New Downtown Calgary Arena

[Coldrsx]

^^we are hoping to upgrade our season tickets to the loge.

^no problem

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by ByeByeBaby

The parking is only 300 stalls under the arena, but downtown Edmonton is probably able to absorb a lot more at night once the office workers have gone home.

I remember the parking issue being a contentious discussion when Winnipeg built the MTS Centre. Mostly by people who clearly have never worked in a downtown office before. I'm pretty sure that any North American city of 500,000+ people has at LEAST 20,000 downtown workers taking cars to the office every day.

Except possibly in Calgary. Not that we'd do it, nor do we even have the land available, but I've always wondered just how many parking spots exist with a 4 or 5 block radius of some random location in the downtown core.

[SEsupporter]

Originally Posted by Innersoul1

ALBERTA PREMIER STANDS FIRM ON NO FUNDING FOR OILERS' ARENA

EDMONTON -- Alberta Premier Alison Redford has re-stated that the province will not be investing $100 million in the downtown Edmonton arena project.

Redford told reporters Thursday before the annual premier's dinner in Edmonton that her government's perspective has not changed and will not change.


http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=396223

YES to Calgary INDOOR STADIUM - NO to new flames arena
Hopefully they use N.E. LRT MaxBell station Firestone site still for a new Indoor year round multipurpose stadium desperately needed (Mcmahan built in early 60's) for concerts , football, soccer, baseball, track&field etc to coshare with Calgary recreation instead of spending $600 million to just renovate/redo Glenmore and Foothills Park. Saddledome is still good for hockey (built in mid 80's). We are possibly entering a recession and Mr. Ken K and the flames perhaps should be happy with the convenient, comfortable saddledome for several years yet. They wont be getting my taxpayer money for a new flames arena but they will for a new much needed INDOOR stadium.

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by SEsupporter

YES to Calgary INDOOR STADIUM - NO to new flames arena
Hopefully they use N.E. LRT MaxBell station Firestone site still for a new Indoor year round multipurpose stadium desperately needed (Mcmahan built in early 60's) for concerts , football, soccer, baseball, track&field etc to coshare with Calgary recreation instead of spending $600 million to just renovate/redo Glenmore and Foothills Park. Saddledome is still good for hockey (built in mid 80's). We are possibly entering a recession and Mr. Ken K and the flames perhaps should be happy with the convenient, comfortable saddledome for several years yet. They wont be getting my taxpayer money for a new flames arena but they will for a new much needed INDOOR stadium.

Hate to break it to you, but the government (any level) will get your tax money for whatever they want.

Your view that the Saddledome is still an adequate facility for the Flames and Co. is not correct. If anything it now limits how much money they can make (unless they continue to 🞵🞵🞵🞵 hard and things go downhill), and I am not even speaking of concerts and other events that skip Calgary because of the design limitations of the Saddledome. You need to look beyond just the hockey use.

[SEsupporter]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Hate to break it to you, but the government (any level) will get your tax money for whatever they want.

Your view that the Saddledome is still an adequate facility for the Flames and Co. is not correct. If anything it now limits how much money they can make (unless they continue to 🞵🞵🞵🞵 hard and things go downhill), and I am not even speaking of concerts and other events that skip Calgary because of the design limitations of the Saddledome. You need to look beyond just the hockey use.

My viewpoint is a new indoor stadium WILL draw the concerts and draw more sports teams,tradeshows etc.. that skip Calgary. We dont need the saddledome for concerts. Keep the dome just for the flames, hitmen and roughnecks. Mr K and the flames may just have to forego extreme corporate target market greediness and the parking revenue during tough times and give average calgarians a chance to attend events.. The average Calgarian can't afford a game as it is now with parking and food prices etc.. Imagine the costs at a new hockey arena when they have access to all revenue. Yes if I had a choice for tax money to an indoor stadium but no if a choice for a new hockey arena.

