Winnipeg | CFL Blue Bombers | Princess Auto Stadium

[chrisallard5454]

Originally Posted by UPP

Not to split hairs, but actually according to cfl.ca, you have only had 1 sellout and no other game has been within 1000 of a sellout.

Still not bad I suppose given your record. (and much better than say Calgary which is much larger but has a much better record)

I included games not yet played, which include the banjo bowl (Sold out over a week ago).

But you are right, I misread the one I thought it was 33 400 it was 32 400 so it was 1 100 short of a sell out, yet still 10 400 more than Tim Hortons field will hold...

So two sell outs (as I said) and one game that was only 1 100 short, the others only being a couple thousand short of a sell out.

Are CIS considered amateur? If so then yes we have many amateur events being held at the stadium.

[bomberjet]

Also on the amateur sports thing, is the dome still planned for the winter months? That's could be a huge thing for indoor soccer.

[trueviking]

nope...dome thing was cancelled by asper once the government money was secured....was the first thing to go....it was just a marketing ploy to make it seem like $200m investment was good for tim bits soccer.

the author of that article got the reason wrong for why we got stuck with an architect who had never designed any sport facility of any kind...he was selected by david asper....it had nothing to do with a government requirement for being local.

many of the cost overruns came because asper considered himself the client and not the bombers....after he got turfed and the building was under construction they had to go back in and make it functional for the football team...add that to the inexperience of the architect and you have huge cost overruns like he says.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by chrisallard5454

I included games not yet played, which include the banjo bowl (Sold out over a week ago).

A lesser known fact is the Bombers will give away blocks of tickets to non-profit groups to boost their attendance numbers. Considering that the Banjo Bowl game "sold out" far later than usual I am a little suspect if the remaining tickets may not have just been given away for the optitics of the situation. Either way, the announcement of the sell-out came far later this season than other years, and the same is true for the Labour Day game in Regina.

Regarding the dome on the field for winter use, I heard that was cancelled at some point early in the project. That said the venue is still home to the Rifles, the Bisons football program and I believe the Bison's Women Soccer team. Add in some high school football and the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup and there is a could piece of amaturer sport using the facility even without the dome.

[Stormer]

Originally Posted by CoryB

A lesser known fact is the Bombers will give away blocks of tickets to non-profit groups to boost their attendance numbers. Considering that the Banjo Bowl game "sold out" far later than usual I am a little suspect if the remaining tickets may not have just been given away for the optitics of the situation. Either way, the announcement of the sell-out came far later this season than other years, and the same is true for the Labour Day game in Regina.

Regarding the dome on the field for winter use, I heard that was cancelled at some point early in the project. That said the venue is still home to the Rifles, the Bisons football program and I believe the Bison's Women Soccer team. Add in some high school football and the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup and there is a could piece of amaturer sport using the facility even without the dome.

Banjo Bowl was definitely a legit sell out. Tickets were very hard to come by and were selling for multiples of face value on StubHub. I paid 3x face. There should be twice as many Rider fans as usual this year with the new stadium and the Rider record.

Regarding the LDC yes there were noticeably less Bomber fans than past years but the sell out took longer mostly because capacity is at 45,000 instead of the normal 33,000.

[bomberjet]

That's complete bullshit. My god, what a mess. That actually really disappoints me about the dome. So all winter that place will sit there empty when all the indoor soccer places are booked to capacity.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

That's complete bullshit. My god, what a mess. That actually really disappoints me about the dome. So all winter that place will sit there empty when all the indoor soccer places are booked to capacity.

This must be a simple issue of dollars and cents... I have no idea how much those bubbles cost, but it must be far more than they can make from renting the field out otherwise there would be one.

But really, the place is a pro venue first and foremost... I don't think it really matters all that much whether soccer teams get to use it in January. Is the MTS Centre booked for pee wee league hockey games on Sunday mornings?

[micheal]

Originally Posted by Stormer

Banjo Bowl was definitely a legit sell out. Tickets were very hard to come by and were selling for multiples of face value on StubHub. I paid 3x face. There should be twice as many Rider fans as usual this year with the new stadium and the Rider record.

Regarding the LDC yes there were noticeably less Bomber fans than past years but the sell out took longer mostly because capacity is at 45,000 instead of the normal 33,000.

Also some one at the labour day game in regina walked out with a $95,000 50/50 win. i've never seen an amount that high. almost $200,000 in tickets sold for that.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by esquire

This must be a simple issue of dollars and cents... I have no idea how much those bubbles cost, but it must be far more than they can make from renting the field out otherwise there would be one.

But really, the place is a pro venue first and foremost... I don't think it really matters all that much whether soccer teams get to use it in January. Is the MTS Centre booked for pee wee league hockey games on Sunday mornings?

No. But right from the get go all the public dollars were being provided with the intention the facility would be used by amateur sports. From my understanding the dome was about $1M. Seems a very small amount on what's now a $250M stadium.

Also, MTS Centre has NHL hockey 50 nights a year, high school hockey maybe 10 nights a year and numerous concerts, gatherings, etc.

[Stig]

Originally Posted by Hamilton Spectator

...inexperience in both the architect and the builder in constructing sports facilities...

Bingo! And this affects everything from design to tendering to construction and to functionality. As far as I know, modern sport stadiums tend to be built by experienced teams which often means multi-national teams so one cannot limit to local companies and friends. Or of course you can, and IGF happens.

