The Globe and Mail

At least one Toronto institution was happy last week to hear that the University of Toronto was scrapping its plan to build a 25,000-seat stadium near the intersection of Bloor Street West and Avenue Road. "We weren't keen on the last iteration," said Peter Simon, president of the Royal Conservatory of Music, in the wake of the announcement. "We felt it was inappropriate for the area," especially since "it's almost a cultural/educational precinct now," given the presence of the RCM and nearby institutions like the Royal Ontario Museum, the Bata Shoe Museum and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. The Conservatory is, of course, immediately adjacent to the eastern perimeter of the old Varsity Stadium which, until last week, was the proposed site for U of T's new $80-million dollar stadium and would-be home to the Toronto Argonauts. The Conservatory is undergoing a much-publicized renovation and expansion of its own -- a $60-million job that had been scheduled for completion in September or October of 2006, but now, Simon acknowledged, likely will come in two months past that.