Stadiums and Arenas of Canada part 2 - Page 447

Coldrsx · #**8921** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 1:31 AM**

Amazing dome shots.

Curve restaurant looked good today.

Molson House...soon

EpicPonyTime · #**8922** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 5:07 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Yeah... Canada basically has 3 arenas built to NHL spec that never actually housed a NHL team. Saskatchewan Place (mind you, the seating bowl was only recently completed) and Copps Coliseum in the 80s, and Centre Videotron in the 10s.

What's interesting is that two out of the three (Copps and Videotron) would have arguably been top 3 in the NHL when they opened their doors for the first time. It's a bit harder to say with SaskPlace since it wasn't really fitted out to pro standards when it first opened even though it certainly had that capability.

Sask Place was originally envisioned as an 18,000 seating NHL arena, but those plans were downsized when the Blues move fell through. It never really became close to NHL standards until this decade; it sat 9,000 when it first opened.

Dalreg · #**8923** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 7:54 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

Sask Place was originally envisioned as an 18,000 seating NHL arena, but those plans were downsized when the Blues move fell through. It never really became close to NHL standards until this decade; it sat 9,000 when it first opened.

It sat 7800 when opened. I was there on opening night.

esquire · #**8924** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 2:01 PM**

Yeah, that's why I qualified my description of SaskPlace. It wasn't quite NHL ready on day 1 the same way that Copps and Videotron were. But still, I think it's fair to describe it as a NHL arena (or at least it was, at the time it was built)... all that was really needed was for the remaining seating to be installed which I'm sure they could have done in a hurry had the situation called for it.

TorontoDrew · #**8925** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 2:36 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Amazing dome shots.

Curve restaurant looked good today.

Love the new arena except for this. It looks like a banquet hall or an airport cafeteria. Is this a sports bar, is this meant for fans/patrons at the arena? Where are the TV's? It's lacking personality, maybe it's not complete yet?

Acajack · #**8926** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 2:40 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Love the new arena except for this. It looks like a banquet hall or an airport cafeteria. Is this a sports bar, is this meant for fans/patrons at the arena? Where are the TV's? It's lacking personality, maybe it's not complete yet?

I think it looks decent as a moderately chic restaurant. Especially when you consider that it's in a hockey arena.

esquire · #**8927** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 3:08 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

Love the new arena except for this. It looks like a banquet hall or an airport cafeteria. Is this a sports bar, is this meant for fans/patrons at the arena? Where are the TV's? It's lacking personality, maybe it's not complete yet?

There are more conventional-looking sports bars in there as well. Personally I think it's kind of nice that they have one area without TVs festooned everywhere... not every place in an arena needs to look like Boston Pizza.

HomeInMyShoes · #**8928** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 4:33 PM**

^It's nice not to have TVs everywhere, but its an ugly space that would be loud and annoying. So open, so conducive to not being able to hear anyone at your table. It's not a restaurant I want to eat at. Just unappealing, although the view through the window is going to be pretty nice.

SaskScraper · #**8929** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 7:41 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

Sask Place was originally envisioned as an 18,000 seating NHL arena, but those plans were downsized when the Blues move fell through. It never really became close to NHL standards until this decade; it sat 9,000 when it first opened.

I'd only really been to the arena since having it's 95% of its 16,000 seating capacity in place. I think it started with horseshoe seating arrangment to allow for full concert capacity & it was the remaining upper level end seating that was added 7 years ago for the World Junior Hockey.

TorontoDrew · #**8930** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 8:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

There are more conventional-looking sports bars in there as well. Personally I think it's kind of nice that they have one area without TVs festooned everywhere... not every place in an arena needs to look like Boston Pizza.

It needs some art or something then. Maybe not every where needs to look like a sports bar but it would be nice if it didn't look like a reception hall at a Best Western.

esquire · #**8931** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 9:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

It needs some art or something then. Maybe not every where needs to look like a sports bar but it would be nice if it didn't look like a reception hall at a Best Western.

Tonight: Oilers vs. Blue Jackets
Tomorrow: Congratulations Mike and Jen!

