When speaker fell, it crushed or damaged about 30 seats at Tim Hortons Field

A falling speaker at the new Tim Hortons Field stadium crushed or damaged as many as 30 seats when it crashed into the stands last month. If people had been sitting in them, a city official says, "it would have been catastrophic."

We're lucky there wasn't a major event. It would have been catastrophic.- Rom D'Angelo, the city's director of facilities

And now the city is tallying costs to send to the province to pay for the damage.

When a speaker broke out of its faulty bracket in the stadium, it damaged between "20 and 30 seats," said Rom D'Angelo, Hamilton's director of facilities. The city has hired engineers to double check the safety of any other items that could potentially fall.

The speaker — which at 68 kilograms (150 pounds) was about the size of a bar fridge — crushed three seats when it initially dropped 30 metres, D'Angelo said.

From there, it bounced through the upper level, damaging seats as it went. Then it dropped to the lower bowl, hitting more seats before it bounced to a halt.

If people had been sitting in those seats, it would have been disaster, D'Angelo said.

We're on it and we're taking this very seriously.- Rom D'Angelo

"We're lucky there wasn't a major event," he said. "It would have been catastrophic."

The city is in the midst of working through these details as it compiles a list of fixes and precautionary measures it's taking to make sure the stadium is safe. It will ask the province, through Infrastructure Ontario (IO), to pay for it.

'We're taking this very seriously'

After the speaker fell from its faulty bracket in June, the city took down seven other speakers, D'Angelo said. The temporary speakers are still there, but should be replaced with new ones in time for the Ticats next home game on Aug. 20.

Meanwhile, the city hired an outside firm to install new brackets, as well as check "anything that's suspended in the air" that could fall at the stadium, including the scoreboard.

• City removes 7 more speakers in danger of falling on fans from the stadium
• Engineers check 'anything in the air' at stadium after speaker crashes into stands

"We're on it and we're taking this very seriously," D'Angelo said.

The city is compiling a cost estimate for that work, as well as for the damaged seats. It will run in the tens of thousands, at least, although D'Angelo couldn't get more specific than that yet.

Project saw many delays

The faulty speaker brackets are just the latest in a project that has been fraught with difficulties and delays since 2013.

The construction consortium Ontario Sports Solutions built the $145-million stadium through IO. The stadium was supposed to be finished by June, 2014. But there were numerous delays, causing the Ticats to play part of the season at McMaster University and nearly miss the Labour Day Classic with the Toronto Argonauts.

Eventually the city took ownership of the stadium, but it says there are still deficiencies. The city, the Ticats and IO have all filed notices of legal action.

In an April statement, IO president Bert Clark called the stadium "a world-class facility" that's already hosted numerous events.

"We remain committed to working with all parties toward an agreement so that Ontarians can focus on enjoying this world-class facility for generations to come."

IO had little to say about the issue on Wednesday.

"This is the contractor's responsibility," spokesperson Lee Greenberg said of paying for the damages.