A city hall committee says Halifax could build a 10,000-seat stadium for sports and other events.
And regional council should authorize the second phase of a study examining the feasibility of the multi-use venue, new reports to council say.
The next phase of research, if approved, would look at design proposals for such a project and suggest candidate sites.
Phase 2 of the study would cost taxpayers around $275,000, according to a municipal staff report. Council already authorized $100,000 for the study's first phase.
The recommendation to continue studying the proposed stadium is in a city staff report and a report from Halifax's stadium steering committee, a 15-member volunteer group that's been looking into the project for months.
Both documents and a consultant's study were released Friday and are to go to regional council Tuesday.
The proposed stadium would have 10,000 permanent seats with temporary seating doubling the capacity. Should the politicians OK the stadium study's second phase, it doesn't mean the proposed development is going ahead. Council can still pull the plug after the next round of analysis is finished.
"While the eventual decision may very well be to not construct a stadium at this time, regional council would benefit from a better understanding of the size, scope and more detailed costs of stadium options and their viability," the staff report says. "It is staff's opinion that proceeding with Phase 2 is a reasonable course of action."
A Phase 2 report should be ready for council's consideration in December.
The consultant's study says there's a business case for moving forward with a proposed venue and that includes winter-use options under a temporary stadium cover.
But the staff report contains issues that are potentially problematic.
"The average event days per year could be in the order of 50," the staff document says.
"Almost all have some degree of spectator capacity, however, some are very modest. Major ticketed events are limited; while a number exist annually, these events compete with the rest of Canada and international locations."
The staff report also notes "no core professional sport franchise has been identified. A professional sporting franchise in football or soccer has not been established in Halifax."
According to the consultant's study, the stadium would run a deficit of up to $475,000 a year. It says there would be economic and social benefits to having a venue, including millions of dollars in economic spinoffs.
A Canadian Football League expansion team for Halifax has been talked about on and off for many years. Halifax hosted a CFL exhibition game a few years ago; Moncton had a regular-season game last year and will host another this season.
The city staff report says "support for new and additional facilities has been expressed by a number of (local) sport groups and it is anticipated that, as sport participation continues to grow in the region, most groups will require additional facilities in the near to medium term."
Halifax Regional Municipality officials are considering a stadium, in part, to host an international women's soccer tournament in 2015, a coast-to-coast competition that could include the Nova Scotia capital.
It won't be known for some time whether Halifax will be one of the six sites for the FIFA Women's World Cup. Canada will host the tournament, held this year in Germany, and a companion event in 2014.
A stadium could cost about $60-million, Halifax officials have said, but the bottom line is unknown.
Mayor Peter Kelly has said the proposed project, if built, would be constructed with public funds from the three levels of government and money from the private sector.