The "bank of Frank" is coming to Ottawa.

Lynx Stadium may soon be rebranded the Steelback Centre of Ottawa, if one local businessman has his way.

David Butler has interests with a prestigious list of firms to turn Lynx Stadium, which hosted its last Triple-A Ottawa Lynx game today, into a multi-service entertainment and sports complex within perhaps 20 months.

Mr. Butler is the owner of shuttle bus firm Superior Shuttle Hi-Tech and the man who brought the blue bicycle racks with ads to Ottawa and 18 other North America cities.

Frank D'Angelo, the charismatic owner and president of Steelback Brewery, has a written agreement with Mr. Butler to be the lead sponsor of a renamed Steelback Centre of Ottawa.

Mr. Butler also has agreements with the Dan Aykroyd-founded House of Blues to be the concert promoter for Ottawa's newest concert venue, should it be approved and built.

The last time Mr. D'Angelo was in town, he was hoping to win back a Canadian Football League franchise, a venture that was turned down by the league.

"Frank's a friend of mine," said Mr. Butler. "(And) the bank of Frank is not short of money, that's for sure."

Although there is no deal in stone, Mr. D'Angelo told the OBJ that he had a lot of respect for Mr. Butler.

"We've discussed it," he said. "If there's a deal to be made, we'd love to be a part of it . . . I love Ottawa, and we've been fighting like dogs to get in there."

If everything goes according to plan, Mr. Butler said the $17-million city-owned stadium could be converted to his dream project in about 20 months.

Plans are ambitious.

Most of the site's revenues will be from concerts and musical events, Mr. Butler said. Seating space will be added. Currently, the stadium provides seating for 10,330 fans at Lynx baseball games. Mr. Butler said construction will make it possible to seat 15,000 fans for sporting events, and up to 25,000 for the largest concerts. As well, 10 skyboxes will be added to the 32 sheltered corporate boxes already there.

He plans to host 40 concerts dates a year at the site, and has agreements with concert promoter House of Blues.

"We will have sections, and be able to curtain off certain parts," he said. "Say if you have Tommy Hunter in for a concert, you could section off 1,000 seats. It will be very intimate, and it'll feel like he's playing to a full house."

Besides concerts, the site will accommodate either two full-size sporting fields or six mini fields, he said. The pitches can be used for soccer, ultimate Frisbee and even tennis, he said.

The venue will sport two new restaurants along the Queensway side of the building, as well as a Tim Horton's with a drive-through. He also suggested there was talk of a country music hall of fame.

"The roof, contrary to what has been reported, will not be a bubble," he said, saying it will be a permanent structure. And the $40 million necessary to fund the construction, he said, will be from bank loans and sponsors and himself, not taxpayers.

He said concerns that his proposal will negatively compete with existing sports and entertainment venues were needless.

"A rising tide affects all ships," he said.

"Let's face it: Orleans residents don't go to Kanata," he said. "(Other venues) don't have to worry about competition."

The facility will become an "entertainment first, sports secondary" complex that will "revitalize the east end of Ottawa," he said.

Besides not costing the city any money to build, Mr. Butler said it will be an annual cash generator for the city, to the tune of about $2.5 million, including some $750,000 in annual taxes, the lease, and a "success fee" based on Mr. Butler's revenues.

M.P. Lundy Construction of Ottawa has been recruited to be the main contractor of any work to be done, Mr. Butler said.

The plan, leaked last week by Coun. Jacques Legendre, was a surprise to some, including businesspeople who hoped their own ideas would come to fruition. These included keeping it as a baseball stadium and having Ottawa join the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball (Can-Am) league, making it the site of an enlarged Congress Centre, or a full-service casino.

Miles Wolfe, commissioner of the Can-Am league and owner of its Quebec City franchise, said he was caught off-guard by the news.

"It won't cost the city anything to let us in," he said.

Mr. Butler said his group, through intermediaries, has been in touch with the league, and said the two ideas could co-exist.

"We can incorporate them into our (proposal)," he said. Asked whether his proposed roof will be high enough for baseball, Mr. Butler said height adjustments are possible, and added a ground rule double was the usual result of a baseball hitting the roof, according to the rules.

"Of course, community sports will have access to it," he added. "(Recreational) boys and girls will have free days," he said, on days when the facility is not being used.

City officials, reached by the OBJ, remained tight-lipped about Mr. Butler's proposal, at least until the Ottawa Lynx make it official that they are moving to Allentown, Penn., where its new owners reside.

To make matters even more touchy, an $11-million lawsuit is wending its way through the courts, a suit in which the Lynx allege the city did not follow through on promises to add more parking spots when the team moved to Ottawa.

"There's not a whole lot I can say," said city solicitor Rick O'Connor. "We are currently in a lease with the Ottawa Lynx until 2009, and we intend to honour that lease until 2009."

But Mr. Butler said he has met with every councillor one-on-one on his plan, including Coun. Legendre.

Mr. Legendre, who said publicly that the proposal would prevent the stadium from becoming a white elephant, did not return calls before deadline.

"The hardest part of this has been putting it all together without telling anyone," Mr. Butler, an accountant by trade, said, recounting times when he would attend Lynx games, take pictures of the venue, then supply them to his architects for design work. "It's been a one-and-a-half year process."

Mr. Butler said the July 5 Nickelback concert at Lynx Stadium was a "test run" of the parking situation at Lynx Stadium, a test which he said was passed with flying colours. About 14,000 residents attended the event, with half of them taking the bus and the rest arriving in about 1,800 vehicles.

Only some 850 to 1,000 parking spots are available in the lot, so concert organizers paid surrounding properties like Canadian Tire, Wal-Mart, the Hampton Inn and some government facilities to rent out spots for the evening, and policed residential areas to prevent the blocking of driveways.

Concert ticket revenues more than made up for the costs of that, Mr. Butler said. "We sold 42,000 beers at $8.50 each," he said.

However, some experts say the best return for a cash-strapped city is to tear the site down.

"That land is far, far too valuable for any sporting facility," said Barry Nabatian, an economic analyst for Market Research Corp.

"In terms of value for money, it'll probably become office or retail," he said. "Chances are, it would be a combination.

"To make it into an office, there's not much they would have to demolish. They just have to take the seats away. It would be great for a high tech company. They could have a little courtyard, and have offices around it. It's close to the Queensway, and I don't think there would be any zoning problems."

Mr. Butler said he was a known commodity to the municipality with his bike racks and bus shuttle company.

"This is going to happen now, or it's going to happen later," said Mr. Butler. "(If not), Lynx Stadium will turn into a graffiti-covered, vandalized area.

Note to readers. This is an updated version of the story that appears in this week's print edition of the OBJ, featuring comments from Frank D'Angelo of Steelback Brewery that could not be obtained before the print deadline.