Amare
Senior Member
There's a reason we have what's called a planning department. It's there to assess the current and future needs of the city and how to accommodate those needs through the availability of land throughout the city by taking into account a plethora of factors. If the city didnt "keep land available", we wouldnt have many buildings/pieces of infrastructure that we currently have today. We've been very fortunate that we had people in the past that had the foresight to plan ahead and protect for many things we are using today. I wont go into details to keep this thread on topic, but a quick Google search will help you out there.Why would you think it’s the city’s responsibility to keep land available in case the blue jays decide they want to move. It’s the blue jays problem shouldnt they be the ones that are thinking about it.
Stadiums and arenas dont last forever; you can renovate and refurbish a bunch of times over but there comes a point in time where they need to be outright replaced or rebuilt to keep up with the day's standard. That's simply the nature of the sports business unfortunately.
One could always choose not to do that, and in that case you would end up having teams playing in outdated facilities. For example, think of the Leafs playing in Coca-Cola Coliseum or Maple Leaf Gardens; of course it's doable but it wouldnt be the most pleasant experience by today's standards and wouldnt be able to accommodate various facilities that are in use today. The Blue Jays realize this which is why they did massive renovation, and it's why they are looking at a new stadium outright (which may very well be a rebuild).
So in other words what i'm saying is that it's simply common sense for the city to keep in mind that stadiums and arenas need to be replaced. I could give you dozens of cases of cities around the world who have proactively thought about it and have kept land aside in one way or another (ie: keeping a plot of land as park space and building a stadium/arena on it in the future).
You know there are ways to keep land aside and have it used it for other purposes, even if it isnt utilized for the principal intended use right? That's what proper planning is all about.Also what if we saved land at downsview and they were like no thanks we want to be by the lake to have a better view and atmosphere.
Yes it is, which is what they are doing right now and as you can see they're having troubles finding a suitable location.It’s on the jays to do their due diligence.
Which on a side note, is the exact same situation the Leafs/Raptors will find themselves in a couple of decades as well (i'm not suggesting Scotiabank Arena needs to be replaced today, but at some point it will but MLSE chose short-term profits over easy future flexibility by building Maple Leaf Square).