Discussions

This story has come as a bit of a shock for me, but I guess it allowed the NDP to win the election in Winnipeg.  
Quote: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a community-owned entity for 77 years, is being transferred to media tycoon David Asper, the team announced Friday.The Winnipeg Football Club's board of directors voted unanimously to transfer ownership of the team to Asper and his company, Creswin Properties.  
"I would say this is our second first down, but there's a long field ahead," Asper said Friday.  
The move is part of a plan whereby Asper — the executive vice-president of CanWest Global Communications and a former Blue Bombers board member — will finance a new stadium for the team in exchange for control of the franchise.  
The football club announced in May that it was negotiating only with Asper,  
"We thought we laid out a pretty good plan in January, and over the past six weeks we've had rigorous discussions with the Winnipeg Football Club representatives," Asper said Friday.  
"As of last night, we came to terms on … a binding letter of intent."  
Under Asper's proposal, the businessman would contribute about $40 million to the $120-million stadium project, plus $25 million more to develop retail projects near the facility.  
Under the plan, the provincial and federal governments would supply the rest of the money for the new facility, which is to replace the 54-year-old Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg's St. James area.  
The stadium would be partially covered and have up to 40,000 permanent seats. Like its predecessor, it is to be a public property.  
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer has said the province would help build a new stadium. However, early this year, he also said any call for funds would have to include a guarantee that the Blue Bombers would not leave town.  
Doer said Friday he would not commit to any amount of money, and that he'd only consider a proposal similar to the agreement for the MTS Center, the city's downtown arena: two-thirds private money, one-third public.  
"I'll sit down in a room, as I did with [MTS Center's] Mark Chipman, to try to get a proposal that works," he said.  
"Anything I would do, I would have to justify to taxpayers."  
Asper has said he would have it built in two phases, so the construction doesn't disrupt the 2007 football season.  
He wants it completed by June 2008, in time for that year's new football season. End of Quote.  
Are we going the way of the Winnipeg Jets where the Province covers all the Bills and then the Club is still transfered out of the Province anyway? Mr. Doer says that he will only go to one third of the total cost of the transaction, this by my reckoning is 48.3 million. We are not asking for any public money for a local racetrack just 100 Lottery terminals, and we have seen every day how Mr. Doer justifies anything he does to the Public.