Edmonton city council to look at new WWC Commonwealth renovation proposal

A new fourth way for the renovation of Commonwealth Stadium ahead of the U-20 Women’s World Cup and the Women’s World Cup will be debated by Edmonton City Council on Halloween.

A new proposal brought forth by administration can be found in the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting.

“Administration is now pursuing an option of repurposing existing space within Commonwealth Stadium. Improvements would be made to the Canadian Football League visitors’ locker room to provide two of the four required change rooms. Other spaces currently used for staff offices and game day operations would be repurposed to create two new change rooms. The displaced functions will be accommodated elsewhere within the existing building. The very preliminary cost of repurposing these spaces estimated to be in the range of $1.5 million.”

On Oct. 9, an Edmonton committee, which included Mayor Stephen Mandel, discussed three proposals, ranging in costs from $12-$35 million.

Administration recommended the $20 million middle way, which would have seen the southwest corner of the stadium rebuilt and new state-of-the-art dressing rooms included in the plan. But the committee members also discussed the $12 million bid, which would have seen the stadium get a facelift ahead of the 2014 U-20 tourney and the 2015 Women’s World Cup, but no new dressing rooms. That plan actually called for temporary trailers to be used as the dressing rooms for the competitors.

But, three weeks later, this new fourth proposal has emerged, which would see the CFL visitors’ room portioned into two of the required four change rooms. (Note that the Eskimos’ dressing room is not part of the proposal, just office space and the visitors’ facilities.)

“This portion of the funding request can now be delayed until the spring of 2013 as less time is required for design and construction,” reads the proposal from administration. “Delaying the request will allow time for some design work to be completed on this new option and a more precise cost estimate to be developed and the details reviewed with Canadian Soccer Association/Fédération Internationale de Football Association. Given the reduced scope of work, the project could still be completed in advance of the 2014 season.”

The City is also studying a plan to build a 10,000-15,000 soccer-specific stadium in Edmonton, and there is a feeling that capital expenditures would better be served in helping get that project off the ground.

On top of the dressing-room plan, this new proposal also calls for the $2.5 million replacement of the sound system, a $5.1 million upgrade to the Jumbotron and a $1.6 million resurfacing of the parking lot.