I'll admit I'm skeptical about the Field House/Stadium integration. I can't see how they'll intend to build a $200M facility, that is "field house first", without it looking extremely cheap, and not much different from McMahon in regards of in game atmosphere and experience. At least with McMahon you get to enjoy the outdoor summer games although the seats and concourse may be crappy. In fact, the layout foundation of McMahon itself is solid; just that everything about it has to be renovated to modern standards.
From the Flames owners side, it doesn't make sense for them to invest money most of their money into building a new football stadium since every other stadium around the country has been built via government money. The CFL has establish itself as a Canadian identity, and because of that governments have seen the value of contributing in keeping the CFL team in their community while allow the team to increase their profits to maintain long term viability. The Flames are already contributing money to the Flames new venue, and that team has more integration with the community than the Stamps do. So I can see why they want the Stamps new facility to be built with the money the city was already intending to spend in the first place.
I feel though the compromise of settling with a multiple configuration venue that would drastically affect the layout is a bit too much; leaving not much gained. The idea is to have seating for a track and field layout, so for football/soccer games is there going to be retractable/extendable seats that'll bring it closer to the sidelines? Or is it going to be similar to commonwealth Stadium in that the seats go up to the track, and then there's seperation from there? The ladder doesn't seem ideal since modern design standards for major outdoor venues is to bring the fans as close to the action as possible. Seeing the layout of the track lanes when watching the action of the field is not satisfying that.
I guess my main concern is just how well can they hide the fact that it's actually a field house rather than a football stadium during those games? If the Stamps are going to move - into an enclosed stadium at that; losing the outdoor summer games appeal - it should feel like a significant upgrade, and be in the realm of one of the best stadiums in the CFL. The concourse experience may be better, but if you can see areas where the foundations holding up the seats are visible, or seats folded in and pressed up against the wall on TV or from your own seat, then did the Stamps really improve in venue quality, or just made a lateral movement at best?
I'm really interested to see how the actual designs turn out. It could turn out alright. But if not, maybe it would be better off to try to get the city to build (or contribute a fair amount into) a new football stadium, or invest into spending the money required to significantly renovate McMahon Stadium, on top of building their own Fieldhouse.
As posed previously, I'm hoping for more this:
Than this:
There's a reason teams don't do this anymore.