[You Need A Thneed]

Originally Posted by SEsupporter

My viewpoint is a new indoor stadium WILL draw the concerts and draw more sports teams,tradeshows etc.. that skip Calgary. We dont need the saddledome for concerts. Keep the dome just for the flames, hitmen and roughnecks. Mr K and the flames may just have to forego extreme corporate target market greediness and the parking revenue during tough times and give average calgarians a chance to attend events.. The average Calgarian can't afford a game as it is now with parking and food prices etc.. Imagine the costs at a new hockey arena when they have access to all revenue. Yes if I had a choice for tax money to an indoor stadium but no if a choice for a new hockey arena.

You would support an indoor stadium that would get used 20 times a year, but not a arena that would get used 150-200 times a year?

[Dale]

Should we now expect the Flames to upgrade the Saddledome to tide things over ?

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by SEsupporter

My viewpoint is a new indoor stadium WILL draw the concerts and draw more sports teams,tradeshows etc.. that skip Calgary. We dont need the saddledome for concerts. Keep the dome just for the flames, hitmen and roughnecks. Mr K and the flames may just have to forego extreme corporate target market greediness and the parking revenue during tough times and give average calgarians a chance to attend events.. The average Calgarian can't afford a game as it is now with parking and food prices etc.. Imagine the costs at a new hockey arena when they have access to all revenue. Yes if I had a choice for tax money to an indoor stadium but no if a choice for a new hockey arena.

Odd that you think the average Calgarian will be able to afford to partake in your pipe-dream of a multi-purpose indoor stadium.

[TallBob]

I'll take something that will have 150-200 venues (events) a year anytime! Also, convention center expansion. I mentioned a couple days ago, Winnipeg is going to double the size of their convention facility.

[93JC]

Originally Posted by SEsupporter

Hopefully they use N.E. LRT MaxBell station Firestone site still for a new Indoor year round multipurpose stadium desperately needed (Mcmahan built in early 60's) for concerts , football, soccer, baseball, track&field etc to coshare with Calgary recreation instead of spending $600 million to just renovate/redo Glenmore and Foothills Park.

No. Just, no.

Not necessarily no to a new stadium, but football AND soccer AND baseball AND a track? Awful, awful idea.

50 years of experience has taught us baseball and football shouldn't be played on the same field. The only big stadiums in North America that still support both baseball and football are the Rogers Centre in Toronto and O.co Coliseum in Oakland (and by extension Candlestick Park in San Francisco, built as a baseball stadium but now home only to the 49ers). These facilities are compromised in every way: sightlines from the spectator areas, quality and dimensions of the fields, etc.

FIFA frowns on indoor, artificial turf fields for anything more than recreational soccer games. There are only a handful in North America approved by FIFA; I think the only one in Canada is BC Place.

The running track would interfere with the football field and would have to be removed entirely to accommodate baseball. Not to mention it pushes the spectators further away from soccer and football fields.

Finally there is an enormous disparity in numbers of spectators between the sports. A 35,000+ seat stadium for the Stampeders is monstrously oversized for amateur baseball, soccer and track & field events in Calgary...

[polishavenger]

I agree that some of these uses are absolutely not compatible and should not be in the same space, but they can be adjacent to a main building that houses the football field. If you employ retracting bleachers, the track component could be on the football field, but that may be cost prohibitive.

Originally Posted by 93JC

No. Just, no.

Not necessarily no to a new stadium, but football AND soccer AND baseball AND a track? Awful, awful idea.

50 years of experience has taught us baseball and football shouldn't be played on the same field. The only big stadiums in North America that still support both baseball and football are the Rogers Centre in Toronto and O.co Coliseum in Oakland (and by extension Candlestick Park in San Francisco, built as a baseball stadium but now home only to the 49ers). These facilities are compromised in every way: sightlines from the spectator areas, quality and dimensions of the fields, etc.

FIFA frowns on indoor, artificial turf fields for anything more than recreational soccer games. There are only a handful in North America approved by FIFA; I think the only one in Canada is BC Place.

The running track would interfere with the football field and would have to be removed entirely to accommodate baseball. Not to mention it pushes the spectators further away from soccer and football fields.

Finally there is an enormous disparity in numbers of spectators between the sports. A 35,000+ seat stadium for the Stampeders is monstrously oversized for amateur baseball, soccer and track & field events in Calgary...

