The entire reason Spruce Meadows was interested in financially backing a soccer club is that they want more people to visit Spruce Meadows year round. Ron Southern had a passion for equestrian and was willing to bankroll Spruce Meadows. His children do not have the same passion, so they want to take advantage of that nice big piece of land Spruce Meadows sits on and make more money off it so it can sustain itself.
So Spruce Meadows bankrolls a soccer club, holds concerts and do events like that big bouncy castle thing. And the Southerns don't have to reach into their pockets as much to fund their passion.
With Cavalry, Spruce Meadows get every penny of revenue through the door. No other pro club in this league has that setup. Partnering with another organization means someone else gets a piece of the revenue and that vastly undermines their motivation behind the project. There is no motivation for Spruce Meadows to play at McMahon other than sheer necessity as they want every penny in their pockets.
The reason the Wild don't play at Atco Field is because Spruce Meadows struggles to keep that pitch maintained as it is and don't want more games played on it. So Spruce Meadows gave the Wild the "#### off unless you pay this insane rent" fee. The Wild managed to work with the owners of McMahon Stadium to replace the turf and I think that was a big win, even if McMahon is far from a great venue.
There is one use case for Cavalry playing at McMahon and that is CONCACAF games. Personally I think Calgary is an incredibly fickle sports city and they wouldn't draw more than 10000 for any opponent save Inter Miami. For every "Spruce Meadows is too far" I hear a "McMahon sucks" when people talk about soccer there.
|