Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by elly63

Actually a Halifax stadium wouldn't put much of a dent in any large scale events Moncton would want to go for. They have the "Pope site" for the uber large concerts and they've also had concerts at the beach. What may have hurt Moncton more than anything was the premature death (cancer) of a relatively young go-getting city manager who went out and helped bring those events to Moncton.

The loss of Ian Fowler was indeed a huge blow to the concert scene in Moncton, but we still are in the game.

1) - Magnetic Hill - can deal with crowds up to 100,000. The biggest concerts there in the past (U2 and the Rolling Stones) had over 85,000 in attendance. Huge touring acts like that however are getting less common. The Hill will likely have to develop a more traditional music festival format to remain relevant.

2) - Moncton Stadium - has 10,000 permanent bleacher seats (expandable), and can probably do concerts up to 20,000. Selena Gomez was supposed to play there last year before she got sick.

3) - Downtown Moncton Events Centre - has 8,500 permanent seats and will likely be able to handle crowds of 10,000 for concerts. The facility will open next year and will presumably be our principle concert venue. Several hotels are being built (or planned) in the downtown core, partly because of the new arena.

4) - Molson Canadian Centre at Casino NB. Can handle crowds up to about 2,500. A modern bright facility which generally handles 15-20 productions per year.

5) - Capitol Theatre - A downtown restored vaudeville house with seating for about 800. Tends to artistic fare like the Atlantic Ballet Theatre and Symphony NB, but also has a performing arts series as well.

So, Moncton has a busy arts scene and facilities of various sizes that can handle the load. We are at least as well off as Halifax in this regard, if not even more versatile.

[Acajack]

As I said earlier - no issue with Moncton.

Just trying to look at it from a Halifax perspective and why they might want to "up their game" with a stadium.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I still don't think that, by global standards, a stadium seating at least 20,000 people would be that much of an extravagance at all for a city like Halifax.

Agreed completely. A modestly-sized stadium like that is a fairly standard civic amenity in the developed world.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

2) - Moncton Stadium - has 10,000 permanent bleacher seats (expandable), and can probably do concerts up to 20,000.

Funny, when I read Moncton Stadium the first thing that came in my mind was this.


Pictured old Moncton Stadium after roof collapse (Christmas morning 1970)

[MonctonRad]

Indeed. That was before the current Coliseum was built (soon to be replaced with the events centre).

This is the new Moncton Stadium (built for the IAAF World Junior Track & Field Championships), showing the crowd for one of the CFL Touchdown Atlantic games.......

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

So looking at the Nordics all of the cities I found that are Halifax's size have stadiums that seat in the 18,000 range

Interesting exercise:

Hamilton, Canada......778K....24.0K
Malmo, Sweden........703K.....24.0K
Aberdeen, Scotland...492K.....20.8K
Bergen, Norway........420K.....17.6K
Halifax, Canada.....404K.....??????
Tampere, Finland......370K.....16.8K
Stavanger, Norway....320K....16.3K
Turku, Finland...........316K....10.0K
Trondheim, Norway....275K....21.5K
Dundee, Scotland......237K....11.5K
Moncton, Canada.......145K....10.0K

Both Malmo and Hamilton, for what it's worth, are more or less adjacent to larger metropolitan areas (Copenhagen & Toronto, respectively). Aberdeen seems like a reasonable comparison, and the plans for a new stadium there are slated to be 20K for an estimated £50m.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Interesting exercise:

Hamilton, Canada......778K....24.0K
Malmo, Sweden........703K.....24.0K
Aberdeen, Scotland...492K.....20.8K
Bergen, Norway........420K.....17.6K
Halifax, Canada.....404K.....??????
Tampere, Finland......370K.....5.0K
Stavanger, Norway....320K....16.3K
Turku, Finland...........316K....10.0K
Trondheim, Norway....275K....21.5K
Dundee, Scotland......237K....11.5K
Moncton, Canada.......145K....10.0K

I thought I saw a bigger stadium than that for Tampere... lemme check again.

[Acajack]

Here is Tampere's stadium. Seats about 17,000.

[JHikka]

Weird, I had been redirected to Tammelan Stadium. Either way, smaller than projections for the Halifax stadium.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Weird, I had been redirected to Tammelan Stadium. Either way, smaller than projections for the Halifax stadium.

Still a lot better than what Halifax has at the moment - which isn't even something you could call a stadium. And better than Quebec City and many other cities as well.

I didn't do a detailed comparison with down under because in fairness they don't spend as much as we do on indoor arenas, but the Nordic cities generally do have largish indoor arenas - though perhaps not as nice as ours often are.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Still a lot better than what Halifax has at the moment - which isn't even something you could call a stadium. And better than Quebec City and many other cities as well.

Halifax's SMU stadium or the future pop-up? The future pop-up should be a comfy little stadium with limited expansion potential, which is unfortunate. I'd take a 10K urban stadium over a 25K suburban stadium separated from everything else in the city, just like how I would take the 11K TD Place arena over the 20K CTC in Ottawa. It's all about scale really, and the CFL's scale seems to begin at 25K.

The CFL and NHL stadiums and arenas in Canada have all done pretty well to be located in the urban centres of their cities (with the Senators joining them, eventually). I'm sure there's some research to be done based on demographics and where fans are coming from and how they get there, and i'm sure some of the Halifax research is leaning on getting people to go to games who live in Truro or the Valley (which is one of the few upsides I can see in a northern suburb location), which would be unfortunate for Halifax taxpayers in the event that they foot some of the bill.

