Whether Hamilton City Council chooses to build the 2015 Pan-Am Games stadium at its preferred location or the site the Tiger-Cats want, it probably will not be hosting track and field.
The organizing committee announced yesterday that track and field events will most likely be shifted to Toronto, while Hamilton will host the bulk of the soccer games.
“It’s going to be in Toronto — we’re looking at a couple of options, finalizing some details there but that’s probably where it’s going to end up,” Ian Troop, CEO of the 2015 organizing committee, said.
The news comes the same day the Tiger-Cats made a pair of announcements that could influence the stadium debate.
Ticats owner Bob Young said he has officially started the application process to bring an expansion North American Soccer League franchise to Hamilton. The team would play at a stadium in the East Mountain area — the location the Ticats preferred for what would have been the Pan-Am track stadium — and a high-performance soccer academy would be established at the site.
Ticats president Scott Mitchell also unveiled plans for a park featuring a cycling velodrome for the Pan-Am Games to be built at the West Harbour – where the city would like to build the stadium — along with a 3,500-seat amphitheatre.
The velodrome would be converted into a fitness centre after the Games. Mitchell said the park would not only provide a regional sports facility for both elite and recreational athletes, but would also allow for commercial and retail development. The city wants to build the stadium in the West Harbour location to revitalize the area.
Mitchell said the prospect of having pro soccer at a stadium shared with the Ticats was always a possibility given Young’s passion for soccer — he is already a stakeholder in the NASL’s Carolina Railhawks — but the news that track and field will likely move to Toronto “changed the dynamics a little bit.”
“We’d already previously committed to having both track and field and soccer at the new facility, so that didn’t necessarily change,” Mitchell said. “What did change is now our focus on making sure that we bring soccer as the Pan-Am Games component, not necessarily the professional piece.”
Troop said the decision to move athletics was not “cast in stone” but the board of governors agreed yesterday morning to look further into shifting athletics and soccer. Athletics Canada wanted track and field moved to Toronto to be closer to the athletes’ village, which will be located downtown.
Troop also said there were originally a lot of soccer games scheduled at BMO Field, which had a turf surface at the time, but Toronto FC and Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment have warned that the new grass field can’t handle heavy use. He suggested making Hamilton a soccer hub, hosting about 30 games.
Troop said the Toronto venue for track and field could be either a new stadium or an existing facility.
He added that organizers will not extend the Aug. 12 deadline for City Council to choose a stadium location.
Mitchell said both the soccer and football plans “are completely, 100 per cent contingent on this facility being built in the East Mountain.” The Ticats have noted several problems with the West Harbour proposal, including traffic issues.