Investors Group Field | Winnipeg

[pegcity]

I'm such a loser, sorry.

Yankee Stadium 1.6 billion
Architect Populous (formerly HOK Sport)


photo credit

[lilwayne]

too much hatred towards towards this stadium... no its not perfect there are some obstructed views.. but truviking just has a personal issue with ran wan and its evident in his posts. Hes relentless in bashing the stadium even though its getting mostly rave reviews from fans,, and looks amazing considering it only cost 200 some million dollars to make.

The bottom line is its one of the better stadiums in canada, its sucks that from some seats u cant see the full field but oh well... regardless where i go though theres always some parts of the faciliy where the view is slightly obstructed

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

too much hatred towards towards this stadium... no its not perfect there are some obstructed views.. but truviking just has a personal issue with ran wan and its evident in his posts. Hes relentless in bashing the stadium even though its getting mostly rave reviews from fans,, and looks amazing considering it only cost 200 some million dollars to make.

The bottom line is its one of the better stadiums in canada, its sucks that from some seats u cant see the full field but oh well... regardless where i go though theres always some parts of the faciliy where the view is slightly obstructed

The issue I have is not with the stadium itself but rather the poorly planned vision of getting fans to and from the stadium which right now is a colossal failure. Kives has a good article on the subject:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opi...211723541.html

Hard to believe when everyone said this would be the number one issue (transportation) that nothing was done, especially with a stadium a year late.

[Andy6]

It's interesting to back to around pages 47-50 of this thread and read what everyone was saying when the U of M site was first announced.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

I don't think that the bowl design is ideal, but it does offer certain benefits. For one, the upper deck seats are much lower in the new place than they were in the old one. I used to have season tickets in the east side upper deck at the old stadium and I can tell you that I feel much closer to the field in the upper deck of the new place.
.

it is true that the upper deck is closer to the field in this stadium, but rows 28-56 (the upper deck) are waaaaay further away than rows 28-56 were in the old stadium.

the rows that were upper deck on the old stadium don't even exist in the new one....row 28 was a very good seat in the middle of the lower stand in the old stadium...now its an upper deck seat considerably higher up.

the 'rave reviews' that i have generally heard come from two types of people...those who are looking at it on internet photos or people who had lousy seats in the old stadium. (upper deck or end zone)

everyone that i have spoken to who used to sit around me in section S is not overly thrilled with their new seats, generally being scattered around the upper deck...the atmosphere is completely different...its disengaged and distant....almost to a person these people say they will be trying to get into the lower bowl next year.

i have also spoken to many other long time season ticket holders who were in very good seats for years who are now sitting in the fringes of the stadium....few 'rave reviews' from them.

decisions were made right from the start that don't seem to have the actual game experience at the heart of their reasoning....the university was chosen to get federal money, not because it was even close to being the best place to locate a stadium.....the bowl design was used to give it a perception of 'big league' despite the fact that it reduces the amount of desirable seating significantly...the open concourse was chosen as a unique feature, without considering that it would push half the seats in the stadium 20' higher than they need to be....the concourses were made narrow to save money (i assume) without consideration of traffic volumes and patterns being perpendicular to concession lines.

'only $200 million'......????

[Reed Solomon]

Originally Posted by trueviking

i blame asper...he sold us all a huge bill of goods and then screwed us all.

An Asper would never do that!

[h0twired]

Citi Field (new home of the NY Mets)
Opened in 2009
Cost $900 million





Yankee Stadium
Opened 2009
Cost $1.5 billion

[Bdog]

^Very good point Hotwired. I don't think there are too many stadiums out there without some obstructed views. Even the widely praised Target Field (home of the Twins) has a few sections with obstructed views.

Also, some pics I've seen of "obstructed views" at IGF are greatly exaggerated - it's easy to hold a camera at your chest and say "look, I can't see 75% of the field".

[Archiseek]

I'm a huge football fan - more so than hockey - but have season tickets for both sports. My seats in the old stadium were on the centre line, row 10 upper east side. Near perfect seats essentially. But my new seats are on the 48, and row 16, with a portal railing now in the way. I will be hoping to move seats next season.

