Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[esquire]

Until I actually read up on University of Phoenix Stadium I thought the Cardinals just happened to play in some university's venue, as they did at Sun Devils Stadium.

I didn't realize that University of Phoenix was some sort of US-wide distance-education company.

Back when Winnipeg's minor league ballpark was set to open, they were going to call it "Mind Field" (geddit?) after a local computer company. But as legend has it, local political heavyweight Lloyd Axworthy, who had just spearheaded an international treaty against landmines, stepped in. In the end the naming rights went to Canwest Global instead.

[drew]

Originally Posted by esquire

Until I actually read up on University of Phoenix Stadium I thought the Cardinals just happened to play in some university's venue, as they did at Sun Devils Stadium.

I didn't realize that University of Phoenix was some sort of US-wide distance-education company.

Back when Winnipeg's minor league ballpark was set to open, they were going to call it "Mind Field" (geddit?) after a local computer company. But as legend has it, local political heavyweight Lloyd Axworthy, who had just spearheaded an international treaty against landmines, stepped in. In the end the naming rights went to Canwest Global instead.

I am pretty sure Mind went tits up before just before the ballpark opened.

[esquire]

I once attended a baseball game at Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium.

[Franco401]

The all-time worst arena/stadium names, off the top of my head:

Sleep Train Arena, Sacramento

Smoothie King Center, New Orleans

Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland

PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh (formerly one of the best possible corporate names, Consol Energy Center)

Little Cesars Arena, Detroit

O.Co Colliseum, Oakland

American Airlines Center/American Airlines Arena, Dallas/Miami (not the only duplicate, but for my money it's worse than the preponderance of Rogers/Bell/Scotiabank names because it's already a mouthful)

Bell MTS Centre, Winnipeg

The Ballpark in Arlington

Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago

Best Names

The Spectrum

Superdome

Pacific Coliseum

Maple Leaf Gardens

United Center

Anything with "Olympic"

[YEG]

Originally Posted by Franco401

The all-time worst arena/stadium names, off the top of my head:

Sleep Train Arena, Sacramento

Smoothie King Center, New Orleans

Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland

PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh (formerly one of the best possible corporate names, Consol Energy Center)

Little Cesars Arena, Detroit

O.Co Colliseum, Oakland

American Airlines Center/American Airlines Arena, Dallas/Miami (not the only duplicate, but for my money it's worse than the preponderance of Rogers/Bell/Scotiabank names because it's already a mouthful)

Bell MTS Centre, Winnipeg

The Ballpark in Arlington

Guaranteed Rate Field, Chicago

Best Names

The Spectrum

Superdome

Pacific Coliseum

Maple Leaf Gardens

United Center

Anything with "Olympic"

You missed KFC Yum! Center in Louisville

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Franco401

The all-time worst arena/stadium names, off the top of my head:

Best Names

The Spectrum

Superdome

Pacific Coliseum

Maple Leaf Gardens

United Center

Anything with "Olympic"

I would add Madison Square Garden and Molson Centre to that list.

[osmo]

I never understood "Gardens" for arena names, was a garden a meeting place way back when?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by osmo

I never understood "Gardens" for arena names, was a garden a meeting place way back when?

I wondered about that myself... is it some sort of Britishism?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

I wondered about that myself... is it some sort of Britishism?

I never understood "gardens" either, but I liked the sound of it.

Maybe the first arena named "gardens" was built on the site of a garden, and the name just stuck.

Kind of like the stadium "Stamford Bridge" which is near a bridge (or was) but not an actual bridge.

[Acajack]

Denis Coderre threw Montreal's hat into the ring for WC 2026.

He said no WC in Canada without Montréal.

Also that the US wants too many games

[FrankieFlowerpot]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Denis Coderre threw Montreal's hat into the ring for WC 2026.

He said no WC in Canada without Montréal.

Also that the US wants too many games

Well then - he should tell to the CSA to put in a solo bid for the event

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by FrankieFlowerpot

Well then - he should tell to the CSA to put in a solo bid for the event

Denis is Denis.

