Here's what's in the Bid plan for the Saddledome work:
- Enhanced accessibility of venue and improved spectator services
- Extended life of ice plant
- Structural and mechanical upgrades
Some of that money would still likely need to be spent, but not nearly as much.
My understanding is that figure skating and short track aren't as demanding on the ice plant as hockey. Also, if the Flames move into their new arena in 2022, that's an extra four years that the ice plant won't be in full-time use, which should extend its lifespan.
If the Saddledome is used for figure skating and short track rather than hockey, there are much fewer events in those sports, so the crowd-control issues aren't as big as they are for hockey. With hockey, you're looking at 2 or 3 games every day in the building, with about 4.5 hours between games. That means you have to be able to clear people out after one game and get people in for the next one efficiently, plus all the clean-up and food prep work that needs to be done between games.
With figure skating and short track sharing the building, there are very few days with two events in one day (in Korea, there were only two days with figure skating in the morning and short track at night). All other days, it's only one event per day. Also, when you look at the structure of the events, there are many more short breaks between races and skaters rather than just the two long intermissions in hockey. That should put less strain on the washrooms and concessions because there isn't likely to be the same rushes to the concourse that you see during a hockey game.