- photo NOT taken with the camera at chest level.... long passes to that corner will drive me nuts

The old place has so many shortcoming, and was crumbling around us - it's easy to forget that. The new stadium has shortcomings too. But my primary reason for going to games, is to watch the game, enjoy the craic and commentary from fans around me. I don't tend to eat or drink at the games. I can probably live with most of the "problems".

Perhaps over time and a few years, some of the shortcomings of the new stadium can be overcome (the open ends to the upper concourse; the pooling water in the first couple of rows of the top deck; venting of the upper concourse food areas for example) - sadly the sheer amount of portals is probably uncurable, half as many and twice as wide would have been a better solution.

My only worry is that the shortcomings will essentially mutate into serious annoyances, and then the Bombers are in trouble. Like TV, the-white-loafer-wearing-porsche-driving-architect says, the casual fan will go to the lake and watch the game on tv instead.....

[bomberjet]

Just to play devils advocate here.

Everybody needs to realize this sin't Canada Inns anymore. Those days are gone. This is a new stadium where everything is new to everybody. New friendships will be formed, new S sections will come along (hopefully) wherever the fans want it this time. All that stuff is to be written by you the fans, not the building.

I realize the issues with the new field. Some I agree are real issues while others are just a factor of having a new stadium. There's only been one game, so we just need to relax. Parking and access will figure itself out over time. Concourses are fine, come on now. There didn't seem to be any air movement at field level. My seat in row 14 of upper deck was fine.

Everybody's nit picking about this place. Just relax. That new house you just built has issues, no? I bet you it's got tons of things you're nit picking on because it's not perfect. Just as an example.

We got a world class field for $200M. Yes, it's got issues. Seems that most other new fields do as well, even the ones that cost $1.6B. See all the photos above. I have changed my mind over the last few weeks on the extremely small percentage of the field that is blocked by obstructions. It'll take getting used to, but I think after the season's over, we'll all look back at the shit show that's going on right now and realize it was just some growing pains.

MTS Centre is too small, that bottle is too cold, that porridge is too hot, that stadium is so new it's no good even though you've barely been to it one time.

You know what I'm getting at. Let's give this place the benefit of the doubt for now.

[Cyro]

^^^^ Very reasonable and sensible post!

I was about to post photos of multibillion $$ NFL and world class "Foot Ball Stadiums" with architetectural firms who are "Extremely Experienced" in the field, Horrible "Obstructed seats", concrete columns to look at but I doubt it would change anybody's opinion.

Hopefully some time will have to lapse before fans become comfortable with the new digs.

[Shinook]

Originally Posted by lilwayne

too much hatred towards towards this stadium... no its not perfect there are some obstructed views.. but truviking just has a personal issue with ran wan and its evident in his posts. Hes relentless in bashing the stadium even though its getting mostly rave reviews from fans,, and looks amazing considering it only cost 200 some million dollars to make.

The bottom line is its one of the better stadiums in canada, its sucks that from some seats u cant see the full field but oh well... regardless where i go though theres always some parts of the faciliy where the view is slightly obstructed

I thought you were banned?????

[esquire]

I wonder how many of the minor problems with IGF can be easily fixed? I remember there was also a quite an uproar a couple of years ago when the Jets came back because certain upper deck seats at MTS Centre had obstructed views due to the placement of handrails and metal mesh screens. TNSE got in there and fixed things in fairly short order and no one is complaining anymore.

I realize that the location and access issues are big ones and will take some time to sort out, but some of these minor problems like bars blocking some seat views strike me as things that can be easily addressed.

[Danny D Oh]

Does anyone know what Transit's capacity is during rush hour?

For instance, they used 99 buses for the ride home after the game. Does Transit have 100 buses available to go at 5:30 (or earlier) for Bomber games on a weekday? Seems odd that Transit would have 100 buses more on hand than they would need for their peak service.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by esquire

I realize that the location and access issues are big ones and will take some time to sort out, but some of these minor problems like bars blocking some seat views strike me as things that can be easily addressed.