Originally Posted by Acajack

I didn't do a detailed comparison with down under because in fairness they don't spend as much as we do on indoor arenas, but the Nordic cities generally do have largish indoor arenas - though perhaps not as nice as ours often are.

If we're using the Tampere comparison both top-level hockey teams share the same 7K-8K arena, whereas the Mooseheads share the 11K Metro Centre with the NBL team.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Halifax's SMU stadium or the future pop-up?.

I believe the small 5,000 seat (or so) SMU stadium was demolished was it not? From what I can recall it used to be a solidly built grandstand (maybe brick?) but it was torn down not that long ago and replaced with some kind of bleacher set-up.

Maybe someone from Halifax can confirm this...

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by JHikka

If we're using the Tampere comparison both top-level hockey teams share the same 7K-8K arena, whereas the Mooseheads share the 11K Metro Centre with the NBL team.

Though Tampere are building this:



Daniel Libeskind is the architect.

[elly63]

New Calgary fieldhouse part of Olympic bid
Ian Busby 3downnation.ca November 22, 2017

It turns out there could be a new home for the Calgary Stampeders in the works.



It just requires Calgary to get awarded the Winter Olympics for a second time.

During a city council meeting on Monday, it was accidentally revealed that a fieldhouse is one of the major items as part of the ongoing Olympic bid process. The facility is budgeted for $272-million and would have a full-sized field for sports such as soccer, football, field hockey and lacrosse as well as running track. Part of the bid is also a refurbishing of McMahon Stadium, which you will remember was where the opening and closing ceremonies were held during the 1988 Olympics. The Calgary Bid Exploration Committee has said a Foothills fieldhouse would be used for curling and wheelchair events, which means there is one line in there about an ‘ice-plant’ being included in the project.

The timing seems curious for the ‘slip’ seeing as the Stamps are in Ottawa right now ready to contest for the Grey Cup for the third time in four seasons. The Stamps have had such on-field success in recent years it seems natural that the city would support them, and now it appears they have.

Over the past year and a half, the Calgary Flames organization, which owns the Stamps as well, has tried to get funding for a new arena and fieldhouse but have since thrown their hands up in frustration.

When city council turned to a Plan B for the arena project, it appeared the Stamps and their needs were being ignored.

It turns out they were part of a bigger plan – one that reaches a global scale.

Council has approved another $2-million to continue to bid exploration, with $1-million of that coming right away. Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said that it’s clear if Calgary chooses to bid for the 2026 Games, they will get them.

Now the city needs to decide whether it wants the Olympics, which would carry a lot of benefits to many others in Calgary, namely the Stampeders and their fans.

[esquire]

^ A "new home" for the Stampeders as in practice facility, clubhouse and team offices? Because that thing does not in any way resemble a pro football/soccer stadium.

[cjones2451]

Originally Posted by elly63

New Calgary fieldhouse part of Olympic bid
Ian Busby 3downnation.ca November 22, 2017

It turns out there could be a new home for the Calgary Stampeders in the works.



It just requires Calgary to get awarded the Winter Olympics for a second time.

During a city council meeting on Monday, it was accidentally revealed that a fieldhouse is one of the major items as part of the ongoing Olympic bid process. The facility is budgeted for $272-million and would have a full-sized field for sports such as soccer, football, field hockey and lacrosse as well as running track. Part of the bid is also a refurbishing of McMahon Stadium, which you will remember was where the opening and closing ceremonies were held during the 1988 Olympics. The Calgary Bid Exploration Committee has said a Foothills fieldhouse would be used for curling and wheelchair events, which means there is one line in there about an ‘ice-plant’ being included in the project.

The timing seems curious for the ‘slip’ seeing as the Stamps are in Ottawa right now ready to contest for the Grey Cup for the third time in four seasons. The Stamps have had such on-field success in recent years it seems natural that the city would support them, and now it appears they have.

Over the past year and a half, the Calgary Flames organization, which owns the Stamps as well, has tried to get funding for a new arena and fieldhouse but have since thrown their hands up in frustration.

When city council turned to a Plan B for the arena project, it appeared the Stamps and their needs were being ignored.

It turns out they were part of a bigger plan – one that reaches a global scale.

Council has approved another $2-million to continue to bid exploration, with $1-million of that coming right away. Mayor Naheed Nenshi has said that it’s clear if Calgary chooses to bid for the 2026 Games, they will get them.

Now the city needs to decide whether it wants the Olympics, which would carry a lot of benefits to many others in Calgary, namely the Stampeders and their fans.

Ugh, look at those sightlines

[esquire]

We have seen some unbelievable turds masquerading as stadium designs coming out of Calgary. Does no one there know what a proper venue looks like?

[elly63]

I believe there was a conversation earlier about why a running track should have no place in a rectilinear sport stadium. The Calgary ownership groups' fieldhouse had retractable stands covering the track IIRC, who knows what the city design will have in mind. I doubt if it will benefit the sight lines of football or soccer.

Granted the article was somewhat confusing.

[esquire]

^ The track is one of the more inoffensive aspects of that design.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ The track is one of the more inoffensive aspects of that design.

Because it is first and foremost a track stadium.