Quote:
Originally Posted by Smartcar
Sorry if this is off topic, but can anyone provide a list of reasons why we need a new arena? As a 20-year STH (shared initially, and then my own), I don't have so many issues with the current facilities that I think we need a $500M new facility that I will have to pay for, either with increased civic taxes or higher ticket prices or (most likely) both.
I'd be interested to see what the issues are with the Saddledome that people think justify the cost of building a new facility.
I know about pinched concourse and not enough facilities to accommodate everyone during intermissions, but my personal experience has been sure, but I wouldn't be in favour of paying what it would cost to increase the Deerfoot to 6 lanes each way so I don't have to sit during rush hour.
I know about the Flames wanting more high priced seats to increase revenue, but quite frankly, in the current economic climate I know a few club STH at $11k per seat that are seriously considering whether they want to renew, and I'm seriously considering whether I want to renew my lower bowl seats at $6K per seat or move to cheaper seats. So a new facility might mean more $$$ seats that might be empty unless things turn around.
I know concerts pass us by because of lack of capacity of the roof structure, I just don't consider it to be important enough to spend $500M on a new facility.
So I'm just wondering whether there are other reasons I may not have thought of, that might justify it to me. I'm sure any one of the reasons I already know about might be enough to justify it for some people. Thanks in advance.
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List of problems off the top of my head:
- Lack of prime lower bowl seats.
- Not enough luxury boxes.
- Lack of capacity for the roof.
- Lack of concourse space. A lot of new arenas have two levels of concourses.
- Lack of washrooms.
- Too many undesirable nose bleed seats.
- There are probably a lot of amenities that are not seen by the public (work out area, customer service areas, etc) that could use massive upgrades.
Of course as a fan you might not care about a lot of that list, but the owners do care. Having the oldest arena is also a factor (though maybe a very small one) when trying to attract UFAs to the team.