By Jessica Book
Frank Clair stadium will need to be upgraded before CFL football returns to Ottawa, says Rick Haycock, Lansdowne Park’s general manager.
“The existing artificial turf has long out-lived its warranty,” Haycock says. “It would need to be replaced before we could accommodate a professional team.”
During Grey Cup week in late November, CFL president Jeff Giles said he would like to see CFL football back in Ottawa by the start of the 2001 season.
Frank Clair stadium was home to the Rough Riders’ until the team folded in 1996. If a CFL team returns, the stadium will likely be home to the new team.
Giles knows the stadium needs work, but says it’s a well laid-out facility nonetheless.
“It’s one of the best stadiums we have in the league,” he says. Giles cites the stadium’s seating capacity of 23,000 people, the fact that all the seats are between the goal lines and the overhang that covers part of the stands as the stadium’s main assets.
Besides resurfacing the field, Haycock says the stadium scoreboard needs to be replaced and the press box needs to be renovated. He says the stadium isn’t ready right now for the CFL’s return, but it wouldn’t take long to do the repairs.
“Could a CFL team move in and play tomorrow? No. But the work that needs to be done is very doable.”
The major issue is the field, says Haycock. “The playing surface must be addressed.”
He says the artificial turf that covers the field now not only accommodated the Rough Riders while they were there, but continues to host community and university sports. If artificial turf were laid again, then the stadium would remain accessible to amateur organizations.
If Giles had his choice, he’d have a natural grass field.
“The players love to play on it,” he says. “It’s the way football was meant to be played.”
Artificial turf is also not sanctioned for international soccer, which is another consideration because the Francophonie Games are coming to Ottawa-Hull in July 2001. Lansdowne Park is the site of the games’ opening ceremonies and soccer matches, so even if the CFL didn’t come back, the stadium will still need to be upgraded.
The problem with natural grass, says Haycock, is community access is limited because of wear and tear on the field.
“A synthetic surface could be used to maximize the number of hours of use at all levels, from amateur to professional,” he says.
Former Ottawa mayor Jim Durrell, past president of both the CFL’s Riders and the NHL’s Senators, is representing an ownership group interested in bringing the CFL back. He expects a natural grass surface to be installed for the Francophonie Games. Haycock says it would cost “a few hundred thousand dollars” to resurface.
The timetable for the CFL’s return will affect who pays for the necessary upgrades. While Giles is optimistic the CFL will be back in Ottawa by 2001, CFL chairman John Tory has said a return by 2002 is more realistic.