Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
Now I will preface this that I understand that Dallas/Fort Worth has like 5 times the amount of people relative to Calgary and that the absolute vast amount of resources that have been used on stadiums there probably is a sign of a toxic culture in the opposite direction . . . However I find the fact that a city with a metro population now over 1.5 million people in North America is still trotting out a crumbling arena built in the early 80s (it's going to take 50-$100 million to repair the Saddledome's roof in 5-10 years) and a basic venue made from concrete slabs that cost $10 million in 2020 dollars in 1960 as it's professional sports stadiums as absolutely embarrassing and so much so that it probably impacts some peoples decisions with tourist dollars and even deciding to move here in the first place.
|
Of all the things happening in this city/province/country/world, I'm not sure the mildly shabby state of our pro sports venue cracks my top million list.
Of all the money I've ever spent on travel, I can say with certainty that the quality of a prospective destination's arena/stadium infrastructure has never entered my mind...but maybe that's just me. Even the few times I've travelled specifically for an event, it hasn't crossed my mind.
If I ever found myself deciding between several cities to go see an event, there are a million factors I'd consider before 'quality of venue'. Like...I'm not going to choose somewhere that requires a more expensive flight with a layover and doesn't have convenient hotels just because they happen to have the newest arena of the bunch and is rumoured to have the best acoustics...
Personally, I'm slightly proud that we haven't rushed to build ourselves a new monument to corporate welfare...if I found myself needing to relocate I'd actually find Seattle's refusal to be extorted an appealing indicator that the city has reasonable priorities, but of course that would be waaaaay down the list of considerations, too.