I still say solving the issue with the roof being a giant funnel directing excesses amounts of wind onto the fans is an issue that will be neither easy nor cheap to fix.

Originally Posted by Danny D Oh

Does anyone know what Transit's capacity is during rush hour?

For instance, they used 99 buses for the ride home after the game. Does Transit have 100 buses available to go at 5:30 (or earlier) for Bomber games on a weekday? Seems odd that Transit would have 100 buses more on hand than they would need for their peak service.

Looking purely at the number of buses used after the game and trying to use that to predict service requirements before a game is not that simple. For example, a number of fans were using standard routes, like 161, to get to the stadium. On a non-game day if that route is averaging 75% capacity it has room to absorb some of the game day traffic to the stadium. As most of the service for the day is down for the day by the time the game is over there will also need more dedicated buses after than before for weekday games.

[Mininari]

More transit capacity isn't going to do a thing if those added buses can't deliver their passengers to their destination in an efficient manner. They have to create a dedicated transit-way on game days (use an opposing lane of traffic if need be), so the buses can get in and out without major delays.

I find it interesting how only part of the neighborhood to the south is marked as NO PARKING. Seems that those unrestricted streets are going to be plugged with gameday parking on a regular basis. Being stuck in traffic really sucks. I'd be perfectly happy to walk in ~45min, but it no good for families with small kids, or disabled persons.

What a mess, I wish them well in solving this.

[rypinion]

Originally Posted by CoryB

I still say solving the issue with the roof being a giant funnel directing excesses amounts of wind onto the fans is an issue that will be neither easy nor cheap to fix.

Where in the upper deck were you? My dad and sisters were up there (I missed the Exhibition) and they said it was really really hot and nothing was mentioned about wind.

[bomberjet]

Originally Posted by rypinion

Where in the upper deck were you? My dad and sisters were up there (I missed the Exhibition) and they said it was really really hot and nothing was mentioned about wind.

I, too, am confused where the wind tunnel thing is coming from. Like I said before, I'm in row 14 upper deck with no problem. We were in the sun for a short period of time and it was warm. The flags on the goal posts were barely moving from what I could tell.

But apparently some people had wind burn? May be a localized issue, ie: sitting close the end or something.

And it would be virtually impossible to change the roof without major works. Works like taking it down and starting again.

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by CoryB

I still say solving the issue with the roof being a giant funnel directing excesses amounts of wind onto the fans is an issue that will be neither easy nor cheap to fix.



Looking purely at the number of buses used after the game and trying to use that to predict service requirements before a game is not that simple. For example, a number of fans were using standard routes, like 161, to get to the stadium. On a non-game day if that route is averaging 75% capacity it has room to absorb some of the game day traffic to the stadium. As most of the service for the day is down for the day by the time the game is over there will also need more dedicated buses after than before for weekday games.

That works for a couple of neighbourhoods. There are not many people that are going to take a 75 from KP to a Bomber game, unless they have the day off work and can spend a couple hours on a bus during rush hour. They left hundreds of people waiting at Taylor, the Downs and St. Vital Centre park and rides. If they want people to take the bus to the games, they need more dedicated buses on both ends of the game. Are they available?

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by Mininari

More transit capacity isn't going to do a thing if those added buses can't deliver their passengers to their destination in an efficient manner. They have to create a dedicated transit-way on game days (use an opposing lane of traffic if need be), so the buses can get in and out without major delays.

I find it interesting how only part of the neighborhood to the south is marked as NO PARKING. Seems that those unrestricted streets are going to be plugged with gameday parking on a regular basis. Being stuck in traffic really sucks. I'd be perfectly happy to walk in ~45min, but it no good for families with small kids, or disabled persons.

What a mess, I wish them well in solving this.

That's my plan for the next game. Cut into that neighbourhood through St. Norbert under the bridge on Kings. Hopefully they didn't change which streets are restricted.