[RiverRat]

I think the most logical thing to do is to build two separate venues for Hockey and Football in the East Village/Victoria Park area.

The Flames want the Saddledome to be demolished if they build a new stadium, and it makes a lot of sense to partner with the Stampede to replace the dome with some type of an outdoor venue, as it is a natural fit for Stampede use.

Also, putting all of this stuff together in the city will create a critical mass that will support a year round hotel, convention, and entertainment district.

[patm]

Any word from the Flames on arena progress? I mean, if the lease expires in 2014 you would think they would have broken ground by now. Do they expect to build this in under 2 years? We haven't heard any information on anything... Funding, Renders, Location?

Also what do you think the CSA's intention is for Calgary and their bid for the 2026 world cup?

[Doug]

I wouldn't want a football stadium in the inner city. Save for a few hours on a few days per year, it would be a dead zone.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by patm

Any word from the Flames on arena progress? I mean, if the lease expires in 2014 you would think they would have broken ground by now. Do they expect to build this in under 2 years? We haven't heard any information on anything... Funding, Renders, Location?

I'm sure they will just negotiate a lease in the Dome for a few more years. No clue about the new barn though, the Flames are keeping pretty quiet on it, probably waiting to see how everything is worked out in Edmonton.

[suburbia]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

I'm sure they will just negotiate a lease in the Dome for a few more years. No clue about the new barn though, the Flames are keeping pretty quiet on it, probably waiting to see how everything is worked out in Edmonton.

I wonder if it is linked to the convention centre discussions?

[monocle]

Originally Posted by suburbia

I wonder if it is linked to the convention centre discussions?

That's my completely uninformed guess/hope.

Lots of land in Vic Park around the CT bus barns/across from Fort Calgary to fit them in.

Pros
Keeps the rink central
Still close to LRT (esp. SE LRT?)
Chance to build on new entertainment district
Lots of interesting near-by development happening

Cons
?

[MichaelS]

^ Cons may be that Remington has other big plans for that land, with Station Lands development. However, they don't appear to be moving soon on it, and may welcome the addition of a big tenant/development like that.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Doug

I wouldn't want a football stadium in the inner city. Save for a few hours on a few days per year, it would be a dead zone.

It would be a dead zone anywhere. I think it would be good to have it in an area surrounded by a entertainment/retail district. At least then the area around it would still have activity and during events it'll be buzzing before, during, and after the event.

[93JC]

"Entertainment/retail districts" built around big stadiums tend to be dead when there aren't any events going on in the stadium.

See for example the Westgate City Center in Glendale, Arizona, built around the arena for the Coyotes and football stadium for the Cardinals. It's an enormous white elephant that, outside of Cardinals home games, is almost totally dead.

Granted it's in the middle of nowhere in suburban Phoenix and would be akin to building the Saddledome and McMahon's replacements in Langdon, which is probably not going to happen here... Still, it sounds like a great idea to surround a stadium with retail and 'entertainment' businesses but in practice it hasn't panned out in many cities.


Frankly I think the best location for a new hockey arena would be right about where the Big Four building is right now. It solves pretty much everything that is wrong with the Saddledome's location: the 500 m march (mostly outside!) from Victoria Park station. It would be fantastic if the C-train station could be better integrated with the building, and if 17th Ave SE punches through Macleod Trail and onto the Stampede grounds.

Building the new arena somewhere in the vicinity of 10-12th Ave SE somewhere along 4th St isn't any better than what we have now; in fact it exacerbates the crappy C-train access. The NE "Firepark" location up by Max Bell Arena is awful by comparison.



The Firepark site is also no better than the site McMahon currently sits on. In fact if I were to build a new football stadium I'd probably put it right where McMahon is now. There's going to be a football stadium there for the Dinos anyway, no matter whether the Stampeders play there or not. Might as well make it suitable for the Stampeders too.

It would have been better if the C-train station was built on the west side of Crowchild, nearer the stadium (and University station built in the middle of the U of C campus instead of the middle of Crowchild), but the ship sailed on that in the late 1970s...