Halifax stadium debate raises questions about use of public space, taxpayer spending

On days the Halifax Wanderers play at home, Keara Turner can be found in the stands with an enthusiastic group of fans known as Privateers 1882.

Before the games, members gather at various Halifax bars for pre-game drinks and meals, then march together to Wanderers Grounds to watch the Canadian Premier League soccer club. They often head to a bar after the games and organize watch parties at local pubs when the Wanderers play on the road.

"A stadium, in general, is something our city needs and this really is a key location and I think something that just improves the downtown core and then can also give back to the downtown core as well," said Turner, a director with Privateers 1882. The group's name is a nod to the Wanderers Amateur Athletics Club, which was formed in 1882 and used the site that now bears its name.

Since 2019, the Wanderers have played in a pop-up stadium at Wanderers Grounds, a piece of land that's part of the Halifax Common. There's no running water, porta-potties are the bathrooms and any food served must come from food trucks or hot dog carts.

The Halifax Tides women's team also started playing at the venue earlier this year.

Halifax council is looking at building a permanent stadium at the site. City staff recently came up with a mix of stadium options that would range in size, as well as changes to facilities operated by groups such as the Halifax Lancers and the Wanderers Lawn Bowling Club.

The anticipated cost ranges from $116 million to $123 million, assuming construction starts in 2029.

The debate around whether the city should build a stadium is complex. It's one that sparks passionate discussions about the use of public space and taxpayer money, what's an appropriate location and economic benefits.

Turner supports the idea of the proposed stadium and its location. She points to how supporting infrastructure, such as roads, transit, hotels and bars and restaurants are all in place, as opposed to other locations that sometimes get mentioned, such as Shannon Park or near Exhibition Park.

"It really promotes more sprawl," said Turner. "And I think we need to get away from that as a city. We need to really improve our downtown core and ... make it a world-class downtown core and be able to compete with cities like Montreal and Toronto for investment and major events."

Moshe Lander, a sports economist at Concordia University in Montreal, has also lived and taught in Halifax. He said stadiums used to be placed outside of cities where people could park their cars in massive lots, but that thinking has changed.

"People started realizing that maybe the game itself is just part of what people want to experience," said Lander.

The thinking now is being able to walk to and from games or use public transit to get there, he said, as well as go to restaurants and bars, much like Turner and the Privateers 1882 gang do.

With available space in the downtown in short supply, Wanderers Grounds is one of few — if any — options that fit the above criteria.

Wanderers president Derek Martin said the team consistently attracts more than 6,000 spectators to its games.

"Part of our success is because we were able to secure the best location," he said. "If we have to move, I think we could still make it work, but I would hate to see this go back to being an unused, prime piece of real estate in the heart of the city."

Howard Epstein, a longtime board member of the community group Friends of the Halifax Common, said he isn't against a stadium, he's just not in favour of Wanderers Grounds as the location.

"It's a cheat because it takes what should be open, public land, available for all comers without paying admission and privatizes it, which is not a very good idea," he said. "That's a cheat on the public and the sports-playing amateur public."

A century-old sports space

Using Wanderers Grounds for sports by the public is something that goes back more than a century and has its roots in some 1886 legislation.

Epstein has said his group has more support than commonly believed, noting they have a mailing list of about 3,000 people.

He said there are other sites on the peninsula that could house a stadium, such as the former St. Pat's High School land on Quinpool Road or the former Pierceys Building Supplies site on Robie Street.

Epstein also has a personal connection to Wanderers Grounds. He used to run track there six decades ago.

The Wanderers and Halifax Tides play on a grass surface. To maintain the pitch at a professional standard, it can't handle much more use.

"We hear arguments against us saying that we're limiting people using the space," said Martin. "Well, we're not limiting people using the space. The grass is limiting people using the space."

Maintaining the grass even limits how much the Wanderers can use the field. On a weekly basis, they can practise a day before a game and then play a game. With 15 games a season, that works out to 30 team uses per season. The team holds its other practices elsewhere.

Permanent stadium would include use by community groups

Under the stadium proposal, the surface would be converted to artificial turf, which would allow for it to be used by community groups and host events like concerts.

Before the temporary stadium was constructed, the field surface at Wanderers Grounds was far from ideal. It required a complete overhaul to be "reconstructed as a premiere Class A field that meets international standards," the city said in a 2017 staff report.

A 2015 rugby match between Team Canada and the Glasgow Warriors had to be moved to a field in Spryfield because the field was deemed unsafe for play.

Martin said he doesn't think the city needs a 20,000-seat stadium, but he's a bit perplexed by some of the resistance toward an outdoor stadium that could accommodate around 10,000 people when the Scotiabank Centre has a similar capacity a few blocks away.

"I don't know why we have to fight so hard to convince people that an outdoor venue should be built when there's an indoor venue that consistently is invested in year over year," he said.

The Scotiabank Centre is home to two tenants: the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads and the National Lacrosse League's Halifax Thunderbirds.

The stadium proposal would see Halifax taxpayers build the facility, with tenants such as the Wanderers and Tides paying rent to use it. This means taxpayers would be responsible for any cost overruns for building the stadium, which Lander said are likely.

The city's construction estimates include contingencies of 25 per cent in the estimates to account for things like inflation and changes made during the construction process.

Lander said cost overruns get justified by governments who say a stadium will pay for itself in the extra money in tourism or events that come to the city.

"Unfortunately, there's no evidence to suggest that's true," he said.

The economic impact of professional sports teams

Lander said sports teams have a limited economic impact on their communities.

"If my income hasn't changed and your income hasn't changed, or the total amount of income in Halifax hasn't changed, then all we're doing is just deciding where we want to allocate it," he said.

"And so if we want to allocate it to the Wanderers or the Tides or the Mooseheads, then we're taking it out of the Halifax Shopping Centre, we're taking it out of a sushi bar on Lower Water Street or we're taking it out of the Tim Hortons on Spring Garden."

Lander, who calls himself a sports fan, said he isn't for or against governments using taxpayer money on stadiums. It all comes down to their reasoning.

"If the city wants to put money into an arena or into a stadium, then just go to the public and say, 'Listen, we're not going to promise the economic benefits, they're just not there. But what we are going to promise is that this will help unite us or this will give us a place that we can gather when we want to celebrate something or when we want to mourn something,'" he said.

"If people want to vote for that, that's democracy and I have zero issue with that."

Martin said that while stadiums don't make money, their value is in the auxiliary benefits they create, such as the money spent on nearby restaurants, bars and hotels.

He asks whether people want to live in a city where they can go to a soccer game on a Saturday afternoon, catch a concert across the street at the Garrison Grounds afterwards and then go out for a nice meal afterwards.

"At the end of the day, it's not an economic, dollars-and-cents question, it's a, 'What does the city and what do taxpayers really want their city to look like?'" said Martin.

For Turner, that's the kind of city she'd like to live in. She said she was chatting with a family from the Annapolis Valley at a recent Wanderers game. It was their first game and they decided to make a weekend trip to the city for it.

"I think that is what really attracts people to this area and gets them out into the community and see more of what downtown Halifax has to offer," she said.