WINNIPEG — Mayor Sam Katz says citizens have the right to see the damage inside Investors Group Field after flooding earlier this week.
Global News, along with several other media outlets, requested access to the stadium to see what happened on Tuesday. All were denied.
“I am very disappointed to hear that,” said Katz. “The realities are this is a, in my mind, a public facility and as you obliviously know the taxpayers footed the bill. The Bombers football club will repay the majority of that over time, but in the meantime I am very dismayed to hear that.”
BBB Stadium, the facility’s builder, issued a statement Tuesday saying there was water damage in the corporate suites and visitors’ locker room.
“This has been an ongoing issue with the facility; the designer and building contractor are aware of the matter and are in the process of remediation, and identifying solutions to avoid future damage,” the statement said.
The mayor said the city was not involved with the design or building process but was disappointed there are more issues with the stadium.
“In my opinion there should have been much more time devoted to details which for some reason were overlooked,” Katz said. “I have no explanation for it. We weren’t involved in it but there is no doubt in my mind that is the case here.”
Two weeks ago the province gave the Winnipeg Football Club $3 million to essentially winterize the facility ahead of the 2015 Grey Cup. The money will go towards insulating pipes in the building to make it usable year round.
Global News has again requested access to the stadium on Wednesday morning. A spokesperson for the Winnipeg Football Club said there is no access to the suite level for anyone and referred any other questions to BBB Stadium.
A request for comment from Stuart Olson Dominion, the contractor, was referred to BBB Stadium or Wade Miller, the Bombers president and CEO.
The architect is also referring comments to BBB Stadium or the football club.
BBB Stadium is made up of representatives from the city, the province, the football club and the University of Manitoba.
Late Wednesday BBB issued a statement that said it has “made the decision not to allow anyone into those areas in IGF now under remediation until the necessary repairs are complete. This decision was made based on consultation with our construction manager, who has advised that the area in which the repairs are being done is a construction zone and any traffic would potentially interfere with the remediation process that is underway.”
The statement also said BBB is pursuing repairs and “details around what caused the water infiltration.”
The cost of the repairs is not known.
The current cost of the stadium is $208.5 million. The province is not ruling out putting more money into the project.
“One doesn’t have a crystal ball and you don’t know totally what may be down the road,” said Ron Lemieux, the Minister of Tourism, Culture, Heritage, Sport and Consumer Protection.
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