Halifax Mayor Mulls Wanderers Grounds As Home For CFL Team

HALIFAX – Halifax Mayor Mike Savage has breathed new life into the decaying but persistent idea of bringing a professional football team to the city.

The mayor says plans are being floated to expand the Wanderers Ground into a multi-purpose stadium capable of hosting a CFL franchise.

Savage stressed that nothing is official yet but appeared bullish on the idea.

Schooners plans shipwrecked

For a brief period in 2020 and 2021, Schooner Sports and Entertainment (SSE) appeared to be moving forward with serious and legitimate plans to bring a CFL franchise to Halifax.

With the league expressing strong interest in expanding to the Maritimes, SSE drummed up enthusiasm with slick logos and a survey to decide the team’s name: The Halifax Schooners.

Plans for a $120-million stadium were floated, reportedly at an under-used tract of land on the outskirts of the city. Halifax Regional Council even committed $20 million to help build the stadium.

But plans stagnated as the Covid-19 pandemic set in and SSE had trouble finding partners to help pay the hefty price tag. Eventually, of the company’s major stakeholders backed out, dealing what appeared to be a death blow to SSE’s plans.

In 2020, an HRM spokesperson told Huddle the city’s talks with SSE had stopped.  Even Shannon Park, the once-hopeful home for the stadium, was recently given over for residential development.

A stadium in the city’s core

But even with SSE’s proposal dead in the water, the idea of bringing a CFL team to Halifax has clung to life.

Just last month, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie pointed to the success of the league’s Touchdown Atlantic games in the region as proof of a Maritime team’s viability.

“There is an undeniable appetite to see if we can expand in Atlantic Canada,” Ambrosie said.

In 2021, Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told Huddle it was “very unlikely” Halifax would see a franchise any time soon. However, this week he said plans to bring a CFL team to the city are real and ongoing – even if it means doing it without an expensive stadium.

“I don’t think there’s any likelihood of a big stadium outside of the core of the city – I just don’t see that in the cards. It’s been talked about for a long time but it doesn’t seem like the money is there,” Savage said in an interview with Acadia Broadcasting’s Blake Priddle.

However, the mayor said there “may be other options” in the city’s core for a multi-use stadium that could accommodate a CFL team.

One is to hold CFL games at St. Mary’s University. However, the most promising, according to Savage, is the venue for the city’s professional soccer team: the Wanderers Grounds.

“We’re not there yet, but I know that there are people who are looking at whether we could turn the Wanderers Grounds into a place that we could hold 15,000 people,” Savage said.

Savage argued that CFL games don’t routinely attract more than 15,000-20,000 people. He said an expanded Wanderers Grounds could potentially accommodate those kinds of numbers.

“In the right environment, with the right kind of atmosphere, there’s a potential you could do that in Halifax without having to go out and spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a stadium,” he said.

Right now, the Wanderers Grounds can hold about 6,500 fans.

Savage believes the city has the atmosphere and support for a CFL team. He pointed to the success of past sports events like the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship and the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships.

He said having a stadium in the heart of the city instead of on its outskirts is the best option since transit is more accessible and it gives people a chance to support local businesses.

Savage doesn’t think it would be a challenge to find someone in the community willing to pony up to buy a CFL franchise. However, buying a franchise and building a stadium probably comes with too steep a price.

However, funding for a multipurpose stadium would need to come not just from the city, but the province and the private sector. Both have been reluctant to pledge financial support in the past.

Savage did not say who exactly is working on the plans to bring a CFL team to the city. However, he did clarify that the city has not heard from SSE since its last proposal.

No SSE spokespeople responded to Huddle’s questions by our publication deadline.

With files from Blake Priddle