Our family is heavily involved with chuckwagon racing and TB racing in general, a couple of years ago there was an agreement to take all racing out of the stampede grounds and move it to the new track at Cross Iron Mills, at the time there was no interest in closing the track at the grounds because of the chuckwagons and cash cow of the Rangeland derby. Since then the track at Cross Iron has never been built though I heard there maybe new interest in a new track development on the outskirts of the city.
So what's this have to do with the saddledome? This summer the track is being shortened from 5-8 of a mile to 1-2 mile, which pretty much means no more cart or TB racing with a new track in the area, and partly with the negitive outlook on the rangland derby, there has been discussions with the chuckwagon associations (WPCA and CPCA) that within 2 years there might not be chuckwagon racing at the stampede. So, if that's the case, there is suddenly a lot more land available on the grounds(track and more importantly horse barns) for a new area and a football stadium complex, this might look like I'm reading too much in the tea leaves, but it makes a lot of sense and provides the stampede board options to replace the wagon racing at the stampede as well as work to the benifit of the flames and stampeders.
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