Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Re Skydome

I can't find the article but Shapiro spoke about upcoming renovations just a few weeks ago. There are some ongoing structural repairs happening ie the roof, and he mentioned some changes being made to the 200 or 300-level ie restaurants, bars, etc.

Then there's the Dunedin development. It's not terribly sexy but it's really important from a player development and retention perspective.

I have the feeling that we're not going to see significant change coming to Skydome any time soon. Significant change means significant dough and I'm not sure Rogers sees the business case for it. There may not be one, in fact.

All I want is for Rogers Centre to become more of a ballpark - I think Shapiro has said the exact same thing.
*A more natural-looking turf
*More dirt ie a painted warning track is sacrilege!
*More standing room space

There are lots of aesthetic improvements that can likely be made for something that will not bankrupt Rogers. That's all I would expect.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by wave46

The Government of Ontario sold it to a consortium that was headed by Labatt for ~$150m.

Then Sportsco bought it for $80m from Labatt.

Then Rogers bought it from Sportsco for $25m.

I can't see the optics of a brand new baseball-only stadium going over well in government in a time of large deficits. The profitability of a new stadium will probably be worse than Skydome since Rogers would be obligated to kick in a few hundred million dollars of funding as the primary tenant.

They'll probably squeeze every last dollar out of the place, IMO.

Using other baseball stadiums as a metric isn't so great of an idea either - baseball has undergone a huge investment since the 1990s in new stadiums.

Thanks! The government took a huge hit selling the place considering how much it cost to build ($570 million), yet still did pretty good considering how much it was sold for in subsequent deals.

Not sure Ford really cares about the deficit. He seems to run the Province like his own little game of Sim City doing whatever he likes and helping his friends and himself along the way. A new stadium might be within the realm of possibility. A stadium for all Ontarians!

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by wave46

The Government of Ontario sold it to a consortium that was headed by Labatt for ~$150m.

Then Sportsco bought it for $80m from Labatt.

Then Rogers bought it from Sportsco for $25m.

I can't see the optics of a brand new baseball-only stadium going over well in government in a time of large deficits.

Have there been any new baseball parks built in the last 30 years with no government funding?

[blueandgoldguy]

The renovations at Dunedin are nearly all funded by the public. Rogers won't be receiving that kind of deal from the province of Ontario...not after receiving a domed stadium for essentially free. I think the best they can hope for is some public improvements to the places immediately outside the stadium like gathering areas. In fact, I thought there was some disagreement between the club and the city regarding some conceptual plans for gathering areas outside the stadium last year...not sure if it was regarding funding or how the concept would interact with the surrounding area.

[osmo]

Zero new lands to build a new ballpark in or near downtown, unless you are talking Ontario Place land or reclaiming land from Lake Ontario (only other good location would be Downsview). Land costs alone would be in the hundreds of millions; overall the project would near $1 billion - not going to happen.

Rogers would be enticed if they actually owned the land underneath Rogers Centre. If I recall, Canada Lands Corp still has the land rights to the site and it is essentially on some goodwill long term lease for 100 years or something. I could see Rogers rolling the dice to cash in on the land and trying to build something elsewhere, but they don't have that ability.

Both the ACC and Skydome are not going anywhere. Both venues are as well located as one can be in the GTA outside of Downsview (which is the actual "central" location of the GTA).

Rogers Centre will need the big renovations at some point, we can just speculate if Rogers wants to be the ones who carry it out or if they cash out on the Blue Jays once they finish this roster rebuild.

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Have there been any new baseball parks built in the last 30 years with no government funding?

I can't think of any off-hand but there have been extensive renovations done to several stadiums that were entirely or nearly entirely funded by ownership ie. Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, Angels.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by osmo

Both the ACC and Skydome are not going anywhere. Both venues are as well located as one can be in the GTA outside of Downsview (which is the actual "central" location of the GTA).

Downsview might be central but it's easier to get to ACC/Skydome.

[Lugnut]

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Re Skydome

I can't find the article but Shapiro spoke about upcoming renovations just a few weeks ago. There are some ongoing structural repairs happening ie the roof, and he mentioned some changes being made to the 200 or 300-level ie restaurants, bars, etc.

Then there's the Dunedin development. It's not terribly sexy but it's really important from a player development and retention perspective.

I have the feeling that we're not going to see significant change coming to Skydome any time soon. Significant change means significant dough and I'm not sure Rogers sees the business case for it. There may not be one, in fact.

All I want is for Rogers Centre to become more of a ballpark - I think Shapiro has said the exact same thing.
*A more natural-looking turf
*More dirt ie a painted warning track is sacrilege!
*More standing room space

There are lots of aesthetic improvements that can likely be made for something that will not bankrupt Rogers. That's all I would expect.

I too want it to feel like more of a ballpark. If you've spent time at others league wide, it offers a very bad fan experience from a purely baseball perspective.

I think part of the problem is that Rogers will always be a business first not a baseball owner first and the bottom line matters most.

[blueandgoldguy]

Rogers doesn't pay market rate for the tv rights, stadium naming rights or advertisement for their products on Sportsnet and at the stadium. Since they own the team they are essentially shifting money from the team to the telecommunications company - fewer expenses for telecommunications sector and lower revenues for the baseball team.

Due to this ongoing arrangement it probably would not make sense to spend $500 million on a complete revamp of Rogers Centre, but only because of this artificial market they have created for the Blue Jays.

[JHikka]

Peterborough is in the process of finding a location for a new arena to replace the Peterborough Memorial Centre. New building is expected to cost $86M and have 5,800 seats. That's roughly the same size as Harbour Station in Saint John, a CMA with nearly an identical population to Peterborough

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer....e-by-the-fall/

[king10]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Peterborough is in the process of finding a location for a new arena to replace the Peterborough Memorial Centre. New building is expected to cost $86M and have 5,800 seats. That's roughly the same size as Harbour Station in Saint John, a CMA with nearly an identical population to Peterborough

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer....e-by-the-fall/

Damn, thought they were going to stay in the Memorial Centre forever when they did that rehab about a decade ago.

[DavefromSt.Vital]

While the PMC is an interesting place to see a game, I can see why a replacement is being studied. The last major reno was actually more than a decade ago. Generally they have knowledgeable fans and the local hall of fame is an attraction in and of itself. The ice is quirky in that it is set well above walkways around the boards so if you are standing next to the ice you are looking WAY up at the players. The corners are noticeably deep/square - it drives visiting teams nuts.

However, a huge chunk of the seating capacity is in a giant section rising up behind the north goal. There are relatively few seats along the sides, not a good thing in a U-shaped arena. There are stairs needed to access anything and in some sections you have to use narrow aisles to go in or out. The octagonal scoreboard is really low over centre ice so when players try to clear the zone by firing the puck over the other team it is not uncommon to see the play whistled dead after the puck hits it.

The vast majority of people simply drive in and drive out as there is really not much around the arena for pre/post game festivities. Peterborough actually has a downtown that is still going. A location closer to it would make it even livelier.

[MonctonRad]

Neat photo of a zamboni resurfacing the Ian Fowler Oval (a public refrigerated skating surface) in front of the Avenir Centre in downtown Moncton NB (courtesy of the Moncton Times & Transcript)

[thurmas]

New WHL arena will be 4000 seats in Winnipeg's southwest corner and early arena design concepts to be announced soon will be a snow drift.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sp...504557802.html

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by thurmas

New WHL arena will be 4000 seats in Winnipeg's southwest corner and early arena design concepts to be announced soon will be a snow drift.

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sp...504557802.html

I gotta say I'm not too upset Cranbrook is losing their team. Despite it being less than two and a half hours away from here, they've never made any effort to market their Kootenay team to the western half of the Kootenays where more people live.
They also lost their one international flight (a subsidized Delta flight to Salt Lake City) yet they still call their airport "international" haha.

[king10]

Originally Posted by Denscity

I gotta say I'm not too upset Cranbrook is losing their team. Despite it being less than two and a half hours away from here, they've never made any effort to market their Kootenay team to the western half of the Kootenays where more people live.
They also lost their one international flight (a subsidized Delta flight to Salt Lake City) yet they still call their airport "international" haha.

Pretty sure the "International Airport" designation hinges on whether the airport has Customs/ Immigration Facilities and has the ability to handle International flights versus whether it actually has current scheduled international flights.

Kind of a weird quirk in the literal definition.

[Coldrsx]

EDMONTON’S DOWNTOWN OF 2019 IS NEARLY UNRECOGNIZABLE TO ITS DOWNTOWN OF 2011.



EDMONTON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

JANUARY 18, 2019

It started with a conversation about hockey, a popular topic in this city. With their old arena aging, Edmonton’s professional team and their ownership group were looking for a new place to play.

The idea to build a new arena venue soon spawned another, bolder vision: use the new arena as the anchor for a transformational downtown development and renewal project. This project, which came to be known as Edmonton’s ICE District, was built on-time and under budget with the participation of many levels of business and community leaders.

A mastery of public-private partnership and cooperative city building, the ICE District revitalization effort showcased one of Edmonton’s very best qualities: our city’s rare ability to work collaboratively together to accomplish big, important things in incommensurately small amounts of time.

https://www.edmonton.com/home-2/2019...alize-its-core

[FrankieFlowerpot]

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...2#post-1414349

[le calmar]

I hope they build a multi-level parkade to concentrate all the parking spots on one lot. This huge surface parking lot is a waste of prime waterfront land.

[Coldrsx]

Blah