Examineradio, episode #139: CFL in Halifax? Hail Mary!

Taxpayers spent $2.4 million to design this 25,000-seat stadium at Shannon Park, and a half a million dollars more to study building a 10-14,000 seat stadium at Shannon Park, and then another million dollars to study building a 20,000-seat stadium at Shannon Park.

This episode is really about the city you want vs. the city you need.

Take professional sports. There’s been some talk about a group of investors bringing a CFL franchise to Halifax. Some people are excited about this.

Tim is not one of them.

Still, we wanted some perspective. We reached out to Moshe Lander, an economist at Concordia University who studies the economics of professional sports. He explains all of the parts that need to fit together for a CFL franchise to work in our city.

You want stadium sponsorship, you want in-house sponsorship, you want community outreach.

Make sure to hear the full conversation.

Plus, we discuss the new convention centre and the news that it’s finally opening on Dec. 15. Tim has written a lot about the convention centre and the larger Nova Centre project, including this piece raising questions about the hotel and why it’s still not open.

And we talk about the Halifax Explosion since we’re coming up on the 100th anniversary on Dec. 6. You’ll find a number of news stories about the disaster and its aftermath, but the CBC’s Sherri Borden Colley has this reminder about how African-Nova Scotians were treated unfairly in the relief effort.

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