Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I believe there were seats behind the outfield fence in the main grandstand that were further from the fence, than the fence was from home plate.

Though those tickets were rarely sold.

As I recall, that entire grandstand was general admission, no assigned seats (other than the playoffs). We went during the CNE in 1987, the year that Bell won the MVP and was battling rookie Mark McGwire for the home run title. We sat in the second to last section from the far end. The game was a rumour at that point lol. It was so far that McGwire was rounding second before the crack of the bat on his home run reached us lol. It was great leaving after the game though, walk down to bottom onto the ground and out into the midway.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by esquire

I checked it out when I was in Victoria earlier this year. I was impressed, it's a nice, cozy little venue. At the moment it feels seriously weird due to the lack of an opposite stand and the hydro lines on the other side, that layout kind of kills the professional vibe of the place, but once that's fixed this will be among the best small stadiums in Canada. The surroundings help give it some real west coast flavour too, which is nice.

I believe the hydro lines will be moved this coming off-season so the team can do more with that side but I don't think much can be done for a stand.

The new end stand is photogenic, at least:

[Maldive]

I went to a bunch of games when I moved into my first Toronto apartment in Parkdale a block from the Dufferin Gate (5 minute walk to a game).

Disagree that the Grandstand seats rarely sold... always hundreds of penny-poor Jays fans there and when Yankees were in town... a couple of thousand (probably half from Buffalo/Niagara Falls NY).

These were a important accessory for bird watching.


Link

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by thurmas

I know stade saputo in Montreal was originally planned to go on the site of the old autostade site on the expo 67 grounds but at the last minute changed their minds and moved it to olympic park which i never understood

They were offered free land to build the stadium by the Olympic Installations Board which Saputo gladly accepted.

[WhipperSnapper]

You have to consider the times when Skydome was built too. This was the peak of Trump era. Costs be damned. Construction being well behind schedule was more detrimental than spending another $200 million to get it done. My buddy's father worked on the Skydome. Being a kid, I have no clue how much he made in 1989 working 7 days a week and paid triple overtime (that's coming from his contracting firm) but, the family got a bunch of toys afterwards.

I think people are forgetting that the dome was 25 years old when it was sold to Rogers. That's when things reach end of life. The Blue Jays were by far the number one revenue generator. You have to consider threats of leaving eventhough you doubt they are being serious. The Skydome wasn't profitable and the province is still earning off Skydome.

[esquire]

^ I recall at one point around 1999 or 2000, the Blue Jays were even threatening to go back to Exhibition Stadium...

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

You have to consider the times when Skydome was built too. This was the peak of Trump era. Costs be damned. Construction being well behind schedule was more detrimental than spending another $200 million to get it done. My buddy's father worked on the Skydome. Being a kid, I have no clue how much he made in 1989 working 7 days a week and paid triple overtime (that's coming from his contracting firm) but, the family got a bunch of toys afterwards.

I think people are forgetting that the dome was 25 years old when it was sold to Rogers. That's when things reach end of life. The Blue Jays were by far the number one revenue generator. You have to consider threats of leaving eventhough you doubt they are being serious. The Skydome wasn't profitable and the province is still earning off Skydome.

Rogers has owned the Skydome for longer than the last 8 years. I think it was about 15 years old, answer is probably up this thread a little ways.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I recall at one point around 1999 or 2000, the Blue Jays were even threatening to go back to Exhibition Stadium...

Yes leading up to the 10 year renewal of their lease, they threatened to go back to the Ex, which as I recall, didn't have many seats still in the place lol.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Yes leading up to the 10 year renewal of their lease, they threatened to go back to the Ex, which as I recall, didn't have many seats still in the place lol.

I specifically remember it because it was around that time that the old Winnipeg (AKA CanadInns) Stadium swapped out benches for individual seats, and the Blue Jays had contacted Winnipeg Enterprises about buying all the old benches so they could install them at Exhibition Stadium and play there instead... that would have been something.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

the Blue Jays had contacted Winnipeg Enterprises about buying all the old benches so they could install them at Exhibition Stadium and play there instead... that would have been something.

Holy Sanford and Son, Batman, that would have been ghetto

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

Rogers has owned the Skydome for longer than the last 8 years. I think it was about 15 years old, answer is probably up this thread a little ways.

Yeah, my math failed. 15 years is no spring chicken either. My feelings are that people have to believe Rogers picked it up for a song in part to the long deferred renovations into a permanent baseball configuration. This will go away in a few years. It would be even worst than it is now if the province balked at the price offered by Rogers and certainly much much worse a few years from now.

