MLSE Pulling Out Of Proposed Toronto Stadium Complex
MLSE is "pulling out of a proposal" to build a C$120M sports complex at the Univ. of Toronto (UT) that would have included a 25,000-seat football stadium, a shopping area, a hockey arena and a separate practice rink for the Maple Leafs, according to Paul Waldie of the Toronto GLOBE & MAIL. Sources said that a "scaled-down version of the project will go ahead" with UT, the CFL Argonauts and the Canadian Soccer Association involved. The now C$80M project will include the stadium, a smaller shopping and restaurant area and renovations to UT's Varsity Arena, with financing coming "largely from the university and government grants." Argonauts co-Owner David Cynamon: "It's not so much MLSE walked out of this deal, but I think that [UT] just wasn't able to work out the economics with them." Waldie noted MLSE Chair Larry Tanenbaum "had been a driving force behind the complex." Cynamon also confirmed that MLSE "will not be acquiring an interest in" the Argonauts (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 3/13). VIABILITY ISSUE: MLSE President & CEO Richard Peddie said that it was "not financially viable" for MLSE to proceed, adding, "When we first got into it in December it barely worked. It got thinner and thinner. We kept trying to find ways to make it work but in the latter part of this past week we realized it was just too tight" (TORONTO STAR, 3/14). In Toronto, Perry Lefko reported that MLSE's BOD "had concerns over what it saw as a relatively low rate of return, believed to be about [8-10%] per year for the $40[M] that would have been invested" (TORONTO SUN, 3/14).
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