When you say Saputo, you think cheese and you think soccer. But not always. In 1964 Giuseppe Saputo tried to sell a part of the company to New York Mafia crimelord Joe Bonanno, who sought to move here to avoid US justice.
Bonanno was living on De Lormier street and his attempt to get Canadian citizenship failed. Saputo said he didn't know of Bonanno's reputation. Plus the Saputos' Utica Cheese Company was revealed to have Bonnano as a secret investor. But the massive CECO crime probe of 1972 showed no links between the family and organized crime. The Saputo cheese company did well and the newer generation gives a big chunk-o-change to soccer. They decided to build a state of the art soccer stadium for their Montreal Impact Soccer Club down near the river around the Bonaventure Expressway.
The complex would have been ready for the recently-completed U-20 world soccer tournament. Suddenly the OIB - the Olympic Installations Board (aka the RIO), persuaded the Saputos to move the project to a spot next to the Olympic Stadium. The facility remains uncompleted. Rather than having a coming out party in a new stadium, Montreal's U-20 games were forced inside the Big O. And the new stadium will be a ho-hum affair as you can see here and located on an ancient burial ground for pro sports. Many question the Saputos' steadfast determination to stay out of the MLS, which has benefited from Beckham-mania. As part of Toronto FC's deal, no other Canadian city can join the league for another couple of years. In spite of its best intentions, Montreal has underperformed in the new soccer reality.
What was the deal with Montreal pizza joints refusing to buy from a certain cheese supplier and the kept mysteriously burning down? This was in the 80-90s I believe, and was one of the reasons why Pizza Hut took so long to have a franchise here. Or I could be wrong...
ReplyDeleteI'll look into that. There were a few cheese wars over the years. The Violis started their careers in a mozerella melee in 1963, I think and there were at least one or two other famously cheezy disputes. Coolopolis's Chief Crime Consultant is in a different sort of establishment for the moment so we'll wait for him to get sprung to give the official overview.
ReplyDeleteI know this is only a blog and you tend to provide wonderful insight generally but that was one poor soccer article.
ReplyDeleteWe all know how business people "hate" to travel that massive 20 minutes it takes to get to the wilderness that is the East. But I would challenge those pampered people to attend a soccer game in London where you would have to take all manner of poorly functioning buses, undergrounds and trains before reaching your destination. We really are spoiled in Montreal and still find a way to complain.
The truth is that Montreal has a very good fan base and they travel even further to pack out a 10,000-seater at every game.
Gaining access to the MLS (not sure where the UFC came from) is surely within the Saputo's objectives but it will not be an easy league to get into.
Jean-Philippe
Thanks, I corrected the MLS thing.
ReplyDelete"It ain't easy being cheesy.."
ReplyDeleteI know a guy named Mark Green from Newfounland, now living at Church and Verdun who has a band with a song called "It Ain't Easy Being Sleazy."
ReplyDeleteIt ain't easy making cheese when your restaurant keeps burning down.
ReplyDeleteKristian, this is the best blog on the planet, keep it up!
Actually, I recall that it was mob pepperoni, not mozzarella. But could've been both.
ReplyDeleteThanks Zadcat! Maybe you're right. All I know is that Mikes and Pizza Hut had "electrical" problems. On a weekly basis. I thought it was cheesy, never mind suspicious...
ReplyDeleteThe Cotroni-linked supplier was called Reggio Foods, with an emphasis on pepperoni and supplies rather than cheese.
ReplyDeleteNicodemo Cotroni later became involved in the pinball machine and amusement arcade businesses, in association with former LA Dodgers prospect, and Beaconsfield resident, Gerry O'Reilly of Alouette Amusement in TMR.
Thanks Wayne! Would that be the arcade supply place at Rockland and Beaumont that was replaced with a brand spanking new Jean Coutu? I always wondered where one could buy a pinball until I saw that place as a kid. Come to think of it, the machines seemed kinda dusty in there...
ReplyDeleteBeaumont was another amusement supply house, Laniel Automatic....Gerry's place has been for years on Delmeade Road in TMR, off of Cote-de-Liesse in the Industrial Park, in a building that was once a British Leyland dealership. He took over part of the Laniel business, such as the contract to maintain the AMT's rail platform validation and ticket dispensing machines.
ReplyDeleteCool, thanks!
ReplyDelete1) Lino Saputo may claim he didnt know Bonnano but you dont usually vouch for someone who is trying to emigrate that you 'dont know'. BS. Hey, the Bronfmans sold ilegal booze to organized crime in the US, the Bush family had dealings with Germany during WW2. They all have skeletons in the closet but as long as its not your family's shop which gets blown up and muscled, people just look the other way. Its the italian way.
ReplyDeleteLook, in most italian families, its not the girls who run the business but everyone knows that Lino wasnt leaving the business to Joey so he gave me a little toy to keep himself busy while the sisters run the business. Smart duck that Lino.
2) The stadium wont be a mess since its not a real stadium, more like the Concordia stands. Call it Parc Hebert plus. It is cheap looking and lacking any charm and esthetics. Look at how houses are build nowadays as opposed to 30 years ago...this is how this is going to look. I see aluminum sidings, pave unie and stone lions in the forecast. Maybe firewood by the front door.
