[getbak]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

A simple thanks wasn't enough for this post. Fantastic. Well written and clearly and consistent explains why CalgaryNext was dead on arrival.

I mentioned it previously, but the city's report where they surveyed all the sports organizations that would be involved in the fieldhouse - pretty much all of them had at least hesitations about how well the fieldhouse was going to serve the needs of those who would use the fieldhouse.

This report? http://agendaminutes.calgary.ca/sire...&fileid=427930


While there were concerns from the parties involved, they didn't generally oppose the concept of a shared fieldhouse. CSEC appears to have answered the concerns of the stakeholders satisfactorily.

From Page 17 of the report:

Sport Calgary

On 21 March 2016, the Project Team for the Fieldhouse Investigation received a letter from Sport Calgary as follow up to a presentation to that group by the CSEC. The letter states that the CSEC‟s presentation “[goes] a long way to address all 5 of the concerns [Sport Calgary has] raised on behalf of the amateur sport community.” The letter further states that Sport Calgary “believes the option of incorporating the fieldhouse into the CalgaryNEXT project has considerable merit from an amateur sport perspective.”


CalgaryMultisport Fieldhouse Society

On 29 March 2016, the Project Team received a letter from CMFS as follow up to a presentation by K. Knights & Associates and members of GEC Artchitecture. The letter states that after subsequent review with the board, CMFS feels that CalgaryNEXT/CSEC have demonstrated their willingness and substantial commitment to work closely with CMFS to ensure critical concerns are addressed, including:

• Amenities and programming requirements vs. Foothills Fieldhouse
• Access to the site and adequate parking
• Availability for public use at all time taking into account Fieldhouse and Arena
• Affordability
• Governance (Management and Operations provided by private sector vs. City)

The letter further states that assuming the same level of engagement with CMFS is maintained in subsequent review phases, “CMFS believes there is significant merit for the incorporation of the Fieldhouse into CalgaryNEXT.”

The biggest areas of concern were the West Village location (especially from the University, who would prefer the field house be built adjacent to campus), and that having the fieldhouse attached to the arena could cause accessibility problems for the fieldhouse whenever a game or concert is being held in the other half of the building.

For those reasons, I believe that this will ultimately play out with the new arena being built as the anchor of an entertainment district on the north side of the Stampede grounds; and a fieldhouse/stadium will be built as part of the redevelopment of the Foothills Athletic Park.