No plans to demolish Telus Field, says Mayor Don Iveson

A somewhat frustrated Mayor Don Iveson spoke about the future of Telus Field Monday on Edmonton AM,saying there are no plans to demolish the baseball stadium.

He points to one line in theWestRossdaleUrban Design Planfor the redevelopment of theRossdaleareathat suddenly caused people to believe the city is tearing down the facility.

Council has no plans to do anything different with Telus Field than continue to work with the Oilers to try to get a ball team in there thats playing at a higher level," he said.

The Edmonton Prospects baseball club is playing at the TelusField this season, however,it's a lower-level baseball league andIveson would like to see a high-levelteam there.

The Edmonton Trappers, a triple-A professional team in the Pacific Coastal League that played out of Telus Field, weresold in 2004 and moved to Round Rock, Texas.

"The Prospects are good but wed like to get a team like the Trappers in there again, thatwould be phenomenal," Iveson said. "That remains our focus. There is no will to take down the stadium and council has never even discussed it.

City councillors will discuss the Rossdale area redevelopment plans as well as the future of Telus Field at a meeting this week.

Mayor weighs in on other issues

Ivesonalso spoke about the PC leadership race.

Although two of the three candidates are from the Calgary area, Iveson is confident that Edmonton will "have a seat at the table" when it comes to provincial politics.

"I think historically Edmonton has struggled when we've had leaders who weren't from here and especially if we've had low representation in the governing caucus and nobody in cabinet," Iveson said.

"But right now, there are a good number of MLAs in the governing party from Edmonton and I would expect that if the premier is from Calgary that person is going to absolutely want to ensure they have some strong Edmontonians around them at their cabinet table."

Although he would not endorse a candidate like his predecessorStephen Mandel did last week, he said he is confident the city will be able to work with the future leader, regardless of where he is from.

"If the region is stronger and can act as one, speak as one... then that makes us a bit unavoidable at the legislature."

Iveson also said he will continue working with Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshito push an urban agenda in the province.

"Gone are the days of thinking that you could hollow out Edmonton to prop up Calgary," Iveson said. "I think people are realizing that's actually a really lousy province building strategy. We need two great cities that do slightly different things that complement each other in order to build a stronger Alberta."