Real Estate

by Darrin DeRoches January 27 - February 2, 2011

How much does it cost to build? I wrote about the per square foot costs of a new build in an article last year but this time I was really wondering – how much does it cost to build a football stadium? I cannot believe the ongoing hoopla about the football stadium in Hamilton.  In case you have not been paying attention, Hamilton is looking to re–build Ivor Wynee stadium for around $170 million big buckaroos.  This seems a little out of whack – or is it?     You would think since we own the land, have the entire infrastructure in place and are going to renovate half of it – we should be able to build it for $150 million or so.   If we look around North America we can find stadiums being built for 1 billion in Dallas Texas , to Winnipeg where they are paying around 135 million or just down the road where they built the BMO field for a mere $72 million. So if we pay attention to what every other community is doing and for what costs – Why can we not build a stadium for a budget we can afford?     I love going to Ivor Wynne and I was on the field when they first installed the astro turf. I want to enjoy the next 30 years in a new state of the art stadium. But at what costs?   The tiger cats are now asking for 18 million to build them a headquarters in the new stadium – 18 million.  Their headquarters are quite nice.  They even have a full fledge pub with draft taps inside their headquarters – pretty nice! They bought the building for 3 million and probably spent some money fixing it up. Now they want us to pay for a new headquarters for about 18 million. Seriously? What are they going to build this time – a spa. Nightclub. Five star restaurant. What are they thinking.     My point on all of this yammering back and forth with the tigercats and the city is pretty simple. Make a budget we can afford and stick to it. If they want a new headquarters – they can pay for it.  Let’s stop parading around talking about this big pie in the sky plans and build a beautiful stadium within a budget we can afford.  It is our money and we need to control how it is spent. Any landlord wants their tenants to be happy, but we are not going to build them an 18 million dollar headquarters.  Build them a great stadium and move forward.  V Darrin DeRoches is a local real estate and mortgage broker. He can be reached to answer questions, comments or stories about real estate experiences through this weekly column at mail@uniquerealty.ca.