What’s plan B if Tim Hortons Field not ready?

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are set to move into their new home stadium this summer. But the harsh winter and other setbacks has construction at Tim Hortons Field behind schedule, meaning the team would have to find another place to play.

Construction is slow but steady. With an average of 180 workers on hand every day, the project is around 60 per cent complete. However, it is slightly behind schedule and Ontario Sports Solution is trying to make up the time.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats president Glenn Gibson: “The messaging we’ve heard and what we’ve seen physically is that into late January they advised us they were behind.
What we have learned from them is they are putting on extra shifts, extra people.”

With a June 30th completion date looming, Infrastructure Ontario sent a strongly worded letter to the city of Hamilton urging it and the Tiger-Cats to come up with a contingency plan. The Ticats head office says they have one, but doubt they’ll need it.

“This is a low probability that we won’t be in there by June the 30th so from our end of things we have a contingency plan but we’re not talking about it.”

When it comes to a contingency plan, the Ticats may be staying mum but councillor Lloyd Ferguson says they’ve already taken some cautionary steps.

“They’ve scheduled the first few games away, they’re going to play their preseaon game at the Ron Joyce Stadium at McMaster University, they’re going to do their practices down there, so they officialy don’t have their first game till end of July.”

The Ticats played their entire 2013 season at Alumni Stadium at the University of Guelph, at a cost of $500,000. Councillor Ferguson says no one can predict the future, so it’s better to be prepared. “I think it’s behind but I think they can pull it back.”

“It’s easier to do a contingency plan when you’ve got have four months to think about it rather than 2 weeks to think about it. So prepare it now. You probably won’t use it but it doesn’t hurt to have it.”

The stadium cost $147 million dollars to build. Infrastructure Ontario sent CHCH News an email this afternoon saying Ontario Sports Solutions is confident they will meet their June 30th deadline. If there are any delays beyond that, OSS will have to absorb those costs – and that won’t be cheap.