Major Sports Initiative MLB Vancouver

Thank you very much, Chair. I'm extremely excited to introduce this motion today. As we all know, Vancouver is a sports city full of Canucks fans, Lions fans, Golden Eyes and Rise fans, and of course, Woodcap fans. It's also a city full of baseball fans who spend their spring, summer and fall watching the Blue Jays, watching the Mariners. and visiting nat bailey stadium to cheer on our hometown vancouver canadians base baseball fans know that the mlb will potentially add two new expansion teams in the next few years and the commissioner of mlb has said that they're looking to add a team in the west This presents a once in a generation opportunity, and that's why I'm moving this motion to initiate an open and transparent expression of interest process for a Vancouver MLB team bid. I want to assure everyone that this motion did not come out of left field. Our office has been approached by serious proponents regarding a potential bid for the MLB. We're asking proponents to come forward, demonstrate their capacity and outline what a partnership with the city could look like. And we're asking our team members to bring that information back to council so we can make informed decisions. This is about doing our due diligence on a generational opportunity, one that could bring economic activity, civic pride and another world class amenity to our city. By supporting this motion, we're waving the flag and telling Major League Baseball that Vancouver wants a team. And so I do hope all of my fellow councillors can support this motion. Our chance has arrived and this should be a home run. Let's step up to the plate.

Speaker one is just withdrawn. Okay. Speaker number two is Scott McDonald.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Please go ahead. Hi, this is Scott McDonald. I work at Jones Lang LaSalle Commercial Real Estate Services. Born and raised in the city and I still reside here. And I'm strongly in favor of this motion. First and foremost, my support here is rooted in being a family man. I have two kids, another on the way, the oldest was in T-ball, which I coach. And they love all things baseball, as I did growing up with my dad and mom. They like nothing more than going to Canadians games, as we did as a family growing up. And many of my core memories and experiences still talked about very fondly today with the family and friends. involved baseball. For example, I'll never forget literally my friends, family, parents, siblings. That was a great memories still talked about all the time. Can't wait to relive that with my kids and our friends and their kids. And I mean, I can't, I'll never forget one core memory. And again, this goes back to Hopping on a plane and incurring expenses to do so, but graduated high school. My dad took me down to Phoenix. We had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to watch Randy Johnson pitch to Barry Bonds. We still talk about that. People we've told about that still talk about that.

I know I'll forget when I graduated university, and my dad and I went to New York, watched the Blue Jays play the Yankees. What a core memory that is. And most recently, after game six of the World Series last year, my dad and I went to Toronto together to watch game seven. And for obviously a once in a lifetime opportunity, didn't get the result we wanted, but great game, great experience. There were a surprising number of Blue Jays fans at YVR that morning doing the exact same thing, which I think goes to show how much baseball is valued in our city. And as the mayor said, you have to look no further than Mariners games when the Blue Jays are in town. Canadian games. This is a baseball city. And I think we do deserve a franchise for sure. And L.B. better off. And I think our city was better off. I'm not trying to drag you down memory lane here. And I admit these are kind of self-serving and personal experiences and reasons. But I can't help but imagine what if families didn't have to hop on a plane and incur significant expenses for these experiences? What if we had 81 games a year? 25 series a year in our backyard to go and do this. And then playoffs are a different story altogether, as we all know. Vancouver truly is a world-class city.

And if we're fortunate enough for the chance for MLB franchise, the residual societal and economic benefits would be measurable. The opportunity to host 81 games, 25 series-ish, not including the playoffs, resulting in significant tourism increases. Oh, sorry, you're out of time.

We don't have quorum. Okay. No, we don't. Now we have.

