Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[ZeDgE]

Damn looks great. Get the shovels in the ground!

[blueandgoldguy]

The fact that Edmonton and Calgary consistently lead the WHL in attendance year after year would certainly bring into question the notion that NHL cities do not support lower level hockey.

The comment about Toronto not supporting lower level leagues certainly rings true...likely because they are not trendy. Just to the southeast of Winnipeg lies a city 3/5ths the size of the GTA. They have more major league sports options than Toronto and in superior facilities I might add! Yet, the city manages to:

1) consistently sell out or nearly sell out their minor league ball park every single game (formerly in independent baseball league and now a farm team for a club in the very same city) despite having an MLB team.
2) consistently sell out or nearly sell out all their games to their college hockey team.. about 10,000 per game despite having an NHL team.
3) excellent crowds for high school hockey in the city culminating in a high school hockey tournament that sells out in an NHL arena.
4) a college basketball team that consistently sells out or nearly sells out all their games despite the existence of an NBA team in the city.
5) a college football team which despite being mediocre for the most part manages to pack 40,000+ into the stands per game year after year despite the city having an NFL team.

It's really a tale of 2 cities - one appears to support all its teams regardless of the level of play, despite an abundance of top-level pro teams, while the other appears to turn its nose up at anything that is not "major league" and therefore not trendy.

It really is a shame...

[JHikka]

HFX Wanderers have extended their agreement with the City of Halifax for another two years. They'll be at Wanderers Grounds until at least April 2024, with an option to extend for another year beyond that. Now allowed to host up to 25 matches in a calendar year.

https://northerntribune.ca/halifax-w...nds-extension/

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

The comment about Toronto not supporting lower level leagues certainly rings true...likely because they are not trendy. Just to the southeast of Winnipeg lies a city 3/5ths the size of the GTA. They have more major league sports options than Toronto and in superior facilities I might add! Yet, the city manages to:

At some point you could compare any American city to any Canadian city and come up with the same conclusion. Americans love sports, more at 11.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by JHikka

HFX Wanderers have extended their agreement with the City of Halifax for another two years. They'll be at Wanderers Grounds until at least April 2024, with an option to extend for another year beyond that. Now allowed to host up to 25 matches in a calendar year.

In practice they are there for as long as they are successful and want to stay, but because it is a park they are getting these terms.

Part of the updated deal involved some improvements to the site.

Hopefully this will morph into a permanent stadium at some point. This is a good stadium site, and it could be a lot larger with some comparatively minor reconfiguration of nearby land parcels.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by JHikka

HFX Wanderers have extended their agreement with the City of Halifax for another two years. They'll be at Wanderers Grounds until at least April 2024, with an option to extend for another year beyond that. Now allowed to host up to 25 matches in a calendar year.

https://northerntribune.ca/halifax-w...nds-extension/



At some point you could compare any American city to any Canadian city and come up with the same conclusion. Americans love sports, more at 11.

They love watching sports betting and bingeing on food and drink.

The number of minor league hockey teams that have left the GTA is in stark contrast to the Raptors 905. Riding bandwagons is probably the best course with so much disappointment.

I used to get free Majors ticket all the time which certainly impacted attendance for those games. I went once myself and gorged on concessions. The regular price of that ticket was two to three times what I've seen in the US. (mind you I was in a much cheaper market than Toronto)

[Coldrsx]

Better and good interaction but Chicago wants its art piece back.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

Better and good interaction but Chicago wants its art piece back.

The more likely artwork will be a bronze statue of either a cowboy, a horse or a hockey player.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

The more likely artwork will be a bronze statue of either a cowboy, a horse or a hockey player.

would an interactive bronze of Fleury sliding across the pavement be too dangerous?

[Rollerstud98]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

would an interactive bronze of Fleury sliding across the pavement be too dangerous?

Touchy subject hero worshipping him anymore.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Rollerstud98

Touchy subject hero worshipping him anymore.

Yeah he's kinda gone off the deep end with Covid it seems. Not sure how he claimed that vaccinations would allow pedophiles to track children or whatever it was he said.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by Rollerstud98

Touchy subject hero worshipping him anymore.

I see that he is a nutjob anti vaxxer. My stature isn't about him but, a great Flames moment although I can see it being construed as a stature of him.

I'm not a Flames fan. There probably are better moments. I want to slap every anti vaxxers but, I'm not going to cancel their achievements. I'd have no one left. My world has gone bananas between Liberals leaning, Republicans and, everyone inbetween.

Re: Leafs

IMO, Borschevsky's winner in game 7 of the opening round of the 1993 playoffs is the Leafs greatest moment in my lifetime. Gilmour's wrap around winner against Cujo in the 2nd rounds is the second greatest. Both of those guys are probably assholes.

