Mayor Bob Bratina and Bob Young to announce plans to rebuild Ivor Wynne Stadium

Mayor Bratina

Bob Young

Mayor Bob Bratina and Bob Young are expected to announce the idea of rebuilding Ivor Wynne Stadium at a Press Conference today at 11am.  The Press Conference will take place at Ivor Wynne, where the announcement is expected to take place. If this is the case, then the plan can be discussed and voted on at tomorrow's Council meeting. If the plan is approved, the Tiger Cats would play at the Rogers Centre for 1 year.  Mayor Bob sent out an email to Councillors this morning at 5:45am it states:

Dear Colleagues

I believe we may finally have satisfactory resolution to the stadium issue. The Tiger Cats are prepared to sign a lengthy lease with the City to continue to play in a rebuilt stadium on the Ivor Wynne site. The old stadium was originally rejected because of the requirement for about twenty acres to include an adjacent warm-up track as required by Hostco. This configuration was not possible on the available land. When the difficulties over site selection continued to the point where the deadline was looming the Tiger Cat management put all options on the table. In our discussion yesterday afternoon I urged them to give serious consideration to rehabilitation of the old stadium, and a long-term agreement with the City as a show of faith to residents and fans. There was no hesitation by both Bob Young and Scott Mitchell in agreeing to a 20 year lease arrangement, pending details of course.

We are prepared now to present this to the public and media, and bring it forward for Council consideration at the Jan 12 meeting.

I would have preferred to speak to each of you personally but thought it best to get this information to you as quickly as possible.

Respectfully