[jmt18325]

BellMTS Pace, actually. I don't see why that would be any worse than anything else with Bell's name on it.

[J.OT13]

The City of Ottawa has a bad habit of selling naming rights of sports facilities to a different company each year.

The Civic Centre was named as so between 1967 and 2009 before it changed 3 times in 3 years to Urbandale Centre, Rona Centre and then J. Bensen Cartage Centre before is shut down for renovations. It finally reopened as TD Place Arena as part of the naming rights for both the arena and stadium.

The baseball stadium has had that problem too.

Our NHL arena opened as the Palladium for about a month before being renamed Corel Centre, which had a nice ring to it and, was a local high-tech company. After 10 yeas, it changed to Scotiabank Place (blah!) In 2013, Canadian Tire bought the naming rights. Not great, but at least it's unique.

Little off topic, but the repetition of names is starting to be a problem with convention halls. Both Ottawa and Edmonton Convention Centres are named for "Shaw".

[TorontoDrew]

Madison Square yes, Molson no, also I would lose United Center. Any building with a brand name can't be a best named arena or stadium. Skydome was a great name that could have made the list. I wonder if Montreal got the MLB back and if they just put them in the Big O if it would get a sponsorship re-brand as well?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Madison Square yes, Molson no,

I agree. Molson was meh. As is Bell.

The Forum de Montréal or Montreal Forum was great though.

Aside from the one in Rome, it was the one and only true Forum for me.

[MonctonRad]

The most recent update from the City of Moncton:

http://www.moncton.ca/Assets/Busines...+-+aug2017.pdf

A few photos from the City of Moncton website:


Plaza in front, with stage & skating surface in foreground. You can also see the curbing for the Highfield Street extension.


Foundation for the information kiosk/cafe/skate rental space next to the stage. Events centre in the background.




Main entrance lobby.


Arena area. You can appreciate how the seating bowl is curved upward the higher you get so that the nosebleeds are closer to the ice surface than they would be in the old coliseum.


Private suites. At the end of the seating bowl, you can see where the retractable seating will be installed. This is where the staging will be erected during concerts and other performance events.


Club lounge (for private suites and premium seating ticket holders).


Concourse and concession space under the seating area.

[esquire]

^ It's so iconic that it's hard to imagine Olympic Stadium getting the full renaming... I wonder if they might opt for something closer to what Edmonton did with Commonwealth Stadium, e.g. "Taco Bell Field at Olympic Stadium" or something like that.

Then again, maybe I'm just being naively idealistic.

[TorontoDrew]

I'm with your train of thought 100% but I never thought I'd see the day the Skydome would be dropped all together for The Rogers Centre. It's taken some time but more and more people are using it's current name of it's original which is sad.

[Oilkountry]

Man Katz must feel ripped off Rogers only paid $137.81 million for 10 years for Edmonton's new barn that's less that (14M per season)

But then again Rogers Also has Rogers arena in Vancouver for 10 years (2010-2020) for 60M. (6M per season)

I know Pengrowth was paying 8m a year for the saddledome but im not sure what Scotiabank pays today

Scotiabank left the 15 year 20M deal in Ottawa (2006 to 2021) in 2013 I have no idea what Canadian tire picked it up at 10 years but i cant imagine its much more in terms of financial.

MTS (bell mts) originally purchased the naming rights in 2003. It was a 10-year deal at the time but now the deal has been extended to 2021 with the option to extend to 2030. No idea of the finiancials

Bell paid $100 million US for naming rights to bell center for 20 years 2002-2022. (5m per season)


I wonder what Canadian rinks will be looking for next go around now that toronto set such a high bar? any ideas?

-Toronto 40M per year

-Edmonton 18-20M per year

-Calgary 12-15M in the dome 20-25M in a new rink

-Winnipeg 8-10M per year

-Ottawa 8-10M per year

-Vancouver 20-25M per year

-Montreal 20-25M per year