Ticats and city still at odds over stadium issues

The city is still at odds with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats over whether the new Tim Hortons Field stadium is substantially complete. But officials are staying tight lipped about what they plan to do about it.

City councillors met behind closed doors on Wednesday to talk about a licensing agreement with the Ticats.

The CFL team says the licensing agreement won't take effect until 40 deficiencies with the stadium are fixed. The city maintains that an independent certifier says the stadium is substantially complete, even though about 100 deficiencies remain.

The city and the team issued a joint statement last week about the stadium, saying that the two sides had reached a temporary rental agreement. The temporary agreement said that the Ticats will pay $700,000 in rent for the rest of 2015, and $1.4 million for the next 20 years, as per the rental agreement signed last year.

City spokesperson Mike Kirkopoulos wouldn't say whether that varies now. He only said council has "given direction" to staff around the issue.

"We have been given council direction and will likely be having further conversations with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats," he said.

The stadium has been a contentious issue over the past year. The original completion deadline was June 30, 2014, but the company Infrastructure Ontario (IO) hired to build the stadium, Ontario Sports Solutions (ONSS), didn't finish it enough to hand it over until May 2015.

The city and the CFL team are planning legal action against ONSS. They won't be the first. The subcontractor Lancaster Group is suing for $1.84 million, saying ONSS mismanaged the project and used some defective steel.

Negotiating the 20-year lease agreement between the city and Ticats was also contentious, squeaking through with a 9-7 council vote last year. That agreement was the result of years of negotiations.