Stadiums and Arenas of Canada part 2

[Oilkountry]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

Well said, I couldn't agree more. We have a tendency here in Canada to bash all the big stadiums and wanting to replace them by other smaller venues.

Like you said, a big stadium will always provide the opportunity for bigger profits.

And it's kind of pathetic that a country of 35M people have 4 stadiums capable of hosting 50,000+ people. Canadians need to change their mentality.

I have to disagree. This isn't the 70s and 80s anymore. HDTV's are the new age. either than the odd grey cup and a U2 concert when the heck do we need 50k+ seats in this country? We couldn't sell out commonwealth on a weekend in Canada's greatest sports city for the opener of a world cup with our own damn country playing for god sakes. 40k? yup I would agree with that. 50k Maybe 1 or 2 for big events like the WWC 60k? Absolutely not for any reason period. Their just isn't enough people who will see a live sporting event over a couch and a 60 inch TV. The blue jays could play in a 40,000 seat stadium comfortably either than their home opener. The big O doesn't even have a friggen tenant and how often do you need more than 40k seats in Montreal. The odd grey cup and a jays game once a year. Meanwhile your home CFL club plays in a university stadium hardly fit for a university team.
CWS Doesnt need 50k+ at all. Since the Oilers played there in 2003ish I can think of the 2010 grey cup ,U2 and the WWC home opener. That is the only time CWS has had 50k+ on deck that I can think of. That is not worth the atmosphere of your CFL club. BC place and rogers centre should be the only 50k+ venues in this country as they are the premiere cities in Canada. Montreal is too hit and miss to be put on a world stage. unreliable if anything. I get you older guys remember the good old days but those days are long gone in this country. If these venues were holding 50k 5 times a year I would completely agree but not for once every 2-3 years

[bikegypsy]

BC Place is simply stunning. An exemple for any stadium to be built in the future in any sizable city. Attending a game of football or soccer there looks just like an awesome experience.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Oilkountry

CWS Doesnt need 50k+ at all. Since the Oilers played there in 2003ish I can think of the 2010 grey cup ,U2 and the WWC home opener. That is the only time CWS has had 50k+ on deck that I can think of. That is not worth the atmosphere of your CFL club.

Not to pick nits, but the Eskimos have drawn 50,000+ on more than a few occasions in that timespan, including at least a couple of sellouts. So it does happen on occasion... and having been there for one of those sellouts (vs. Calgary in 2003) I can tell you the atmosphere is impressive.

[king10]

Originally Posted by Oilkountry

I'm pretty sure 80% of that 85M went to building an entirely new structure on the south side. So the molson vs north side comparison is pretty accurate. And I didn't dodge any points you made because you made none worth replying to. Further more I'm not pushing Molson's downfalls on anyone. I'm just saying if you want to complain about CFL stadia Their is 2 options far more worthy of the conversation.

And again.. I'm generalizing to the last 2 years of TD place getting trashed by a few members on this thread Not just you big fella take a breathe.

People aren't comlpaining about CFL stadiums. They're complaining about recently built/ re modeleld Cfl Stadium. Molson and McMahon weren't touted as brand new and newly renovated. McMahon is getting replaced. I'm not going to complain about a decades old stadium that is soon to be replaced. Thats like me complaining that Ivor Wynne was a shithole. Of course it was, as is McMahon and Molson, both built last century. And Molson had a $30 million "expansion" not renovation. The money went to adding an upper tier and luxury suites.

You want to deflect attention from TD place to the other poor stadiums and have us criticize them. Ok? McMahon is a dump and getting replaced. Molson once McMahon gets replaced will be the worst stadium in the CFL. Does this make you happy? This still doesn't change the fact that the north side of TD place wasn't given some TLC and freshened up when it could have been. The topic of discussion has naturally drifted to talk of TD place because it is hosting WWC. If Molson or McMahon were hosting WWC there would be pictures of them on this thread and ppl would be saying "jeeze McMahon needs to be renovated/replaced." Its only natural we talk about TD because its the only stadium in the news right now.

TD place was supposed to be branded as a brand new stadium. And for the most part it is. They cut corners on the finishings of the old stand, and thats too bad. A couple million should have been allocated to asthetic features on the north side where concrete is weathered and worn. But other than that its a pretty servicable and decent stadium.

and its "there" not "their" in that context.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Oilkountry

. BC place and rogers centre should be the only 50k+ venues in this country as they are the premiere cities in Canada. Montreal is too hit and miss to be put on a world stage. unreliable if anything. I get you older guys remember the good old days but those days are long gone in this country.

You keep denying it but it's pretty clear you have "issues" when it comes to Montreal and Quebec.

FYI just a few months ago 60,000 fans showed up for a CONCACAF game at the Big O.

And the two largest Grey Cup crowds of the 2000s were played at the Big O and drew over 65,000 each time.

The F1 Grand Prix draws about 300,000 people over three days.

The Rogers Cup tennis tournament draws 150,000. The record for the Rogers Cup in Montreal is over 200,000, which is 50,000 than the highest attendance for the same tournament in Toronto.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

He has issues with everything

[king10]

What the heck. I'm 25 and Montreal is a world class city. Its nightlife and culture is second to none.

The F1 race is one of the biggest yearly events period in Canada. The just for laughs festival, Osheaga music festival.

Ask people in Europe which cities are world class in Canada. Montreal will be on that list no doubt.

With the F1 race MTL is one of the ONLY cities in Canada that IS put on the world stage year in and year out. And it passes with flying colours. Fans and drivers praise it as one of their favourite stops on the tour.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by king10

What the heck. I'm 25 and Montreal is a world class city. Its nightlife and culture is second to none.

The F1 race is one of the biggest yearly events period in Canada. The just for laughs festival, Osheaga music festival.

Ask people in Europe which cities are world class in Canada. Montreal will be on that list no doubt.

With the F1 race MTL is one of the ONLY cities in Canada that IS put on the world stage year in and year out. And it passes with flying colours. Fans and drivers praise it as one of their favourite stops on the tour.

I use to think this and then I visited Paris... And I was humbled. Then I visited NYC and I just sat down. Then I saw Seoul and Bangkok and I started to cry like a little girl. In all seriousness, Montreal holds its own pretty well but lacks certain things for it to really be world class, but that's another subject. I'm just concerned about getting the Big O reasonable crowds (25k+) for WWC matches.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

I use to think this and then I visited Paris... And I was humbled. Then I visited NYC and I just sat down. Then I saw Seoul and Bangkok and I started to cry like a little girl. In all seriousness, Montreal holds its own pretty well but lacks certain things for it to really be world class, but that's another subject. .

By Canadian and Canada-USA standards, though?

[Chorduroy]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

I use to think this and then I visited Paris... And I was humbled. Then I visited NYC and I just sat down. Then I saw Seoul and Bangkok and I started to cry like a little girl. In all seriousness, Montreal holds its own pretty well but lacks certain things for it to really be world class, but that's another subject. I'm just concerned about getting the Big O reasonable crowds (25k+) for WWC matches.

Very unfair comparisons in my opinion. Of course New York would run circles around Montreal. It also runs circles around most cities on the planet. That doesn't mean Montreal isn't a rad place.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by Acajack

You keep denying it but it's pretty clear you have "issues" when it comes to Montreal and Quebec.

FYI just a few months ago 60,000 fans showed up for a CONCACAF game at the Big O.

And the two largest Grey Cup crowds of the 2000s were played at the Big O and drew over 65,000 each time.

The F1 Grand Prix draws about 300,000 people over three days.

The Rogers Cup tennis tournament draws 150,000. The record for the Rogers Cup in Montreal is over 200,000, which is 50,000 than the highest attendance for the same tournament in Toronto.

Montreal is the hare in the Tortoise and the Hare fable by Jean De La Fontaine. We all know it can, and it does fabulously most of the time. But once in a while it fails so miserably that it's as if it's too hot to even try, like during FINA 2005 as well as another ongoing event. It certainly is a spoiled city... Having said that, the Big O needs a bit of tweaking and it would be an awesome world class facility, on par with BC Place.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by Chorduroy

Very unfair comparisons in my opinion. Of course New York would run circles around Montreal. It also runs circles around most cities on the planet. That doesn't mean Montreal isn't a rad place.

Sure it is... But we're talking about world class night life status. It's not supposed to be fair. We could say that Trois-Rivieres or Victoria could run circles around other places... and?

[king10]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

I use to think this and then I visited Paris... And I was humbled. Then I visited NYC and I just sat down. Then I saw Seoul and Bangkok and I started to cry like a little girl. In all seriousness, Montreal holds its own pretty well but lacks certain things for it to really be world class, but that's another subject. I'm just concerned about getting the Big O reasonable crowds (25k+) for WWC matches.

You're right. Not on a level as all those other cities. But definately on par if not above Toronto and Vancouver to which the OP said MTL is not on the same level city wise.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by Acajack

By Canadian and Canada-USA standards, though?

It's one of the best.... I believe there are 6 great nightlife and cultural cities in NA and Montreal is amongst them, definitively and beats all of them in certain categories.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by bikegypsy

Montreal is the hare in the Tortoise and the Hare fable by Jean De La Fontaine. We all know it can, and it does fabulously most of the time. But once in a while it fails so miserably that it's as if it's hot to even try, like during FINA 2005 as well as another ongoing event. It certainly is a spoiled city... Having said that, the Big O needs a bit of tweaking and it would be an awesome world class facility, on par with BC Place.

I've actually said many times on here that I don't think Montreal is a very good spectator sports city. But that doesn't mean it's unworthy of hosting a variety of things, and it certainly doesn't mean it isn't one of the country's (and the continent's) premier cities.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I've actually said many times on here that I don't think Montreal is a very good spectator sports city. But that doesn't mean it's unworthy of hosting a variety of things, and it certainly doesn't mean it isn't one of the country's (and the continent's) premier cities.

Cities that have a lot of other things going on tend to be less rabid in terms of their sports support, this is totally normal. I mean, look at a city like NYC... with all the millions and millions of people, you'd think every sports event would be 100% SRO, but the reality is that other than for NFL games, you can walk up to the box office and buy tickets for most events. Now I realize that this due in part to a combination of high prices and subpar teams in some cases, but the point stands.

It tends to be the relatively smaller cities (compared to the rest of the league) that cling the hardest to their sports teams. It's the Winnipegs, Reginas, Edmontons, Oklahoma Cities, Sacramentos, San Antonios, Green Bays, those types of places where you have the season ticket waiting lists, grown men head to toe in team gear, and all that jazz.

A place like Montreal is just so big and so varied that it's unreasonable to expect people to get too excited about every sports event that passes through town. The Habs are grandfathered as one of those rare examples of a team that rises to the level of a universal cultural touchstone, but that's it.

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by king10

You're right. Not on a level as all those other cities. But definately on par if not above Toronto and Vancouver to which the OP said MTL is not on the same level city wise.

Of course it is.. and more imo. I want Canada to host the WC... I have no doubt that Montreal would act as a rock star main anchor city for this event... The Big O just needs to get rid of that disgusting black wall (if baseball comes to MTL, it will have a new purpose stadium in dt) and needs to extend the seating closer inwards somehow. Put some curtains things for smaller events like they fabulously did at BC Place and boom! It's in!

[SHOFEAR]

Originally Posted by esquire

Cities that have a lot of other things going on tend to be less rabid in terms of their sports support, this is totally normal. I mean, look at a city like NYC... with all the millions and millions of people, you'd think every sports event would be 100% SRO, but the reality is that other than for NFL games, you can walk up to the box office and buy tickets for most events. Now I realize that this due in part to a combination of high prices and subpar teams in some cases, but the point stands.

It tends to be the relatively smaller cities (compared to the rest of the league) that cling the hardest to their sports teams. It's the Winnipegs, Reginas, Edmontons, Oklahoma Cities, Sacramentos, San Antonios, Green Bays, those types of places where you have the season ticket waiting lists, grown men head to toe in team gear, and all that jazz.

A place like Montreal is just so big and so varied that it's unreasonable to expect people to get too excited about every sports event that passes through town. The Habs are grandfathered as one of those rare examples of a team that rises to the level of a universal cultural touchstone, but that's it.

Boston. Big cities can be great sports cities.

Unfortunately, many large cities being the destination of immigrants from all over the world tend to bring in their shitty third world sports and although their populations are massive those peoples ideas of sporting events are getting up at 4 in the morning to watch cricket and soccer, not participate in sports that are a cornerstone of the community.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SHOFEAR

Boston. Big cities can be great sports cities.

Unfortunately, many large cities being the destination of immigrants from all over the world tend to bring in their shitty third world sports and although their populations are massive those peoples ideas of sporting events are getting up at 4 in the morning to watch cricket and soccer, not participate in sports that are a cornerstone of the community.

So weird.

[king10]

Originally Posted by SHOFEAR

Boston. Big cities can be great sports cities.

Unfortunately, many large cities being the destination of immigrants from all over the world tend to bring in their shitty third world sports and although their populations are massive those peoples ideas of sporting events are getting up at 4 in the morning to watch cricket and soccer, not participate in sports that are a cornerstone of the community.

Come on now. Just because immigrants watch different sports doesn't mean they're "shitty and third world sports." Just because we play hockey and immigrants dont, doesn't mean its any better than cricket or what not.

Soccer isn't a third world sport, it is THE worlds sport.

In big cities there is plenty of room to support different sports.

Also Boston is a city full of immigrants so its contrary to your point. Its full of Italians and Irish who support "non third world sports" in the city.