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Winnipeg stadium consortium suing architect, builder over alleged construction deficiencies

Alleged construction flaws in Winnipeg's Investors Group Field are the subject of a new lawsuit. (Marianne Helm/Getty Images)
Alleged construction flaws in Winnipeg's Investors Group Field are the subject of a new lawsuit. (Marianne Helm/Getty Images)

Almost $5 million has already reportedly gone into fixing Winnipeg's Investors Group Field, which is set to host the Grey Cup this November, in the less than two years since the facility opened in May 2013. Further required repairs and alterations are expected to cost millions more. Now, the group that owns the stadium is suing architect Ray Wan and builder Stuart Olson Construction, alleging a failure to consider heating, drainage and other vital issues. In fact, they claim the concrete concourses are so poorly built that heavy beer kegs have to be moved by hand. From Bartley Kives of The Winnipeg Free Press, here's a breakdown of some of their other claims:

The claim filed at the Court of Queen's Bench lists 42 "functional and operational defects" and other deficiencies relating to the design and construction of the stadium, which opened in 2013 on the U of M's Fort Garry campus.

Triple B Stadium -- which represents the city, province, the U of M and the Winnipeg Football Club -- claims Wan and Stuart Olson have "refused and neglected" to remedy the deficiencies, most of which have been fixed over the past two years at a cost of $4.7 million.

Other flaws are still being fixed. They include improperly insulated concessions and luxury suites as well as water damage from improper drainage and weather protection in the building, Konowalchuk said.

Almost all the concrete concourses in the stadium will be torn out following the completion of the 2015 Canadian Football League season, said Konowalchuk, declining to estimate the cost of the coming repairs.

"The problems are extensive. We don't have a sense of what that value is, but we do expect it to be into the millions," he said during a Wednesday-morning tour of damaged areas of the stadium. "We believe the community deserves the facility that they paid for."

Specific details of the alleged problems include drainpipe connection issues, video boards and suites that had water leaking into them before the repairs (which we've touched on before; flooding cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the suites last spring) and couldn't be heated to 10 degrees Celsius in the winter, plus concourse concrete slabs that are already cracking and have extensive weight restrictions, uninsulated pipes, missing guardrails, unpainted steel, no power for broadcast trucks and much more. Stuart Olson declined comment to Kives, and they don't appear to have issued a release with their side of the story yet. These are definitely serious issues, though, and it's remarkable to see so much needed work at a stadium that just opened.

No matter how the lawsuit plays out, the amount of issues with the construction in Winnipeg, plus the ongoing fiasco of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' stadium (which still won't be ready for turnover to the city until at least mid-April), could have significant future implications for the CFL. For one thing, Winnipeg's stadium needs to be in good enough condition to host the Grey Cup this year. There's been no indication so far that that will be an issue, but some of the weight restrictions and so on on the concrete at the least don't seem likely to be fixed before then, which will pose some problems. Similarly, Hamilton's stadium needs to be able to fully host the Ticats this year, and potentially able to host a Grey Cup down the road; again, neither of those things seems terribly in doubt right now, but the way that stadium's gone, there may be more bumps left in the road.

Beyond that, though, and perhaps even more significantly, there's a possible negative effect on future CFL stadium construction. That may be particularly felt on stadiums that are largely (as in Winnipeg) or completely (as in Hamilton) funded by various levels of government. Public funding for stadiums takes a lot of fire even if projects go perfectly; having two such prominent projects create so many problems bodes poorly for other CFL teams trying to get deals done. Fortunately for the CFL, there's only one particular deal tthat's up in the air right now (the Toronto Argonauts' plan to move to BMO Field), and the governmental contributions there have largely already been worked out (but $10 million is still needed from somewhere); already-decided projects like the Saskatchewan Roughriders' new stadium aren't likely to be imperiled by this. However, other CFL teams may need significant stadium renovations or new fields down the line, and if the CFL ever does expand to 10 teams, that 10th team will probably want some public money to help build or expand a stadium. That could be much more difficult in the wake of these construction issues.