Investors Group Field | Winnipeg

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by viperred88

I say do it right and build it by point higgins and waterfront

It could never happen at Higgins and Waterfront, it's too time consuming and expensive to individually acquire a hundred different pieces of property and level it all for a stadium. Never mind what would be needed for parking.

I'm not crazy about the Canada Packers site, or Red River Exhibition park. However, in both cases there is a wide swath of land that has already been cleared and is ready for immeadiate construction.

The benefit to this is a developer deals with only a single property owner instead of two dozen.

[trueviking]

a football stadium anywhere downtown would kill everything around it...anywhere near a sensitve neighbourhood like the exchange would be a disaster.

a football stadium is not a tool of downtown revitalization...it is way too high impact and out of scale....they are black holes for pedestrian environments and their use is so low frequency, but high volume that they damage any urban environment that they are in....this lesson has been learned over and over.

central, but not downown is best...it would be a true catalyst for an area with huge potential that needs a high impact development to fix it, like canada packers...sure it is terrible today, but that's what makes it a good location...the stadium would have significant effect on the nature of future development and it would make existing development have to improve itself.

if you want it to be a catalyst, put it somewhere that it can help...where the scale is appropriate.

[Only The Lonely..]

I can't really think of an NFL or CFL stadium that is downtown for that matter, save for maybe Skydome or BC Place.

I think it's funny how baseball can thrive in an urban environent be it the Yankee's stadium in the Bronx, Fenway in inner city Boston, or the Goldeyes here in downtown Winnipeg.

Yet, football struggles as an urbanist game.

In the case of football, both the NY Jets and NY Giants play in suburban New Jersey.

I suppose football is a game that is best played in the suburbs, go Red River Ex site!

[Biff]

Baseball plays 82 home games not including preseason and playoffs, football plays 8. Thats why baseball can thrive in urban environments.

[Only The Lonely..]

Originally Posted by Biff

Baseball plays 82 home games not including preseason and playoffs, football plays 8. Thats why baseball can thrive in urban environments.

I've read in the New York forums that it's the tail-gate parties / car culture of football that doesn't lend itself well to urban environments. I think I tend to agree with this assessment.

[drew]

Tue, April 3, 2007
Canad Corp. buys former Canada Packers site

By TAMARA KING

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers might one day be calling St. Boniface home.

Councillors on City Hall’s property committee have agreed to sell the former Canada Packers factory site for $1 million to the Canad Corp. and Riel Enterprises Corp., Winnipeg city councillor Dan Vandal confirmed following a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning.

“I think it’s an incredible opportunity for St. Boniface and the whole east side of Winnipeg,” said Vandal (St. Boniface).

The hotel chain and the St. Boniface-area booster agency have teamed up on a development plan that includes a stadium for the CFL franchise. Their concept calls for a 200-room Canad Inn hotel, water park, health centre, retail-restaurant complex and some form of indoor sports and recreation facility at the so-called Public Markets, south of Marion Street and east of Archibald Street.

The Bomber’s board is currently considering three different proposals for the team, including one from media magnate David Asper. The CanWest Global executive wants to build a $145-million retail and stadium complex at the current Canad Inns Stadium site.

It hasn’t been made clear if the Riel/Canad Corp.’s pitch for the St. Boniface site would go ahead without the football stadium.

Read more in tomorrow's Winnipeg Sun.

[SmileyBoy]

Originally Posted by Only The Lonely..

I've read in the New York forums that it's the tail-gate parties / car culture of football that doesn't lend itself well to urban environments. I think I tend to agree with this assessment.

BINGO BANGO, That is 100% KEEEERECT!!!

As a lifelong Vikings and NFL fan, and as a stadium enthusiast, I know this to be a fact.

[Geebrr]

Originally Posted by newflyer

It all has to due with revenue generation. A CFL stadium needs to be able to generate 6 million a year to break even. The current stadium can not do that .. without a Grey Cup.

The ability to offer fans comfort with expanded services is seen as a nessecity by the Winnipeg Football Club.

McMann Stadium is a great deal better than Winnipeg as far as comfort and concesions. The number of luxury boxes and upperend seating also makes this stadium a bigger revenue generator. Add the shared useage with the University and it cuts the expenses of it maintainace... while making it more attractive to sponors and some vendors.

McMahon is the most uncomfortable stadium I have ever been in.

[Brokenhead]

It's said that the Packer's location would have a covered stadium on Global.

