fail right form the get go regardless. Too many bells and whistles (hotel, fitness centre, nightclubs) and not enough focus on the stadium itself. Word is that the stadium will be torn down before too long.

I can't see it being torn down. What would be the advantage to be gained? The land is leased and the lease is conditional on it being used for a stadium.

jwm

 

[freakshow]

Fuck for that price i would buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!


Turn it into a terb headquaters.........Massive SC,MP,SP

 

[Goober Mcfly]

Why?? It would make more sense for another company to pay them then to have a company name on it.

So, the Bell ExpressVu Skydome then?

 

[jwmorrice]

Well, if we're gonna get silly....

Tbill Skydome?

jwm

 

[prelations]

possibilities

i didn't know about the land being leased etc.

I thought you could easily build on top of the land and dominate the whole skyline. If that can't happen, I'm not sure what they're going to build on it.

It would be sweet to see something unique put there, but we already have the cn tower, so height is out of the picture.

 

[n_v]

There a large number of condos already there housing thousands of people. When they knock it down, more condos/office/retail or a new ball park- provided the Jays are still around.

 

[xarir]

The land is leased from a crown corporation (Canada Lands I believe) and from CN. The terms of the lease are very specific and call for, surprisingly enough, a stadium that has a hotel and other amenities such as a fitness club and restaurants in the stadium.

While I too am peeved at the pricetag of only $25 mil vs $600+ to build the stadium, we must remember the times in which it was built. At the tail end of the 1980s, Big Business was still doing quite well and spending money was the norm. The Blue Jays were the hottest ticket in town as well and easily sold out (50,000+ seats!!) per game - a feat that's unthinkable these days. Given that environment, it made sense to build a bare-bones concrete stadium because no one cared. Fans came in droves and there weren't enough tickets to go around. Who needed a nice stadium?

 

[Cardinal Fang]

Given that environment, it made sense to build a bare-bones concrete stadium because no one cared.

I attended Rod Robbie's lecture at Convocation Hall when the Stadium was complete. The original design called for a Porcelain Enamel Panel finish on the exterior of the building giving the building a sculptural white finish. But to do budgetary constraints (yes they actually had to have one at some point) they revised the design to bare concrete. The intention was to eventually finish the exterior at some point.

 

[Goober Mcfly]

I attended Rod Robbie's lecture at Convocation Hall when the Stadium was complete.

Wasn't he the announcer from The Price is Right?

 

[Cardinal Fang]

You're thinking of Rodney Dangerfield.

Roderick George Robbie = Architect http://www.oaa.on.ca/client/oaa/OAAHome.nsf/0/C3451D43E27123CF85256DEB004F12CD?opendocument

 

[new2game]

No Fang...

Goober's thinking of this guy.....

Read fans' tribute to Rod.

Rod Roddy, the announcer for the CBS game show The Price Is Right since 1986, died on Monday, October 27 at Century City Hospital in Los Angeles after a long battle with prostate, colon and breast cancer. In the years since his diagnosis, Roddy became an outspoken advocate for early detection in the battle against colon cancer.

Roddy had a long radio career hosting both music and talk shows on stations in Dallas-Fort Worth, Miami, Orlando, Little Rock, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Cleveland, Atlanta, Buffalo, New York and Los Angeles.

In 1977, he came to television as the narrator of the comedy series Soap on ABC. In 1979, he began an uninterrupted run as the announcer on a series of popular game shows, beginning with Whew! on CBS. This was followed by Battlestars on CBS in 1981, Hit Man on NBC in 1983 and Press Your Luck on CBS from 1983-86. Roddy was the original announcer on the syndicated Love Connection (1983-85) before joining Bob Barker on The Price Is Right.

 

[Cardinal Fang]

*Watches the joke fly over new2game's head*

 

[jwmorrice]

C'mon Sheik!

It was also a liberal boondoggle..... Petersen let the spending go way out of control on what was supposed to have been a 200 million dollar stadium. Figures that the contractor was also the president of the ontario liberal party at the time.

