The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are winning on the field this season, but the deal to build their football stadium has left the Province of Manitoba at a loss.
The provincial government has placed a $54-million loss provision on the largest of the loans that helped build Investors Group Field
There is a provision on the loan that covered $160 million of the initial cost of building Investors Group Field, the 33,214-seat football stadium that opened on the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus in 2013.
Under the terms of the deal to build the stadium, the non-profit Winnipeg Football Club is responsible for paying back $85 million of that loan by 2058, plus interest. To date, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have met their financial obligations.
The remaining $75 million, plus interest, was supposed to be covered by municipal and provincial property taxes generated by the former Canad Inns Stadium site at Polo Park.
However, the only new development on that plot of land is a now-empty former Target store. Over the past four years, the old stadium site has generated a total of $3 million in property tax revenue, according to figures provided by the City of Winnipeg.
The former stadium site was supposed to generate $7 million of property tax revenue a year.
The slow pace of development gave provincial finance officials no choice but to reduce the province's expectations of getting paid back the $75-million portion of the stadium-building loan.