Speaker three is not on the line.

good evening can you hear me yes we can please go ahead good good evening mayor and council my name is steve davis i'm a proud resident of the city of vancouver i'm the founder and ceo of a technology company based here in vancouver's downtown core i was born and raised here and i've lived here my entire life i've watched the city grow from the inside into one of the most extraordinary multicultural dynamic urban communities anywhere in the world Vancouver has always had a remarkable ability to seize defining moments and to use them as a rocket fuel. To look at a generational opportunity, say yes, and come out the other side fundamentally transformed for the better. I believe we are standing at one of those moments right now. I'm here not representing my company or any organization connected to this proposal. I'm here as a lifelong Vancouverite who wants to speak to what Major League Baseball could mean for the people who call this city home. because this city has been here before, and we know what it looks like when Vancouver is bold and decides to reach. In 86, Vancouver didn't just host the World's Fair. It repositioned our city on the global map, catalyzed entire new neighborhoods, drew investment and imagination from around the world, and fundamentally changed what Vancouverites believed was possible. The city that emerged from Expo 86 was a different city, more confident, more ambitious, and I was one of the children who ran through those gates believing this place could do anything. Then came 2010. The Olympics showed the world who Vancouver truly is. But beyond the games, the legacy was lasting in infrastructure, in civic pride, and in the story we told ourselves about the kind of city we could be. Every generation or so, Vancouver gets one of those moments. Major League Baseball is our next moment, not for two weeks every four years, but for 81 home games every season, building something permanent in the fabric of this city. Baseball is one of the truly last affordable major professional sports experiences in North America. In a city as beautifully diverse as ours, a ballpark is one of those rare places where every culture, every background, every generation can sit side by side and cheer for the same thing. That sense of shared belonging is something that this city deeply, deeply needs. The window is right now. For the first time in nearly 30 years, MLB is expanding and cities across North America are lining up. Vancouver is an exceptional market, but exceptional markets don't automatically win. The case has to be made. The Expo 86 showed us what we could build, and the 2010 Olympics showed us who we are, and Major League Baseball is the next great moment of positive propulsion for a city that has never stopped reaching. Let's seize this day, and let's bring baseball home to Vancouver. Thank you.

Can you hear me?

Thank you. I also want to speak in favor and hoping that the city of Vancouver gets behind this push. Piggybacking on what the mayor said, this isn't out of left field or a pie-in-the-sky dream. The MLB has really made it clear that this is going to happen. They are expanding. So I think the only question remains whether Vancouver is part of that process. So as for me, I'm a born and raised Vancouverite, attended UBC before living in the United States for some period of time. And I actually, as an undergraduate student at UBC, did a feasibility study on baseball in Vancouver over 20 years ago. Even back then, the numbers bore it out. And I've seen data cited recently that an MLB team in Vancouver has 10 to 1 support spanning all British Columbians. So it's pretty rare in my experience that you see that kind of support of something. And I think what crystallized the image for me was living in San Francisco as not really a huge baseball fan myself, to be honest, but becoming one and seeing what a baseball team can really do for a city. I know Vancouver just has spectacular summers, and we are always clamoring here for summer events that bring people out. And I can't imagine what a boon it would be to the city economically to see millions of people over the course of a summer. frequent, a hopeful baseball stadium we could put here. And again, what kind of boon that would do for our economy here. And as another speaker mentioned, the accessibility of going to a baseball game relative to other sporting events is something I also don't think we should overlook. So, you know, as I mentioned, this is really a matter of, to me it seems, just a question of Vancouver, whether Vancouver is going to throw its hat in the ring. And I would love to see our city get behind it. I think the economic case is there. I think public support is there. And I think it would be a great thing for the city. Thank you.

Rouleau, hi there. Yes, I'm Yasmin Rouleau. Just wanted to say I'm in absolute support for bringing this to Vancouver. In my humblest opinion, it's what our city needs. It's what my family needs. We need a place to go and hang out, something that's accessible. And I just really feel we need to bring the elevation here. of our city on a global scale. So I am in full, full support, and I'm really excited to see how this actually has a strong social impact in our community and can really just help from all aspects of economic growth and tourism. Thank you.

Speaker number nine is Ryan Chambers.

Hello?

