City Council Defers Wanderers Grounds Redevelopment Plans

Fans waiting for the city of Halifax to devise a functional permanent stadium solution for Wanderers Grounds will have to wait a little longer after today’s redevelopment motion was deferred to August.

The decision to defer was made at a council meeting this afternoon, delaying the creation of a formal plan on what the city could do with Wanderers Grounds, where both the Halifax Wanderers and Halifax Tides play professional soccer out of a 7,500-seat pop-up temporary stadium.

See Also: Halifax Wanderers Expand Stadium For 2025

It’s been almost two years since the Halifax Wanderers first pitched a permanent stadium solution to city council, proposing an 8,500-capacity stadium featuring new lighting, permanent grandstands, an enlarged turf pitch, a forty-million dollar price tag, and a thirty-year lease with the club as an anchor tenant on the public land.

Despite the city’s delay in developing a functional plan for the land, Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini has supported the installation of a permanent stadium solution for Wanderers Grounds, stating that the city is in need of a stadium.

“We have a pilot project with the Wanderers Grounds which has proven successful and we now have a second professional team, a women’s league that plays out of there that has been successful in the early stages,” says Mancini. “Right now our focus should be in this eight-to-ten-thousand seat stadium is the right size in the downtown and the Wanderers Place is the right place. I know there’s people that are opposed to using the Wanderers Grounds for that purpose, but I disagree.”

The primary opposition to the motion has been the Friends of Halifax Common. They state that the land should be for public use, though historically those very grounds first hosted sporting club in the 1880s through the Halifax Wanderers Amateur Athletic Club for rugby and lawn bowling. That team failed to pay its lease fees during the Second World War, with its land use reverting back to the city ever since.

Before the Wanderers came roaring back through the Canadian Premier League, the land was unused and in quite a sad state.

Mancini also added that Halifax had faced similar pushback on both the Halifax Convention Centre and Scotiabank Centre, both of which are now significant contributors to the local economy and staples to the city itself.

“We’re coming off of some really record-setting years and both Scotiabank Centre and the Convention Centre in terms of the number of events we’ve attracted and the impact that we’ve created for our city and province,” says the deputy mayor.

The Halifax Wanderers have proven to be a big draw in the city, where club flags adorn downtown businesses and fans have come out en masse to matches since the temporary stadium setup was erected in 2019. Despite the fact that the pop-up ground is now in its seventh year of usage, the temporary stadium has no running water, which means that the 5,000+ average crowd must use portable toilets and have no built-in food amenities.

When the permanent stadium solution was first proposed by Wanderers President Derek Martin, an ideal timeline included having the stadium ready for the 2025 CPL season – something which is almost halfway over, and without any sign of firm city-backed stadium plans.

Interested fans can take a look back at the Wanderers’ full stadium proposal here, though it may obviously differ from what plan the city will eventually land on.

Quote Source: CTV News

Header Image Photo Credit: David Chant