More Thoughts on the West Harbour

An issue for the Cats is the cost of going from the 20,000 seat taxpayer funded stadium to one with 25.000 seats. Supposedly this extra 5,000 seats would cost tens of millions extra that the Cats would somehow have to come up with. Does the extra 5,000 seats have to add that much? Personally I don't think so. With the current taxpayer design, the 20,000 seats are along the sidelines, somewhat similar to Ivor Wynne's west end. I say the extra 5,000 seats could come from two sets of bleachers, of 2,500 seats each at the back of the endzones. These would end up being 20 to 30 rows each and could be constructed at a much smaller cost than the more substantive main structure. In the CFL this year, both BC's temp structure and Moncton's extra seats are similar and are relatively cheap. Sure the seats would not be as grand as in the main structure, but they would be the cheapest ticket option, which the Hamilton market seems to require. This would require a longer footprint lengthwise, but 30 rows would not be that much extra. Maybe parking spots could be offered under them.

Strange in the reporting on the stadium issue that the recent news with Bob Young's firm LuLu has not been mentioned.

Lulu IPO Delayed

Looks like the IPO of Ticat owner Bob Young's firm Lulu is delayed. A little odd considering the markets are doing fairly well right now.

It is good to see Marcel Bellefeuille signed a contract extension through the end of the 2011 season. Good that it wasn't through 2012, because it now seems a lot of CFL teams, see the Bombers and Argos, end up having money troubles paying the years left on contracts of departed head coaches. That hurts even more when teams are paying money to people like Bart Andrus and Mike Kelly. Anything can happen with the Cats this year, so no point handing out long term extensions.

Lulu Going Public in Canada

Somebody posted an article on the Ticats forum about Ticat owner Bob Young's company Lulu going public. Amusingly the forum post was locked due to security regulations. It is interesting that the company is going public in Canada rather than in the US, despite the company being based in North Carolina. I'll be curious to see what the company's market capitalization ends up being. What would be really awesome is Lulu opening an office in Mac's innovation park down on Longwood. Strange too the Spec hasn't reported on this but maybe I missed it.