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Old 02-20-2016, 09:19 AM   #493
powderjunkie
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A ton of reasons why it would never happen, and it would probably wouldn't be any better than McMahon, but it would be a pretty darn unique set up. A field could just fit even with the infield as built today.

The Lazy S and Ranahans are very unique premium seating venues, though I don't know that they would have the same cache and could fetch as much money outside of Stampede time.

Infield only has about 1800 seats, and I imagine that is included in the 17000 number for the grandstand as a whole. They would have to build substantial end zone stands, probably with a big hole/tunnel to accommodate the track to go under. Those would be great seats for the rodeo.

The biggest issue would be converting a football field to rodeo grounds/track and back again within a week on either side of Stampede. Even two weeks would be tough, and that would mean 6 weeks of no home dates.

Even tougher and more important is the grandstand stage infrastructure. Of course, a large part of the stage is pulled in via tractor, but the permanent section has hydraulic lifts underground, and there are a bunch of underground tunnels that facilitate the production of the grandstand show. It is entirely possible that the Stampede will squash the chucks within the next 30 years, but then the stage show would become even more important.

Lastly, the current facilities are shut down and winterized. Hard to say how well they would hand November weather.

The funny thing to consider is that the Grandstand is already used at near capacity twice as often as McMahon (ignoring U of C, high school games, etc.) - 20 events over 10 days vs. 10ish events over the rest of summer/fall. There's not much incentive for them to make major adjustments to their set up.
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