Okay, yeah, my name is Ryan Chambers. I am not a resident of Vancouver. I live in Coldstream, B.C., but I'm the president of the Chambers Transportation Group. I felt compelled to call in because whilst I realize that this is very much an issue concerning Vancouver, a team of this magnitude is going to be embraced by the entire province. So I felt important that somebody from outside the great city of Vancouver called in to express my strong support for this initiative. I think those before me were really good at articulating how rare this is, how this really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Those that watch baseball know that Major League Baseball doesn't expand often, and it's unlikely this opportunity will come along again. I'm very pleased to hear that all the callers have been very supportive of this initiative. You know, oftentimes when people hear things like this, large things, they can get negative and say things like, well, it'll never happen, or we'll never get the support, or there won't be enough money, or we're not the city for it. And I just say, you know, why not us? Again, Vancouver is a world-class city, and I'm certain it'll be embraced by the entire province. To be perfectly honest, with all due respect to the great Blue Jays franchise, I'm getting pretty tired of cheering for a team from Toronto. So I think it's about time we had a team from Western Canada that we can all get behind. From a practical standpoint, again, the family benefits and social impacts... that this team will have been already articulated. But just from a practical standpoint, you know, I have season tickets to the Canucks. I come down personally. We use it for corporate events. We give it to employees. You know, this would be something we'd look at, you know, doing the same. You know, we would get season tickets for sure. I'd probably look at boxes, entertaining clients in a box at an MLB game is much better than any other professional sports experience. You know, it may not sound like much being just one person from Vernon, but, you know, I've heard numbers of 20% of the season ticket holders for the Seattle Seahawks are from Canada. So people do travel. They do bring their dollars to town, which I only see as a benefit for the city. So, you know, with that, I'll leave it at that. I really support it. So hopefully it works out. Good luck.

Oh, hi. Good evening, Mayor Council. My name is Brian Grange. I'm a Vancouver resident, a business owner and an entrepreneur. And through my company and the resort tourism and industry, we bring many people to the city and to British Columbia. We operate hotels, hotels and resorts. And bringing people in internationally is what we do on a daily basis. So I want to express my strong support for the city of Vancouver to move forward with a formal process to explore this opportunity of bringing Major League Baseball to our city. From a business and tourism perspective, this is one of the most compelling opportunities Vancouver and British Columbia could pursue. Baseball offers something unique among major sports, a consistent season that spans an entire summer. With games played almost daily, it creates sustained business over months, not days. This type of consistency is exactly what drives long-term tourism growth. In my experience, when people travel for sports, they do not come just for a single event. They build trips around it. They extend their stays, explore the destination, spend more time experiencing everything the region has to offer. I see this personally in my own travel. I always add extra days to taking a baseball game, and I fully expect visitors would do the same at Vancouver at a major league team. benefit to british columbia would be significant visitors would not stay in vancouver but they would also travel to whistler vancouver island and throughout the interior an mlb team would act as a central anchor encouraging longer stays and broader exploration across the province this translates directly into increased hotel occupancy restaurant activity and transportation usage Just as importantly, Vancouver is ready for this opportunity. We're a global city with infrastructure, corporate base, and international connectivity required to support major league franchise. We've demonstrated this with sustained support of professional teams, and we already see strong evidence of this demand with thousands of people going down to Seattle for major league games. especially when toronto's in town i i mean just the world series experience this past year was evidence of that with the amount of people uh traveling down for that one game and the amount of money spent is just unreal so the demand exists the opportunity is now to bring it home major league baseball signaling the future expansion to all cities across north america this is a great opportunity for us to compete and show what Vancouver is all about. So it's not simply about a sport. It's about tourism, economic growth, and positioning Vancouver and British Columbia on a global stage for decades to come. So I strongly support the city's decision to initiate process to explore this opportunity and encourage council to give it a serious consideration. Thanks for the long day and appreciate it a lot. Cheers.

Okay, there, I'm here.