I did go to Monster Jam once and it was awesome. Vanier Cup was okay. They got and confiscated everything. My team got blown out too. Using the stadium for the autoshow was just a weird arrangement.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by esquire

I specifically remember it because it was around that time that the old Winnipeg (AKA CanadInns) Stadium swapped out benches for individual seats, and the Blue Jays had contacted Winnipeg Enterprises about buying all the old benches so they could install them at Exhibition Stadium and play there instead... that would have been something.

A frankenstadium swaparooney now that would be epic

[esquire]

^ It was just a bluff by the Jays but I would have loved to see it.

[Echoes]

Location of potential downtown Saskatoon arena district narrowed to 2 sites
Consultants say Midtown Plaza parking lot is 'highest scoring site': city

CBC News · Posted: Aug 24, 2022 4:30 PM CT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

The Midtown Plaza's north parking lot and the undeveloped north downtown area near the city yards are in the running to be the location of Saskatoon's proposed new Downtown Event and Entertainment District, which would include a new arena.

In a news release Wednesday, the City of Saskatoon said council will be presented a report on Monday that includes a detailed technical study of potential locations for the arena.

Saskatoon has been mulling over the prospect of a downtown arena and entertainment district since 2018, when council decided a replacement to SaskTel Centre and TCU Place should be built in the city's downtown.

Many other potential sites have been floated, including the Toys "R" Us parking lot south of Midtown Plaza and a parking lot near the Farmers' Market in Riversdale.

"Sites determined to be too small were eliminated from further consideration," the release said.

Proponents of the district hope the project will be similar to Edmonton's ICE District, home of the Rogers Place arena.

Consultants have found that the Midtown location has the "highest scoring site" based on the technical criteria, according to the release.

If council approves the plan to consider the two sites, public engagement will take place from Aug. 30 to Oct. 3.

Mayor Charlie Clark and other officials will provide more details at a news conference at 4:30 p.m. CST.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon...a-district-narrowed-to-2-sites-1.6561190

[thurmas]

personally would prefer if Stoon goes with 10 k for seating as that is more than adequate for most concerts brier world juniors and whl needs. knowing stoon though they will likely go big and build a nhl sized arena even though that is not necessary.

[river]

Saskatoon's existing arena has a capacity of 15k. To me, it would be hard to justify a reduction of seating with a new build because of that.

I feel 10k would be fitting for the city at its current size, but if the city feels strongly about its growth to the 500k in the next 20 years, then to me it would make more sense to build something the city could grow into compared to making another mistake like the original arena at the cities edge.

[thurmas]

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-mayor-mccallum-build-60k-sports-stadium

Surrey mayor says he's going to build Canada's largest stadium

Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum not only wants to build a brand new stadium in Surrey, but he also wants to build the biggest damn stadium in all of Canada.

he question is, why?

He said it with a straight face, so we’ll assume McCallum was serious about an outrageous plan to build a new 60,000-seat stadium for “all sports.”

“Part of our commitments that we’re going to say as part of our Safe Surrey Coalition is we are going to build a 60,000-person arena in Surrey,” McCallum told reporters from Cloverdale at the site of a new sports complex that broke ground today.

“It will be a multi-use arena for all sports. The city is a very big city; it’ll be bigger than Vancouver in four or five years. We need a sports stadium. We’re going to build a sports stadium in the next few years.”



The next Surrey municipal election is on October 15.

BC Place is currently the largest stadium in British Columbia, with 54,500 seats. Its massive size has generally been viewed as a negative locally though, given that its main tenants, the Vancouver Whitecaps and BC Lions, rarely use the upper bowl.

Fans and media have played with the idea of the Lions one day moving to Surrey over the years, but a 60,000-seat stadium would be approximately double the appropriate capacity for any local team.

[thurmas]

I can see Surrey doing this to land the lions and whitecaps but needs to only be 25 to 30k and expandable to bigger sizer only for grey cups ect..

[esquire]

^ I admire the ambition, but it's kind of like with Saskatoon and its arena, a huge facility in Surrey is a bit of a waste because which team would need that many seats? Unless the teams go back to the 1970s pricing model of pricing seats to sell vs. the modern approach of trying to squeeze every last penny you can out of the fans.

Would the Lions and Whitecaps even necessarily be interested in moving?

[logan5]

This is a guy who made up a story about a woman running over his foot. He has no intention of even attempting to get a stadium built. Pure con artistry.