New Downtown Calgary Arena

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Innersoul1

McMahon really has me worried and so much hinges on this stadium. Not only will it be home to the Stampeders but it will be our major outdoor venue to host a multitude of other sports like soccer and rugby. I won't be making friends with this comment but I absolutely deplore the new Mosaic Stadium. It's big, but it just looks so awkward and disjointed.

In our new stadium we have the ability to build something wonderful and functional. I think that not sharing the space with a field house is the best thing to happen.

Watching the Euros I was reminded how many of the stadia being used were also used for World Cup 1998 when France hosted. Toulouse's stadium municipal is a great example of a simple yet graceful stadium with a capacity of 33,000:

This is a good comment. I agree re: the awkwardness and disjointedness of the newer stadiums. I honestly don't get why a 30, 35 thousand seat stadium even needs an upper deck... just make it a nice single bowl and be done with it. Much more elegant.

[speedog]

Time for a separate McMahon thread or is there an old one that could be resurrected?

[People.talking]

Originally Posted by speedog

or is there an old one that could be resurrected?

Not that I know of.

[jeffwhit]

Of some pertinence to this discussion, I'm sure.

Councillors to discuss Calgary 2026 Olympic bid

A local group has been working for months to drum up support to bring the Winter Olympics back to Calgary, and will present councillors with a proposal on Monday.

With a looming deadline to submit an expression of interest to the Canadian Olympic Committee by the end of June, Monday’s meeting will mark the early steps in a possible bid for the Games, according to a Postmedia source.

“They need council support to be considered as the Canadian bid by the Canadian Olympic Committee,” the source said.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/councillors-to-discuss-calgary-2026-olympic-bid

[Coldrsx]

Classy second place comments Ken.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/b...-the-prospect-doesnt-guarantee-new-arena

[googspecial]

Not sure if this has been posted here before - but there is a project similar to CalgaryNEXT under construction right now in Moscow. Albeit a bit smaller than what we would likely require, it is interesting to see this concept (save the field house) actually happening elsewhere.

VTB Arena

http://en.vtb-arena.com/objects/sport-complex

The total capacity of Dynamo Central stadium is 26 319 seats. The Arena has 3 configurations: hockey configuration with 11 488 seats, basketball configuration – 12 770 seats, concert configuration– 14 000 seats and this process takes only a few hours. In terms of technical equipment this venue will be the most cutting-edge concert stage in Moscow. The project team has examined all known technical riders of modern world shows that can hardly be implemented presently at Moscow stadiums, and taking the international experience into account, has formulated respective technical requirements for reconstruction of the historical Dynamo Stadium.

Skyscrapercity page for the arena

[technomad]

wow, that's a great looking complex, about 1000x better than the Next proposal

a clone would actually fit perfectly in WV beside the LRT station, but I still think it would be better located on the railtown lands

[CalgaryAlex]

Originally Posted by technomad

wow, that's a great looking complex, about 1000x better than the Next proposal

a clone would actually fit perfectly in WV beside the LRT station, but I still think it would be better located on the railtown lands

A bunch of people keep mentioning Railtown, and have for years. But has Remington ever commented on this possibility?

Personally, I'd much rather the new arena go on the Stampede grounds to replace a bunch of the dead space there. Remington put together a pretty decent plan for mixed-use development which would be a much better use of land as a 3-way transition from East Village-Vic Park-Inglewood/Ramsay. There is no chance of there being a similar mixed-use development on Stampede lands. So why place an arena on lands which could be used for much greater purposes?

Someone refresh my memory - the youth campus development goes to 5 St SE, correct? An arena could be built between Olympic Way/5 St/12th Ave/14th Ave and be nearly equidistant from both the Green Line at 4 St and Red Line at Victoria Park.

[MalcolmTucker]

So basically here? Both circles have a 86m radius, which is the max radius of the Sprint Centre.



Youth campus is just to the east:

http://ramsaycalgary.ca/site-archive/civic/2009_dec_Stampede_masterplan.pdf

[technomad]

Originally Posted by CalgaryAlex

A bunch of people keep mentioning Railtown, and have for years. But has Remington ever commented on this possibility?

Personally, I'd much rather the new arena go on the Stampede grounds to replace a bunch of the dead space there. Remington put together a pretty decent plan for mixed-use development which would be a much better use of land as a 3-way transition from East Village-Vic Park-Inglewood/Ramsay. There is no chance of there being a similar mixed-use development on Stampede lands. So why place an arena on lands which could be used for much greater purposes?

Someone refresh my memory - the youth campus development goes to 5 St SE, correct? An arena could be built between Olympic Way/5 St/12th Ave/14th Ave and be nearly equidistant from both the Green Line at 4 St and Red Line at Victoria Park.

I figure everything is for sale at the right price... and they could make a quick easy buck flipping the land, rather than a more drawn out return from developing it over what could be many many years with the slump..

