Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
What events are the 5,000 seat arena for? What's wrong with the Corral (7,000 seats)? Max Bell (3,000)?
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Do you mean for the Olympics or afterwards?
For the Olympics, the 5000 seat venue would be used as the small hockey venue. This is required because between the men's and women's tournament, there are over 50 games played over the two weeks of the Games. In PyeongChang there were 52 total hockey games. For Beijing, the Women's tournament is expanding from 8 to 10 teams, which will mean even more games being played.
The small hockey venue will also host the sledge hockey tournament for the Paralympics.
Max Bell has a seated capacity of just over 2000. It is way too small. They'd be better off installing an ice plant and temporary seats at the Ag Events Centre at the Stampede and using it rather than the Max Bell.
The Corral may not even still be standing in February 2026. If it is still standing, it would still require extensive renovations to make it acceptable for Olympic use. The boards and benches don't meet IIHF specifications. The boards are too tall and too rigid and the radius of the corners isn't large enough. The benches at the Corral are too shallow and too narrow.
Either venue would also require accessibility improvements, and because it would be hosting sledge hockey, the accessibility improvements would have to be for both spectators and athletes. Either building would also likely require significant lighting and electrical upgrades for HD and 4K broadcasts of the games.
In the case of the Corral, all of that money would be spent to upgrade a facility that would still be scheduled for demolition.
It has been debated numerous times in this thread and others, but the 5000 seat venue at Foothills is the thing in the bid plan that is least-likely to ever be built. If we host the Games, that money will most-likely to reallocated to incorporate the small hockey venue into the new Flames arena. That could either be a temporary expansion of the expected practice rink that will be part of the new building, or a permanent replacement for the Corral, either attached to or immediately adjacent to the new NHL arena.