Worse, when a friend called the Impact to find out if the new stadium would have an adult sized field as opposed to the small grass field at Robillard, they said something about teh size being more attuned to the style of the USL league...whatever that means. I dont know if the answer surprised me as much as the idea that there is a style in their second division.
I dont understand building a new stadium so you can go from 10 to 13,5000. I would have aimed for 20,000 just so you can at least qualify if they ever want to give the MLS a try.
After seeing games at the Big O, you realize right away how much space there was available between each player at both Robbi and Olympic. Hell, when you go to Robbillard, check out how much bigger the turf field is compared to grass. When we were migdet, the grass field was too small for us.
21 professional athletes jammed in one half of a field leaves zero room to move. A player receives a pass, he right away has 4 players within 2 metres of him.
Building a new stadium and keeping a U11 field would be mindless.
Not realizing that the field at Robillard is way too small is as well.
3) Saw all the JR WC games this summer at the stadium and sat right around the middle ring (righ above the journalists) and I have to agree with anon about travelling to the stadium. From St.Laurent metro (the street is the center of montreal) where I work downtown, it tooke me 10mins to Pie IX.
10 MINUTES.
Too far? Total and utter BS.
The view? No problem whatsoever and we were in the nosebleeds (I prefer seeing the game from higher than closer down and with a lower viewing angle) for all but one game.
Im 6'3, my dad is 6'6 and my uncles and brothers are in between. NOWHERE ELSE can we all sit in the same rows of seats to watch a game. The stadium has leg room (especially the lower bowl) and shoulder space whic make sitting there at least more bearable than in the japanese style stadiums elsewhere.
The location for the stadium makes the most sense or at least a lot more than the one on the Bonaventure autoroute.
In one square block, you have the stadium, tons of parking, the metro is right there, the olympic pool, gyms,etc, Maurice Richard olympic sized arena, P.Charbonneau sports center where the Matrix play ball. One of those multiplex cinemas, the Biodome and right across the street from the stadium is the botanical gardens, insectarium and one of the biggest purely green parks in Montreal (Parc Maisconneuve was a golf course which was thankfully removed and now its 18 holes of green space, trees and cycling/rollerblade paths. Saputo also worked hard to allow the hundreds of athletes who used the running track to be back training there soon, so amateur sports wont get screwed.
And now a small soccer stadium right next to all this?
This is THE sports/recreation center of Montreal.
And I should be pissed since I live at Jarry metro which is one stop from Cremazie and the 12minute walk to Robillard centre but Im not since Im only 7 stations away from Berri an then its another 6 to Pie IX which means somewhere about 20-25mins which is more than it used to take me to the old Forum.
My uncle will be taking the metro from laval and is thrilled as is my brother who will leave his car at Longueil metro and be at the stadium in less than 25mins.
The only people bitching are the waste islanders but...who cares?
Rob Enderle
PS: The Jean-Talon St. Pizza (between viau/PieIx) Hut was opened in the early 80's and had 3 fires. They closed down and didnt reopen one in St.Leonard until the one on Langelier a few years back.
>The facility remains uncompleted.
ReplyDeleteRight.
Or you could say that the construction is going AHEAD of schedule. (My uncle does cement there. Its a simple job.) And yes, its a plain building.
>Montreal's U-20 games were forced >inside the Big O.
Are you INSANE?
Nothing was forced.
The only reason it would have been done at the new stadium is that there would have been FIFA and Canadian money involved to build the new stadium.
Was there a game with less than 40,000 people?
Were you there for the Brazil opener with the 55,000 people?
Were you there for the Mexican and Chilean fiestas in the second round?
Did you feel the stadium vibrate from the roar of a goal?
The best thing for all those thousands of kids we saw at the Big O for those two weeks was seeing a packed stadium go wild.
RDS didnt carry it so it got pathetic coverage here.
Please, go back to knitting or hentai or whatever it is you do.
Er, basket-weaving and flower arranging actually.
ReplyDeleteYou make some good points, but the U-20 should definitely have been held outside.
And there's no way that the East End site is better than the original one proposed. People simply don't enjoy going to that part of the city.
I was following the Saputo-Bonano link (found out that ex Saputo president Borselino went this year to the funeral of a well known mafioso) because its mafia time again and came across this whiny piece of anglos bitching.
ReplyDelete>People simply don't enjoy going to that >part of the city.
Get the fuck out of here!!!
by people, you mean the hassidic anglophones who couldnt find their way to the stadium without a map or sherpa, right?
i used to go to the stadium in the 80s whenh the Expos were among the top 2-3 teams in attendance (as well as the Manic games).
ONLY people who dont like the location are diehard anglophone shitheads like Melnick who still live the old language wars.
guy above gave a great description of all the activities that go on in a 1km radius BY FAR the biggest conglomeration of such installations in the city.
what does the fuking author do?
TOTALLY avoid it to give his great "people dont enjoy" garbage.
That is called lack of balls my friend.
When someone bitch slaps you with facts proving that people DO go there, do you stand up and make your point?
No. You tuck your balls between your legs and spout old english cliches that your CJAD listening paranoid friends masterbate over while listening to Shnurmacher.
Weak.
Stadium looks nice from inside, totally shitty from outside and those two 300ft towers stand out like sore thumbs.
Zizi