Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuco
I need to find the plans again. I wasn't a fan of the seating; I was hoping for something more inverted. Poor use of suites, clubs, and restaurants was another thing that bothered me. It honestly just left me unimpressed, zero innovation.
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A lot of arena builders have looked at the ‘inverted bowl’ design, but as far as I know they've all backed off from actually using it. It requires less real estate, but it's more expensive to build because of the extensive cantilevering required, and the extremely steep slope of the upper decks is not ideal for safety. The press level at the Saddledome gives me vertigo; the upper levels in an inverted bowl would likely be even steeper.
Frankly, there are enough excellent hockey arenas in North America that the Flames don't have to do more than copy what's already being done. Innovation often means being the first to make a mistake – which is why the Saddledome was the first and last arena built the way it was. All subsequent projects benefited by not repeating the same mistakes.