Perhaps a stature of '93 Wayne Gretzky in which people are encouraged to vandalize would be the most apropos for our era.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

would an interactive bronze of Fleury sliding across the pavement be too dangerous?

That or they could do a video installation of the puck crossing the crease in game 6 against Tampa Bay in '04.

[WhipperSnapper]

Like the street front with the CRUs. Why isn't this continued instead of the planters on the side with the huge Calgary sign? (the 6th pic) Architecturally, it's not ugly. It's just looks like upscale big box. I don't know. I remember being more favourable when the first designs came out months ago. Has it change or have I?

[craner]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Like the street front with the CRUs. Why isn't this continued instead of the planters on the side with the huge Calgary sign?(the 6th pic). Architecturally, it's not ugly. It's just looks like upscale big box. I don't know. I remember being more favourable when the first designs came out months ago. Has it change or have I?

That portion is below a parkade - may have something to do with the lack of CRUs.

[craner]

Loving what I see in those new Calgary Arena renders (I refuse to call it an EC).
I agree with the others - Let’s Start Digging !!

[craner]

^Thanks for the info.
I checked out Arlington Heights on Maps.

[Chadillaccc]

Public realm of the Flames Arena…

Upper frontage in image is the west face, for reference. Olympic Way becomes 4th Street SE and leads directly into the East Village. Fifth Street SE will eventually have an underpass to the East Village as well. There will be a Green Line subway station one block directly north, between Olympic Way and 5th Street, under 11 Avenue. The NW entry is a 9-minute walk from City Hall Station.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Public realm of the Flames Arena…

Upper frontage in image is the west face, for reference. Olympic Way becomes 4th Street SE and leads directly into the East Village. Fifth Street SE will eventually have an underpass to the East Village as well. There will be a Green Line subway station one block directly north, between Olympic Way and 5th Street, under 11 Avenue. The NW entry is a 9-minute walk from City Hall Station.

Looks like corporate boxes take up half the seating.

As for the upgrades to the exterior I'm glad to see some attention paid to the blank north wall. Looks marginally better with the inset lines and lighting. That animated screen wall on the West side could be cool. I'm always skeptical of large LED displays being burnt out in sections but if it's projected onto the mesh it could be really nice. Otherwise it looks like the same basic shape with a few more frills. More palatable now at least.

[WhipperSnapper]

I recall Soldier Field being an expensive rebuild. The White Sox stadium is terrible.

[megadude]

Vandalism wasn't encouraged, but someone did do that to the Great One in Brantford, the day after unveiling. Incidentally, I was at the Gretzky Sports Centre for the first time on Sunday.

By the way, I was in Brantford in 2012 and I remember googling Wayne Gretzky statue, thinking there had to be one. I recall that there were no hits. I thought that was impossible. Well it wasn't until the next year that Brantford finally got one. I want to think that's impossible, but I saw no evidence to the contrary.

Police in Brantford are examining videotape as they investigate vandalism to new statues of hockey great Wayne Gretzky in his hometown.

Police say they have a video that was forwarded to them of Monday's overnight vandalism, which involved someone defacing the statues with spray paint.

But they say they have made no arrests yet in the defacing of the statues honouring the Great One, which were publicly unveiled Sunday outside the newly renovated Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...ford-1.1875781


https://roadtripontario.ca/fun-thing...-in-brantford/


And incredibly, for something of such magnitude and importance, multiple people had to have dropped the ball on this, not just the sculptor:

Like most hockey fans 12-year old Joel Englund knows the correct spelling of Wayne Gretzky’s name.

He also knows the hockey legend never played for the Detroit Red Wings. So imagine his reaction when the Brampton youngster visited the new Wayne Gretzky statue in his hometown of Brantford and looked at the fine print and saw that not only was his name misspelled as ‘Gretzsky’ but he was listed as a member of the Red Wings.

That was among a number of errors Joel discovered on the statue which was unveiled in September at the Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.

Joel, who has Asperger’s Syndrome, pointed out the likeness of the Stanley Cup lists the Los Angeles Kings as the Stanley Cup champions in 1989-1990 but they did not claim the Cup until the 2011-2012 season. There is also a list of names engraved on the Cup such as Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and rapper Kanye West along with others.

“I looked at it and said these are mistakes,” said Joel, who says Gretzky is his favourite player. He and his family were visiting the statue along with a family friend Randy Connely of Brantford. Joel’s discovery was reported in a Brantford newspaper which has led to a public outcry.

The sculptor, Brad Oldham of Texas, has since apologized and said the names were never intended to be read. Within a week the statue will be changed so that there are no readable names on the Cup.