This is why it bothers me when people dont think when it comes time to elect our representatives. They screwed us the last time and now they are doing it again. Sheesh

More than enough blame to go all around. Here's a column on the subject from today's Sun.

jwm

Thu, December 2, 2004
SkyDome's actual cost is still a mystery
By JOHN DOWNING -- For the Toronto Sun

My wife looked at Paul Godfrey smiling on TV over buying SkyDome for $25 million and said, "That's a steal. It's got to be worth more."

She's right. Godfrey and his boss Ted Rogers have picked the pockets of the previous owners.

But that hasn't been you and me since 1994, when a consortium bought it from taxpayers for $151 million. Then a near-bankruptcy and another sale, and the downward spiral of what was supposed to be our world wonder has ended with the Blue Jays and the guy who started it all, Godfrey.

Canadians always yearn to be world-class in something. Well, we're a world leader when it comes to building costly flops as playpens for millionaires. Consider Montreal's Big Owe and Toronto's SkyHighDome!

Once upon a time, the domed stadium and the hotel that clings to it like a barnacle (it cost $115 million and sold for $33 million in 1999) cost us a total of $615 million. Or was it $628 million? Or $645 million?

The media have used all those figures. But then, the figures have lied, and the liars have figured, on any stadium in T.O.

The original estimate, we're told, was $150 million. Bullroar! Godfrey and his aide, Ray Biggart, confessed long ago that they made that up as a guess, just to shut me and other critics up. The first realistic estimate, they said, was $228 million.

The true cost, and what benefits taxpayers really got, should have been the subject of a commission of inquiry. But supporters were too organized, and there was a golden dream of the economic benefits that would flow from a good home for major sports teams. (My objections have always been aimed at the public cost of buildings for private business. SkyDome is a fine facility, this is a good deal for the Jays, and the Argos are nuts to move.)

But the search for blame became a tad meaningless when most of the original players moved on. Tories arranged the seduction and conception -- Bill Davis as premier and Godfrey as Metro chairman -- but they were gone from elected politics during the pregnancy and delivery under Liberal premier David Peterson.

Metro council, headed by Godfrey, approved its part in 1984. Only six councillors opposed it.

Things got a trifle weird around the Sun -- where management favoured the stadium and many editors and columnists (like me) didn't -- when Godfrey arrived as our boss six months later. By 1990, Godfrey and three Sun directors were on the SkyDome board or deeply involved. Godfrey was honourable about my sniping -- though not a saint.

He tired of criticism that SkyDome had gouged taxpayers "so the rich and famous can have a playground" -- a quote from Mark Bonokoski's column of March 15, 1990. (Godfrey had enlisted Bono to return fire against me.)

So Bono wrote that SkyDome "has yet to cost the taxpayer a solitary dime."

He wrote (or rather Godfrey said as his secret source) that Queen's Park had put $30 million in from Wintario profits, not taxes, and that the government benefitted from the income tax on the workers, sales tax on the construction material, and the 10% amusement tax on every ticket.

What Metro council got for its $30 million, Bono added, was a new $24-million John St. water pumping station, an $11-million bridge, a $5-million works yard, $6 million in roads built by CN, and "from now until eternity," $10 million annually in property tax.

Well, the financial apocalypse (also known as eternity) has since arrived, and SkyDome now pays the city about $5.2 million in taxes.

Yesterday, Godfrey was still steamed at suggestions it cost taxpayers $600 million. "Look," he said, "the province held the mortgage of $300 million in the early 1990s, and got half back in the 1994 sale. The feds put in $30 million through CN in land and get back $900,000 annually in a lease. Look at all the taxes."

When you roll back the roof on SkyDome finances, you find what Churchill said about Russia, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Godfrey was a great leader despite his affair with SkyDome. The least he can do now is use the advantage of the Jays owning their own home to win another World Series.

 

[new2game]

Hey Fang...

...something would have to fly damned high to get over my head...just figured you "Canadianized" Torontonians would be out of touch with American Pop Culture...lmao....

New2game