New Downtown Calgary Arena

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by suburbia

You guys are really funny. Several people have highlighted facilities that have much smaller spans than the richmond oval. The richmond oval has a main open area of 220,000sf, so much larger than mcmahon's floor (which is not even 120,000 sf) and substantially larger than a 400m olympic running track. Correct, only 8,000seating as it is built, but suggesting the spans are not in the same league when at the same time others are showing mini-spans across a 200m track is really not fair. I'd rather the oval as a starting point touchstone than say that small track in Doha or the one in Birmingham, or the fugly north dakota 300m track.

Some stats about the richmond oval:
- Plan area of 270,000 sf, with a main open arena of 220,000 sf and a total floor area of more than 500,000 sf
- spans (width) are 330 ft and 660 sf long (CFL football field 330' long X 195' wide, so the richmond oval is as wide as a CFL field is long)
- it has underground parking

The one you'd want for Calgary may need to be a pinch taller and marginally wider, but not much. This is a MUCH better touchstone as a starting point than anything else I've seen here in the last day.

Gripe: There are many thoughtful and intelligent people on this forum, but often I really feel picked on, and the above is a perfect example. I'm not sure it is because all of you are 12 and lack maturity or true wisdom, or perhaps because you are older but never really felt loved and so are going to be bullies.

Hey Champ. I have stayed out of any of the child's play that surround you and your posts. I have better things to do. I think you are misunderstanding what I am trying to say, or maybe in my rush to post I have not been clear.

All I am trying to say is YES the spans are long and the area underneath those spans (floor area) is large. However, when you raise the roof of a building to accommodate the bleachers plus the necessary infrastructure and facilities (food and beverage, offices, back of house, dressing rooms, concourse) the footprint of the facility becomes becomes extremely large. This is keeping in mind that if the bleachers are to be retractable to some extent there will be no room underneath to house these kinds of services.

The only thing that i disagree with you about is the height. The roof height would have to increase significantly. I can easily kick a soccer ball in there and hit the roof. Actually did it with a volleyball while I was there (got a stern talking to as well )