[Cyro]

Well at least this Thread is still going strong. Can someone add, "Winnipeg's Fiasco of the Century", to the title beside New Blue Bomber Stadium. I'm sure that will add years of debate to the short comings of the stadium so we can all think and talk about it everytime a new stadium is U/C or proposed.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Cyrodill

Well at least this Thread is still going strong. Can someone add, "Winnipeg's Fiasco of the Century", to the title beside New Blue Bomber Stadium. I'm sure that will add years of debate to the short comings of the stadium so we can all think and talk about it everytime a new stadium is U/C or proposed.

Fiasco of the century, seriously?

What exactly is wrong with the stadium? The biggest complaints I've heard either don't have anything to do with the building itself (lack of accessbility by rapid transit) or are easily fixed (the press box could be enclosed in a heartbeat if need be). If we're going to write it off due to cost overruns, well... cost overruns are a fact of life with just about every building of consequence in this entire city that has gone up in the past decade, so at least IGF will be in good company.

Just about everyone I've spoken to who has attended a game there has had very positive reviews. I suppose we could have built a Hamilton econobox and saved some money, but I have to admit it's a nice feeling for Winnipeg to have the best-in-Canada of something.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by esquire

Fiasco of the century, seriously?

What exactly is wrong with the stadium? The biggest complaints I've heard either don't have anything to do with the building itself (lack of accessbility by rapid transit) or are easily fixed (the press box could be enclosed in a heartbeat if need be). If we're going to write it off due to cost overruns, well... cost overruns are a fact of life with just about every building of consequence in this entire city that has gone up in the past decade, so at least IGF will be in good company.

Just about everyone I've spoken to who has attended a game there has had very positive reviews. I suppose we could have built a Hamilton econobox and saved some money, but I have to admit it's a nice feeling for Winnipeg to have the best-in-Canada of something.

I'm with you Esquire, you misunderstood my post...I've been pro IGF from the beggining, that comment was not to be taken seriously, I bring it up becuase other's are bringing up the Hamilton Stadiums comparison above. Sarcasm was present and some times hard to detect in posts. I love our stadium. Now do you understand my post?

I Edited my post:

Originally Posted by Cyrodill
Not serious-Sarcasm in Play ---Well at least this Thread is still going strong. Can someone add, "Winnipeg's Fiasco of the Century", to the title beside New Blue Bomber Stadium. I'm sure that will add years of debate to the short comings of the stadium so we can all think and talk about it everytime a new stadium is U/C or proposed.

[esquire]

I have to admit my sarcasm detector was off on your post, cyrodill... the nitpicking over the stadium project is unwarranted IMO.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by esquire

I have to admit my sarcasm detector was off on your post, cyrodill... the nitpicking over the stadium project is unwarranted IMO.

Thx..I agree on the nitpicking as well.

I even added a profile note about it.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by CoryB

A lesser known fact is the Bombers will give away blocks of tickets to non-profit groups to boost their attendance numbers. Considering that the Banjo Bowl game "sold out" far later than usual I am a little suspect if the remaining tickets may not have just been given away for the optitics of the situation. Either way, the announcement of the sell-out came far later this season than other years, and the same is true for the Labour Day game in Regina.

Regarding the dome on the field for winter use, I heard that was cancelled at some point early in the project. That said the venue is still home to the Rifles, the Bisons football program and I believe the Bison's Women Soccer team. Add in some high school football and the upcoming FIFA Women's World Cup and there is a could piece of amaturer sport using the facility even without the dome.

The possibility of the dome still exists. They built the vents needed at field level, you could see them in the endzones before they wrapped the concrete with the gold drape. It's just one of the corners they cut to both get it done and get it done somewhere near the budget as the Bombers continually added little pieces that they thought were included in the design that weren't. Another corner cut was the plaza outside the stadium.

[CoryB]

I still maintain there is some aspect of the design that is causing significant localized cooling in the amibent temperature to occur. When it is over 30 C out that is not an issue but it will likely be a singificant issue which keeps away both the season ticket holders and walk up crowds to anything after Thanksgiving. This year though the blame on the thin crowd will be placed on the record on the field. I know from years past though season ticket holders near us would not attend the home playoff games as it was uncomfortibly cold out, now imagine if the stadium design is dropping that another 10-15 C.

[blueandgoldguy]

Originally Posted by trueviking

nope...dome thing was cancelled by asper once the government money was secured....was the first thing to go....it was just a marketing ploy to make it seem like $200m investment was good for tim bits soccer.

the author of that article got the reason wrong for why we got stuck with an architect who had never designed any sport facility of any kind...he was selected by david asper....it had nothing to do with a government requirement for being local.

many of the cost overruns came because asper considered himself the client and not the bombers....after he got turfed and the building was under construction they had to go back in and make it functional for the football team...add that to the inexperience of the architect and you have huge cost overruns like he says.

For the bolded, anyone have an idea as to how much these specific cost overruns are? And how much was Asper paid out by the government again? $400,000? Or was it more?

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

For the bolded, anyone have an idea as to how much these specific cost overruns are? And how much was Asper paid out by the government again? $400,000? Or was it more?

Asper was paid $4M. Not sure about the rest.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

For the bolded, anyone have an idea as to how much these specific cost overruns are? And how much was Asper paid out by the government again? $400,000? Or was it more?

The Bombers themselves are paying $10 million just for minor details they added in the last few months of building. I think we won't really know until the lawsuits hit the court.