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Originally Posted by troutman
I don't quite understand the need of a Field House for winter sports. The proposal is the field house would be used for Figure Skating and Short-Track.
Why wouldn't figure skating be held in the Dome or new NHL arena? Why would they put the marquee event of the Games in a 5,000 seat arena?
Couldn't Short-Track be held in the Corral? The Oval? Max Bell?
I think Calgary needs a Field House, but not for winter sports.
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Having figure skating and short track share a facility makes a lot of sense. There are enough gaps in the figure skating schedule that they can easily fit the short track events in the figure skating off-days. The two sports are highly compatible with each other. Putting them in different arenas doesn't solve anything.
As planned, the arena inside the field house will have a capacity of about 10,000. That is pretty small for figure skating, which has always been a big draw in Canada. The seating area will be mostly temporary seating, so they could potentially expand it if needed.
Realistically, this is a placeholder plan and figure skating and short track will be held in the Saddledome with hockey in the new arena. Unfortunately, there isn't a new arena deal in place right now, so they needed to put together a plan that works today that can be updated once the city and CSEC come to an agreement.
Once figure skating is moved out of the field house, they can move curling into it, which is likely why the venue is still TBD.
You are correct that the field house isn't really needed for winter sports, but by organizing it this way, it creates a funding plan for the field house, which city council hasn't been able to do for the last decade.