But I don't really care if its covered or not. May be more useful if it is covered though.

[viperred88]

Originally Posted by Brokenhead

It's said that the Packer's location would have a covered stadium on Global.

But I don't really care if its covered or not. May be more useful if it is covered though.

do u mean domed?

if thats the case build the darn thing right by convention gosh darn it.

[viperred88]

building it there won't even make an economic impact to the local merchants in the St. Boniface area. The traffic will be snarl far worse than st james.

if I had to chose the polo park location or packers site I would vote polo park site.

[trueviking]

^football stadiums have minimal economic impact to local business wherever they are....even MTS, which is used 50 times more often has had only a minor impact on adjacent small business....

i dont agree about traffic being worse...CP is near some very high volume, freeway-like routes like lagimodiere, fermor, archibald and dugald....polo park is snarled on a normal saturday afternoon.

[newflyer]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^football stadiums have minimal economic impact to local business wherever they are....even MTS, which is used 50 times more often has had only a minor impact on adjacent small business....

i dont agree about traffic being worse...CP is near some very high volume, freeway-like routes like lagimodiere, fermor, archibald and dugald....polo park is snarled on a normal saturday afternoon.

There are examples of arenas and stadium which has a positive impact on its surrounding area.

My favorite is Columbus Ohio .. which helped restore a completely useless historical warehouse district.

The main reason MTS has thus failed to attract more economic spinoffs, beyond the thousands of people in the area before and after events, is mostly due to a lack to planning.

With that in mind stores in Portage Place and City Place has publicly stated the arena has has a positive impact.

Hopefully the Hydro Tower will help tip the scale toward more developement. There is still a massive negativity towards downtown which needs to be broken down.

[trueviking]

yeah, you are right.....MTS has had an impact.....portage place is definately way better off today....the tavern united and soon to be rock and roll centre are both a direct result of the arena.

i just wish the block across the street would see an impact of some kind...those two buildings kill me every time i go by them.

[viperred88]

-as new flyer stated the columbus Blue jackets arena in the old warehouse district helped rejuvenate the area. A domed stadium by the convention or an open field stadium by higgins and waterfont would do that as well. Besides the U of M bisons practises and maybe some other tenants will use it but yeah it won't it be as busy as an arena. You'd be stupid to think otherwise unless its a retractable domed stadium adjacent to the convention then you would see more uses out of the thing.


- True Viking yes lagimodiere acts kinda like a free like route 90 is to st james that is true. But we still have the darn trains passing by marion and archibald comonly known to all of us guys as teasers .... anyways putting my banana back in my pants... as I was saying the the train crossing poses a problem. Having Tim Horton by there already contributes to the congestion.

[viperred88]

Originally Posted by trueviking

yeah, you are right.....MTS has had an impact.....portage place is definately way better off today....the tavern united and soon to be rock and roll centre are both a direct result of the arena.

i just wish the block across the street would see an impact of some kind...those two buildings kill me every time i go by them.

I enviosion a huge theatre complex a la famous players and cinema city with a parkade. That is atleast two - 3 storys high. to fit all the theatres...

[trueviking]

^columbus arena...not stadium....big, big difference.

25-35 000 people 10-20 times per year compared with 10-15 000 people 150-200 times per year.

[viperred88]

Originally Posted by trueviking

^columbus arena...not stadium....big, big difference.

25-35 000 people 10-20 times per year compared with 10-15 000 people 150-200 times per year.

as u know TV I am more of a fan of domed stadium b/c of its many uses it can have.

[trueviking]

the convention centre site would have been a good one for the arena.....then it could have been NHL size.

anyone read those great articles in the free press about the last efforts to save the jets?....really interesting.

the 6 canadian teams (which include the 3 smallest markets) account for 1/3 of all league revenues.

the phoenix coyotes will announce a loss of 30 million USD this year.

[viperred88]

Originally Posted by trueviking

the convention centre site would have been a good one for the arena.....then it could have been NHL size.

anyone read those great articles in the free press about the last efforts to save the jets?....really interesting.

the 6 canadian teams (which include the 3 smallest markets) account for 1/3 of all league revenues.

the phoenix coyotes will announce a loss of 30 million USD this year.

Yep, makes wonder if the payscale will slip to what the canadian market can afford rather than what american do shell out. Probably not but if so that would mean Winnipeg and its corporate sponsorships can afford an NHL team that can compete in the same pay scale as most NHL teams in the highend of the cap.