I also see the track-side lots better used for non-residential, and a sport complex there would be another way to disappear a few blocks of tracks all at once. of course there's no reason a sport complex there couldn't still be mixed use, think what Vancouver is doing around theirs right now

If it was arena only, north stampede grounds would do, but there isn't enough room to get the efficiencies of a combined complex in there. besides, latest stampede expansion plans looked pretty good, and I'm sure the olympics would be enough motivation for them to complete them

Railtown is also closer to all three train lines than any other location, and if the city or any other level of government is going to contribute to this, it should go where it has the best access for the whole city

[CalgaryAlex]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

So basically here? Both circles have a 86m radius, which is the max radius of the Sprint Centre.



Youth campus is just to the east:

http://ramsaycalgary.ca/site-archive/civic/2009_dec_Stampede_masterplan.pdf

I can't view imgur images at work, but I am imagining a perfectly drawn circle here

[CalgaryAlex]

Originally Posted by technomad

I figure everything is for sale at the right price... and they could make a quick easy buck flipping the land, rather than a more drawn out return from developing it over what could be many many years with the slump..

I also see the track-side lots better used for non-residential, and a sport complex there would be another way to disappear a few blocks of tracks all at once. of course there's no reason a sport complex there couldn't still be mixed use, think what Vancouver is doing around theirs right now

If it was arena only, north stampede grounds would do, but there isn't enough room to get the efficiencies of a combined complex in there. besides, latest stampede expansion plans looked pretty good, and I'm sure the olympics would be enough motivation for them to complete them

Railtown is also closer to all three train lines than any other location, and if the city or any other level of government is going to contribute to this, it should go where it has the best access for the whole city

Ok, but putting an arena in Railtown comes at what cost to the fabric of the city? I'd rather fill up land that would be otherwise developed in a disastrous way by the incompetent Stampede board than land that could be developed slowly but intelligently by Remington.

[technomad]

Originally Posted by CalgaryAlex

Ok, but putting an arena in Railtown comes at what cost to the fabric of the city? I'd rather fill up land that would be developed in a disastrous way by the incompetent Stampede board than land that could be developed slowly but intelligently by Remington.

Don't see how this would impact the city for better or worse any differently than WV? Except that WV lands are known can of worms, and their current state is less destitute than the higher visibility blankness of railtown

how could it improve the fabric of the city there? there's no reason a sports complex couldn't have CRUs fronting the south side of 9th av, or residential uses closer to the elbow river. I'd even like to see a pedestrian crossing from the complex over 9th right into fort Calgary, something like the animal crossings in Banff, but for humans

any project has equal opportunity to improve or destroy the local fabric, it's all in execution... perhaps stampede's execution will improve with their new ties with CMLC?

[outoftheice]

Not too sure how to post an image from a tweet but if you follow the link below you'll see a new image from Ken King's presentation to Council of CalgaryNext that shows a much better treatment of the area along the Bow River. That being said Bow Trail seems to have been magically removed from the rendering.

https://twitter.com/CBCFletch/status/747480946279067648

If the Flames are serious about creating a new park and Riverwalk style pathway between the complex and the Bow River I would be much more likely to support the proposal as ibfelt this was always one important aspect of the West Village Redevelopment Plan that CalgaryNext completely ignored.

[Calgarian]

New render looks a bit better and it looks like the design has improved a bit as well.

[O-tacular]

It still looks like a giant blob to me. The riverside treatment looks better but how real are these plans? I wouldn't put anything past KK and gang in their quest to push for one facility.

[googspecial]

Batch of new photos from Herald - not too great quality...

Photos: New renderings of proposed CalgaryNext arena project

This Tweet is of better quality. Wasn't sure how to pull the img url from it...


Nice to see they've drawn in a Bow Trail Tunnel under the project... If the Crowchild Tunnel Concept goes ahead we'll soon have tunnels everywhere!!

[outoftheice]

Some more updated renderings from the Herald website that shows that yes indeed, Bow Trail has been magically taken away. I don't think the numbers the Flames are throwing around today though have changed much so the question becomes "Have they factored the Bow Trail realignment into their cost estimates?"

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/live-ken-king-presenting-on-calgarynext-at-city-council

[CrossedTheTracks]

Originally Posted by outoftheice

Some more updated renderings from the Herald website that shows that yes indeed, Bow Trail has been magically taken away.

The 2nd-last rendering in your post shows westbound Bow Trail disappearing into a tunnel portal just east of the complex, and seemingly re-emerging just west of it, heading in a south-westerly direction at that point.

Tunnels are cheap, right?

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by outoftheice

Some more updated renderings from the Herald website that shows that yes indeed, Bow Trail has been magically taken away. I don't think the numbers the Flames are throwing around today though have changed much so the question becomes "Have they factored the Bow Trail realignment into their cost estimates?"

Their argument will be that "It would have to happen anyway".