Steering committee for stadium comes together
Posted Mar 2, 2011 05:26:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It’s looking more likely that Halifax could be one of the host cities for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015 – and now the city has a steering committee to tell council how to go about building a stadium for it.
Originally, there were five citizen positions on the committee, but the city ended up choosing six people out of dozens of applicants.
Coun. Darren Fisher says the response shows how much interest there is in bringing a multi-purpose stadium to Halifax.
“In fact, it was said to me that this was the most requested steering committee ever,” he said. “There was between 80 and 100 top notch applicants with much expertise.”
Olympian and astronaut Peter Giles was named to the committee, along with Halifax International Airport Authority VP communications Peter Spurway; Nova Scotia Power senior director of technical services David McGregor; RBC Atlantic President Kimberley Mason; law firm partner Joseph Burke; and NSCC entrepreneurship manager Cheryl Stewart.
Fisher and Coun. Dawn Sloane (Halifax Downtown) will also sit on the committee along with other government representatives to advise city staff and council on the best way to build, run and locate a stadium.
Fisher says now that Canada is the last candidate standing for host country of the 2015 World Cup, the stadium could make the difference between Halifax being one of the host cities – or not.
“I hear there’s seven, of which we are one, potential host cities,” he said. “So it’s not a lock that we’re getting it.”
FIFA officials will meet this week to evaluate Canada’s host bid. Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, and Moncton are the other cities in the running for hosting privileges.
