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Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz calls for public to see flooding damage at Investors Group Field

The extent of the flooding damage at Investors Group Field is still being hidden from the public, and that's troubling some government officials, given that the stadium was largely funded by tax dollars. Chief amongst them is Winnipeg mayor Sam Katz. The city contributed $10 million ($7.5 million in cash, $2.5 million in in-kind services) to the project directly and is paying another $37.5 million to the province over time (the province itself paid the costs up front, is loaning money to the Bombers, and is contributing $60 million) but wasn't involved in the stadium's design or construction. Like everyone else outside the construction group and the Bombers' executives, city officials aren't able to see the extent of the damage, and that's bothering Katz too. He said Wednesday he's not thrilled to hear about the efforts to keep media out:

BBB Stadium, the consortium that oversaw construction of Investors Group Field, has given few details on what exactly is damaged or how much it'll cost to repair the rooms.

The Blue Bombers organization has denied media access to the damaged spaces, turning down a second request by CBC News on Wednesday morning.

Katz said that shouldn't be happening in a facility that was built with taxpayers' money.

"As the mayor I'm very disappointed to hear that. Very disappointed to hear that," he said. "The realities are [that] this is a, in my mind, a public facility."

However, provincial sports minister Ron Lemieux said while he also considers the building a public facility, he's not going to try and force the Bombers to let media in given ongoing construction efforts. Those were cited by stadium management firm BBB Stadium in a statement Wednesday. Via Metro Winnipeg:

This decision was made based on consultation with our construction manager,” reads a release sent out from BBB Stadium Inc. late Wednesday. “The area in which the repairs are being done is a construction zone and any traffic would potentially interfere with the remediation process that is under way.”

The debate about if the public should be able to see the extent of the damage at a publicly-funded facility is one that could drag on for a while. In the Bombers' defence, it's probably easier to fix the damage without worrying about media getting in the way, but there's also something to be said for showing what's going on rather than behaving in a way that looks like you're trying to hide something. Regardless of which side of that argument you fall on, though, it's also worth considering the points Katz made about the problematic construction here. Via Jim Bender of The Winnipeg Sun:

Katz noted that taxpayers just spent more than $200 million to open the stadium.

"If it's a flaw in the construction, then they should be looking at that situation. As you know, the city was not involved in the design or the building, etc."

The province promised $3 million to winterize the facility a year after it was opened. The stadium was also opened a year late due to a number of other problems.

"In my opinion, there should been much more time devoted to details which, for some reason, were overlooked," Katz said. "The fact that we have a press box that is not enclosed, with all due respect, that's just poor planning."

It is quite curious that a stadium built in Winnipeg wasn't sufficiently winterized from the get-go, or that drainage wasn't contemplated more fully to begin with; after all, melting snow and the problems it can cause isn't exactly unknown there. Still, Investors Group Field is an impressive facility on many levels, and if this flooding damage can be sorted out and if a fix can be found that will prevent it from happening again next year, it could be a great home for the Bombers for years to come. Keeping the public from seeing what's going on inside a stadium that they largely funded doesn't seem like the best plan, though.