This weekend was supposed to be the city's chance to run a high-level soccer tournament in its new Pan Am stadium, to test it out and train volunteers ahead of next summer's scheduled 32 soccer matches in the 2015 Pan Am Games.
But the stadium's not done. This weekend's tournament, the Ontario University Athletics soccer finals, is happening at McMaster instead.
"I wasn't surprised," said John Gibson, a member of the local Pan Am planning committee for soccer. "They haven't met a deadline yet so why would we expect them to meet a deadline now?"
The stadium's developers, Ontario Sport Solutions, have not obtained final "substantial completion" permits from city inspectors. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have been using temporary permits for every home game since the Labour Day opening game against the Toronto Argonauts. The city won't take over operations of the stadium until the substantial completion OK has been given.
That left parts of the stadium unusable for this weekend's tournaments, and also opened the possibility of liability concerns, said Greg Maychak, the city's manager of Pan Am initiatives.
Maychak called the relocation a "minor setback."
"It doesn't create the perfect scenario," Maychak said. "But the good thing is the venue is going to be done months and months prior to the game."
Terence Foran, spokesman for Infrastructure Ontario, said contractors are still working on several parts of the stadium including its elevators, electrical systems, landscaping and finishes.
About 50 volunteers will be on-site at the tournament this weekend in its new venue. They'll still get the chance to work out some of the kinks of working together, marshalling teams, compiling statistics, spotting and refereeing games.
And these volunteers aren't green, Maychak said. They've been hand-picked based on their experience working big games like these before.
But Gibson said it was still disappointing to learn the test event wouldn't be happening at the new stadium.
"There's only so many opportunities to test your skills at what you're doing," Gibson said. "Outdoor soccer doesn't really start till May or June so there isn't really any other big events" that could give the volunteers a chance to practice in the stadium and learn its inner workings in a game-time situation.
Teddy Katz, Pan Am 2015 spokesman, said Infrastructure Ontario is "focused on finishing the remaining work" at the stadium.
"It is unfortunate the OUA test event could not go ahead at the stadium as planned," he said. "This change is not expected to have any impact whatsoever on the facility's readiness or ability to host Pan Am events."
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