Future
In September 2007, the lower south side was closed, due to cracks in the concrete structure. After the closure of the stands, ex-Ottawa mayor Larry O'Brien was quoted at the time that this was an opportunity to do a review of the usage and the facilities of Lansdowne Park. Subsequently a process was started called "Design Lansdowne" to get public consultations on the Park and the stadium. After an engineering study of the north-side and south-side grandstands, the south-side stands were condemned. The lower section of the stands was demolished by controlled implosion on July 20, 2008 at 8:03 AM.
During the summer of 2008, a consortium of investors was formed to pursue a new CFL team in Ottawa. They bid successfully and received a conditional franchise from the CFL, with the condition that the stadium would need to be upgraded before the franchise could be activated. Jeff Hunt, one of the principal investors and owner of the Ottawa 67's who play in the attached Urbandale Centre, says the venue and location are ideal, with over a million people in Ottawa. The organization has reportedly already pre-sold 5,000 season tickets.
In the fall of 2008, the consortium, known as Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, (OSEG) approached the City with a plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park and rebuild the stadium using the proceeds from turning a section of the park into commercial and retail space. The plan, entitled Lansdowne Live! was ambitious and included plans to redevelop all sections of the park. The City, which had received a competing stadium proposal for Kanata, reviewed the plans and agreed to a conditional agreement with OSEG. OSEG would concentrate on the stadium and commercial/residential precinct, and Ottawa would return the rest of Lansdowne Park to green space. Faced with opposition to the plan, the City proceeded slowly with the proposal, seeking out legal opinions, traffic studies, and a urban park design competition for Lansdowne.
In June 2010 it was announced that the Ottawa City Council had approved a redevelopment plan put forward by the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG) to renovate Frank Clair Stadium and build 350,000 sq ft (33,000 m2). of commercial retail space as well as 250 housing units and an urban park on the site. The stadium, which is the catalyst to bringing the CFL back to Ottawa will be rent-free to developers for 30 years. Proceeds from the retail and commercial precinct would be shared, and the retail and commercial precinct brought under City control after 30 years. Completion of the stadium is scheduled for 2014, with the overall development finished in 2015.
The OSEG proposal for the stadium envisioned tearing down all of the south-side stands, replacing the stands with a new structure with private boxes and a unique wood-wrapping around the exterior. The north-side stands would be renovated to current standards, and the north-side exterior expanded to include a retail component. In September 2010, the Ottawa Fury joined the plan to redevelop Lansdowne. On June 20, 2011, Ottawa was awarded a professional soccer franchise in the NASL which will start play in 2014 at Frank Clair Stadium.
In November 2011, demolition of the rest of the south side stands started. The contract to demolish the stands was awarded for $550,000. Unlike the lower stands, the upper stands structure is being demolished piece-by-piece rather than controlled implosion. The concrete and steel from the structure is to be recycled, and seats will be re-used at a new rink at Ottawa City Hall. Demolition is expected to be complete by January 2012.
Read more about this topic: Frank Clair Stadium, History
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.”
—Thom Gunn (b. 1929)
“Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and individually, as something that could be discerned by a better brain, the past would not be so seductive: its demands would be balanced by those of the future. Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object. It might be fun.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“the future is simply nothing at all. Nothing has happened to the present by becoming past except that fresh slices of existence have been added to the total history of the world. The past is thus as real as the present.”
—Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887–1971)