Meet the new boss....

...same as the old boss!  (But did we get fooled again?)

What a fitting title, eh?  I sometimes wonder what inspires someone to write something as prophetic as that.  What was Pete Townshend thinking and could I have some of what he had when he wrote the lyrics to "Won't Get Fooled Again," the greatest song ever written and performed by The Who. And they certainly have a lot of creative songs, especially from "Who's Next," the album this song appeared on.

So I suppose if you're a Raise the Hammer kind of guy, you're probably shaking your head in disbelief wondering what just happened.  You're probably wondering what will happen to the downtown core, while failing to grasp the fact that you can't build the downtown core around a stadium on the waterfront, especially in Hamilton for a lot of reasons, including the lack of a Perimeter Road.  And even at that, I have said before and I'll say it again, you can't showcase a stadium on the waterfront, especially when nobody can see it from Toronto or the Skyway Bridge for that matter.  My biggest issue with the West Harbour has always been the lack of visibility, be it the Skyway or the 403 and even if they built it, nobody's coming.  The Tiger-Cats as a tenant mentality has always bothered me too.  They are more than just a tenant.  They are a stakeholder with the interest in promoting our city, which people would never know existed if they never heard about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  Fortunately, they have created enough curiosity to warrant some interest in the city and that's what a sports team does.

And the mentality to create a smaller stadium made me shake my head, because it has trivialized the entire debate. And yes, this isn't just about the Tiger Cats.  I get that.  We had a debate about where to place a stadium that wouldn't just host a soccer tournament and track and field events, but have a future purpose like bringing in an NASL or (need we say) an MLS franchise.  We debated on whether to try for a stadium with a roof and even some condos around it to help bolster the construction costs.  We fought and fought and fought our neighbours to bring a point across.

It doesn't matter who gambled and lost.  We all lost.  We lost an opportunity to have a brand new stadium so nobody won.  So obviously, everybody, even the city and the Tiger-Cats, are disappointed with the outcome.  In the end nothing really good came out of it and now our arguments have become invalid.  Call it desperate if you want, but who were the desperate ones?  DOES IT REALLY MATTER???

Nobody is happy about it, not the city and not the Tiger-Cats.  But who's fault was this?  There were several factors, the most prominent being the removal of Confederation Park from the short list.  That came courtesy of Chad Collins, who suggested the preservation of green space.  I'm just not sure that keeping an already decrepit campground riddled with traffic noise worse than camping at Fifty Point is really my idea of preserving green space and what exactly was it being saved for?  So some deep pocketed developer could come to the rescue of the Hamilton Conservation Authority and give them millions of dollars to build some new houses?  Please.

All things considered, Confederation Park was the perfect site, footprint issues aside.  GO was planning on building a train station in that area and a pedestrian bridge was built in that area too.  It would have been an outdoor Skywalk.  Unfortunately there were those screaming for downtown renewal, but they put the cart before the horse.  Then they didn't consider the Tiger-Cats concerns and basically said to "shut up, because this is our choice to make, and not yours."  Wrongly, they never considered the Tiger-Cats to be part of the process.  The Tiger-Cats then had no choice but to look for greener pastures. 

But then the Tiger-Cats had a really crazy idea, and shared with Mayor Bob Bratina and the rest is history.  Yes, for several reasons, Ivor Wynne Stadium has been sacred ground for 80 years.  There was too much history there.

So now here we are, back to the original site.  Are you feeling dejected right now?  Hollow?  Disappointed?  As much I am, I understand why they took that route.

Nobody realized the elephant in the room, which was what would be built in the place of Ivor Wynne Stadium if they were to build the new stadium and tear this one down?  Considering the part of town the stadium is in right now, the options were limited.  They could build a smaller stadium beside Brian Timmis, but it still costs money.  Rebuilding Ivor Wynne Stadium had to be the only choice, because for all the costs incurred to build a new stadium, the city would get no return on the property itself if they were to sell it.  And either way, there would be residual costs incurred no matter what direction would be taken so better to spend the money on the same site than anywhere else, because no matter what happens, the city would never stop putting money into what would have been the former site.

We expected a Hail Mary, but never expected the onside punt.  So congratulations to all in our spectacular loss, especially to ex-Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Scott Duvall, Brian McHattie, Terry Whitehead, Brad Clark (what the hell, man?), Robert Pasuta, Russ Powers and especially Chad Collins!  You have done our past city councils proud and showed us that our city council still has what it takes to really screw up when given the opportunity.

But they cannot have done this all alone.  So all of us Hamiltonians now have to stand up and take a bow for having been given the council we all deserve.  In the end, we all lost and above all, it was a team effort.

Now go get drunk...   and remember!  DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

By the way:  we didn't all lose.  Larry Pattison and his small group of Ivor Wynne Stadium supporters actually won the day.  Congrats to Larry and his rogue band for keeping the faith.