WINNIPEG – The walls and stands are coming down, officially ending the Blue Bomber era at Canad Inns Stadium.
Fans said Tuesday they were ready for a fresh start, and now there’s no looking back.
“Hopefully the new stadium will bring some winning ways and a better attitude,” said one Blue and Gold diehard who attended Tuesday night’s fan forum at Canad Inns Polo Park.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have set another record in season-ticket sales, the team said Tuesday, with 23,000 fans buying seats for the 2013-14 season.
Despite the revenue bump for what was supposed to be the inaugural season at Investors Group Field, carrying the old barn for an extra season made a huge dent in the club’s 2012 operating budget.
Bombers president and CEO Garth Buchko didn’t go into much detail on the extra costs other than to say some of cash went to hiring new employees to staff the new stadium.
“We geared up staff-wise, we geared up operations-wise to open at Investor’s Group Field last year, and of course it didn’t happen.”
Last year wasn’t a total loss for the Winnipeg Football club, however; revenue was up for ticket sales and corporate partnerships added to the pot.
The Bombers have more than $5.8-million in the bank going into the 2013 season, and Butchko told Global News even with a huge debt for the new stadium, the community-owned club is in good shape.
“Our expenses will be the same as last year. We won’t have to hire any more staff for this year. We’re in a much better position this year than last year because now we have certainty.”
With a new era and a new stadium, the Winnipeg football club announced it will also have a new chairman of the board.
Brock Bulbuck will replace outgoing chairman Bill Watchorn, the club announced Tuesday.
Bulbuck said he plans to renew the board’s commitment to transparency by changing club bylaws to add a 13th director, nominated by the public.
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