Yeah, I am here to be the dissenting opinion here tonight. I am not in favor of this motion when we are dealing with one of the most difficult economic times that people have faced in decades. This is sports washing. Like, read the room. Food bank usage has doubled since 2019. You know, we can't keep shaping the city for the wealthiest. It's common knowledge that bringing in large sports franchises is building luxury arenas are heavily subsidized by the taxpayers. The owners never pay for that on their own. They're also given ample tax breaks that usually last forever until a city removes it, and then they threaten to move, and then the tax breaks return. So this will incur annual and longstanding expenses while incurring lost tax revenues. So we're publicly funding this, but the privatized profit will go into the pockets of billionaires. And in fact, this is another effort to turn billionaires into trillionaires. Subsidizing billionaires should not be explored while people are freaking out about the cost of groceries. We need community interest grounded in public good. This is truly your let them eat cake moment. I do not favor this motion, and I do not encourage sports washing. Thanks for your time. Have a good night.

Yeah, thanks. It's just a question through the chair to the mover of the motion. As we've seen with significant public money usually ends up going into these projects, especially billion-dollar stadiums, can there be an insurance that there won't be any public money involved?

Yeah, it's our intention, my intention at least, that there will be absolutely no public money involved. We are looking for expressions of interests to meet a timeline that Major League Baseball has said they want to expand. We've also had significant interest or interested parties that are incredibly credible that want to bring a team to Vancouver. Thanks. Can you declare who that is? Who's the group that has already reached out about a team? Because this motion calls for transparency, but there's no transparency on who's involved. That's the point of the motion. We're asking for expressions of interest so everyone discloses if they're interested. No, it's just that you said you've been talking to a group. No, I said people have expressed an interest. They're credible parties. Sorry. I'm just trying to answer the question. In introducing the motion, you said this motion hasn't come out of left field that you've been talking to someone. In introducing the motion, not just now, just in introducing the motion. Yeah, so just trying to clarify, Councillor Orr, people expressed an interest, they approach us, and so that's why we're pushing this motion to have transparency and to have multiple groups, whoever's interested, to express an interest and express it to council. So it's actually... Incredibly transparent. Okay. And then do we have any idea where a stadium would be? I heard in the news that there was four sites. Is there any consideration that this is going to be on public land, like city-owned land? Yeah, so if you're asking me an operational question, I'm sure there are numerous sites across the city that could be potentially used for a Major League Baseball stadium. With that said, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves here and buy it or bias the process. And so one of our top priorities will be to work with the successful proponent group to identify options for a stadium site and No tax, just to be clear, no tax dollars will be used to construct a stadium or pay for a team to come to Vancouver.

No, so no tax dollars will be used, but it could be on city-owned land, potentially. Like I said, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. There are numerous sites that will work, I'm sure, but it's up to the groups, a group or groups to identify how everything would work and how it'd be a benefit for the city.

And then we, you know, that will come to council and then we could have conversations around that. Okay. Assuming all of this is successful and Vancouver's awarded a baseball team, how would this affect the Vancouver Canadiens? Do we know? Uh... You know, I don't know in terms of their, you know, you're asking me to predict something in the future. You know, it could be a benefit. It could be a midpoint or it could be, you know, disadvantageous. You know, when you have, you know, the argument for it could help is, you know, when you have more attention to the sport, it opens up other opportunities, just like, you know, the Canucks open up an opportunity for, you know, women's hockey to come here. Okay, thanks. Seeing as I only have a minute left and there's nobody else on the queue, again, I just feel like this is, as it's been sort of said in the news, kind of an unnecessary political. And again, as somebody who loves sports, I'm loathe to think how this might be weaponized, but Squire Barnes, Price and Sequeiras, Donnie and Dolly, Rob Fye have all said that there's just so many questions. Our $0.72... Our lack of corporate headquarters, which is why we lost the Grizzlies. We're at risk of losing the Whitecaps. Those questions on stadium, if they're on public land, to me, this just seems like a pop fly with no runs scored.