Dalreg · #**8932** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 10:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaskScraper

I'd only really been to the arena since having it's 95% of its 16,000 seating capacity in place. I think it started with horseshoe seating arrangment to allow for full concert capacity & it was the remaining upper level end seating that was added 7 years ago for the World Junior Hockey.

Horseshoe with the south end open. Upper level was complete along both sides. The north end was then filled in and finally the other end has been 95% filled in.

thurmas · #**8933** Posted **Apr 4, 2017, 11:03 PM**

I look at those Skydome pics from the 80's and think the $600 million in 1989 dollars they spent was misspent. Had they built a 40,000 seat baseball specific park for the Jays and renovated Exhibition Stadium to be CFL specific only with a new grandstand closer to the field for football it probably could have all been done for under $400 million.

SaskScraper · #**8934** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 12:36 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thurmas

I look at those Skydome pics from the 80's and think the $600 million in 1989 dollars they spent was misspent. Had they built a 40,000 seat baseball specific park for the Jays and renovated Exhibition Stadium to be CFL specific only with a new grandstand closer to the field for football it probably could have all been done for under $400 million.

I thought the whole reason of having a domed stadium (in this case retractable) for both teams was to make it less inhospitable for half the year, like when the Jays start their season in April with risk of snow and also so when that Argos season could be played in the Fall with less chance of 'mud' or 'ice' or 'snow' bowl Grey Cups of the past.in Toronto.

wave46 · #**8935** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 12:49 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thurmas

I look at those Skydome pics from the 80's and think the $600 million in 1989 dollars they spent was misspent. Had they built a 40,000 seat baseball specific park for the Jays and renovated Exhibition Stadium to be CFL specific only with a new grandstand closer to the field for football it probably could have all been done for under $400 million.

The multipurpose/all-season aspect of Skydome is what sold it to the federal and provincial governments. Had it been just a MLB ballfield, it would have never obtained the support it did.

Dr Awesomesauce · #**8936** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 1:30 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thurmas

I look at those Skydome pics from the 80's and think the $600 million in 1989 dollars they spent was misspent. Had they built a 40,000 seat baseball specific park for the Jays and renovated Exhibition Stadium to be CFL specific only with a new grandstand closer to the field for football it probably could have all been done for under $400 million.

That is a wonderful sounding scenario. Quite literally, had Skydome been built a couple years later, this may have been the case as single-purpose stadiums came back into vogue (e.g. Camden Yards, Jacob's Field, etc.).

While I don't know this to be absolutely true, wave46 is probably correct that a multi-purpose, 365-day-a-year facility was a must for the provincial and federal governments.

Plans to turn Skydome into a proper 'ballpark' are in the works with specific details to come this year or next. There are a lot of things that can be done to make it a better place to play and watch baseball.

Sportsnet article
Ballpark digest article

esquire · #**8937** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 3:32 PM**

Rexall Place, ahem, Northlands Coliseum is still going strong as a major venue for at least one more season... the World Curling Championships are taking place there this week.

source:worldcurling.org

TorontoDrew · #**8938** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 3:42 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Awesomesauce

Plans to turn Skydome into a proper 'ballpark' are in the works with specific details to come this year or next. There are a lot of things that can be done to make it a better place to play and watch baseball.

Sportsnet article
Ballpark digest article

I wonder if the plans to replace the roof panels with something translucent are still in the works along with real grass. Also the exterior grounds need a good makeover. Also if they could improve crowd control of people entering the dome for games that would be great as well. It can take 20 minutes to get through security meanwhile at stadiums like Fenway Park the wait time is only about 5 minutes.

dancinb · #**8939** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 3:50 PM**

What a puny little scoreboard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

Rexall Place, ahem, Northlands Coliseum is still going strong as a major venue for at least one more season... the World Curling Championships are taking place there this week.

source:worldcurling.org

esquire · #**8940** Posted **Apr 5, 2017, 4:32 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dancinb

What a puny little scoreboard.

You may not believe this, but when it was installed in the mid 90s it was actually considered pretty impressive and quite an upgrade over the previous one that was incapable of showing replays.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot about this one in between

This is the one I was thinking of earlier: