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Originally Posted by OldDartmouthMark
That's a really interesting idea, Keith. Talk about thinking outside of the box!
Would be interesting if somebody in the field (pardon the pun) could do a feasibility study on it. I think it would be a great location for a stadium, though you'd have to figure out some way to keep people from watching for free from Citadel Hill!  |
Outside the box thinking is always welcome. But I’d flip the box over and point out there’s lots of room at Shannon Park for both a new arena and a stadium. And for an arena, a stadium and new civic auditorium. And a new art gallery. And even that perennial —, an east coast aquarium.
There is room at Shannon Park for all of these things if we were looking at the space for what it is, an extremely rare opportunity for a cultural and recreational hub in the heart of the city.
The model exists in Seattle, where Seattle Centre is an oasis of parkland that includes a 17,000 seat arena, a 12,000 seat stadium, at least six theatres, an opera house, a science centre, multiple museums and galleries, an amphitheater, exhibition space and numerous other attractions. It occupies 74 acres — less than Shannon Park — and is the heart of the city’s vibrant uptown neighbourhood.
Before anyone has a heart attack, it’s also developed over 56 years, not overnight. (The land had been the site of the 1962 Worlds Fair, when Seattle’s population was about 1.4 million.) But to my mind it’s a symbol of what could be accomplished with some real out of the box thinking about what the Shannon lands really represent to this city.
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