Well need is great, but it's a venue with a similar, it not higher, price tag to an arena and it has a 1/4 of the sporting events plus a lot less concerts.
It's not a good use of money, whether they choose to do it or not. It needs to get a soccer team in there too.
I think a CFL football stadium would probably cost in the neighbourhood of $200 million while a hockey arena will be over $500 million.
I do agree that if the new football stadium was used only for the Stamps/Dinos it probably wouldn't be worth it... however, if you make it a dome and put it downtown, add an MLS team to the Flames/Stamps/Hitmen/Roughnecks group and use it for concerts and other events... it would definitely be worth doing.
I think a project of this type and scale in this city would be really interesting... probably, all-in, a nearly $1 billion project.
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In the next 5 years, new or completely renovated stadiums in Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton.
Are we on par with some of those B-rate cities?
There is a CFL stadium building resurgence and we would be silly to miss out on it and watch our dump of a stadium get even dumpier.
Clearly to some people here Calgary is a have not city. Every other major city is spending money on these stadiums that "aren't worth it". IMO this is more a Calgary problem in that there are so many transplants that don't have a lot of pride in the city and want to make their money and go back home. This "I don't care about CFL so I don't want a stadium" crap is nonsense and in the end will fall on deaf ears as the Flames owners will get their stadiums built. I don't know why I bother to argue with the same people that complained about the Oilers building that is still getting done and at a high cost to taxpayers. I feel like I'm arguing that the sun will rise tomorrow to people that continue to believe it wont.
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No kidding. One thing that really bugs me overall about Calgary is how it's full of transplants who all come here to make money and be financially secure, but who absolutely HATE putting any of the tax dollars this city has allowed them to earn, back into improving Calgary amenities.
Peace Bridges, arenas, airport underpasses... all things that improve the quality of life and infrastructure in this city, but nope, don't spend my tax dollars on anything other people might get enjoyment out of! Spending money is bad and even though I make a great 6 figure salary, I'd rather see this city crumble than my property taxes go up $3 a month!
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No kidding. One thing that really bugs me overall about Calgary is how it's full of transplants who all come here to make money and be financially secure, but who absolutely HATE putting any of the tax dollars this city has allowed them to earn, back into improving Calgary amenities.
Peace Bridges, arenas, airport underpasses... all things that improve the quality of life and infrastructure in this city, but nope, don't spend my tax dollars on anything other people might get enjoyment out of! Spending money is bad and even though I make a great 6 figure salary, I'd rather see this city crumble than my property taxes go up $3 a month!
Pretty much. It's kind of sad but you will find much more pride out of Edmontonians, Regina, or even Winnipeg residents. The transplants are sucking the life out of this place as it was so much more fun in the 70's and 80's. We even have threads here and other calgary websited about people complaining about the Stampede, talking about how they leave the city during Stampede week, etc. Pretty sad.
In the next 5 years, new or completely renovated stadiums in Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton.
Are we on par with some of those B-rate cities?
There is a CFL stadium building resurgence and we would be silly to miss out on it and watch our dump of a stadium get even dumpier.
I'm all for a new football/MLS/etc stadium. But I think (a) another regular user needs to exist, (b) it needs to be downtown and (c) it should come after a new NHL/WHL/Lacrosse/concert venue since there's significantly more demand in place already.
Regina and Hamilton - the CFL is the only professional show in town and Winnipeg and Ottawa have significantly newer arenas already - done before major renos to their 10-20 use per year stadiums.
Actually the Stampeders are finding it harder to attract fans to games and the biggest gripe people have is the stadium. It sucks and it's barely US high school quality. There's nowhere to get warm in the cold months and the concourse is far too small for the capacity of the stadium. Typical of Flames fans to say a 50+ year old relic of a stadium like McMahon stadium is good enough and the arena is the only thing that counts.
Comments like this are laughable. How many stadiums have you been to? I've been to a decent number of NCAA stadiums and outside of the recent additions, the likes of which McMahon needs, places like Michigan Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium and Spartan Stadium offer almost an identical fan experience as McMahon.
The typical NCAA stadium looks like this:
Spartan Stadium in East Lansing, basically Mcmahon with End Zone seating and a second tier. The luxury/press box addition would be nice to see at McMahon.
(putting spolier tags on the pictures so this post isn't a mile long)
Spoiler!
Non-facade exterior, look familiar?
And here's the concourse:
If you want examples from other major NCAA stadiums feel free to look around, or I'll provide more. As was said above, the major differences are almost always the facades, full end zone seating and the inclusion of luxury seating. Otherwise they are pretty much on par, and the spectator experience is almost identical.
Here are the stadiums of some of the top high school programs in the US:
Spoiler!
De la Salle
Katy, TX
Our Lady of Good Counsel, Olney, MD
With the exception of Allen High School in Texas, which has gone nuts with their stadium, high school football stadiums in the US are pretty much the same as in Calgary, they just have their own instead of a shared facility.
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I'm all for a new football/MLS/etc stadium. But I think (a) another regular user needs to exist, (b) it needs to be downtown and (c) it should come after a new NHL/WHL/Lacrosse/concert venue since there's significantly more demand in place already.
Regina and Hamilton - the CFL is the only professional show in town and Winnipeg and Ottawa have significantly newer arenas already - done before major renos to their 10-20 use per year stadiums.
Regina and Hamilton are also replacing stadiums that were completely dilapidated, those facilities were in need of replacement 20+ years ago. That may be the case for Winnipeg and Ottawa as well, I'm not all that familiar with the state of their facilities.
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Pretty much. It's kind of sad but you will find much more pride out of Edmontonians, Regina, or even Winnipeg residents. The transplants are sucking the life out of this place as it was so much more fun in the 70's and 80's. We even have threads here and other calgary websited about people complaining about the Stampede, talking about how they leave the city during Stampede week, etc. Pretty sad.
Pretty much. It's kind of sad but you will find much more pride out of Edmontonians, Regina, or even Winnipeg residents. The transplants are sucking the life out of this place as it was so much more fun in the 70's and 80's. We even have threads here and other calgary websited about people complaining about the Stampede, talking about how they leave the city during Stampede week, etc. Pretty sad.
Quote:
No kidding. One thing that really bugs me overall about Calgary is how it's full of transplants who all come here to make money and be financially secure, but who absolutely HATE putting any of the tax dollars this city has allowed them to earn, back into improving Calgary amenities.
Peace Bridges, arenas, airport underpasses... all things that improve the quality of life and infrastructure in this city, but nope, don't spend my tax dollars on anything other people might get enjoyment out of! Spending money is bad and even though I make a great 6 figure salary, I'd rather see this city crumble than my property taxes go up $3 a month!
Right, because disputing the need to replace a stadium that is on par with the majority of football stadiums in north America is the same as needed infrastructure like bridges and underpasses
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I don't think you are a parasite but yes you lack the pride in this city that longtime Calgarians have.
What a joke. So just I'm getting this right, in order to demonstrate pride in the city you have to be 100% behind the building of a completely unnecessary stadium regardless of taxpayer expenditure? Is that your position?
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Actually the Stampeders are finding it harder to attract fans to games and the biggest gripe people have is the stadium. It sucks and it's barely US high school quality. There's nowhere to get warm in the cold months and the concourse is far too small for the capacity of the stadium. Typical of Flames fans to say a 50+ year old relic of a stadium like McMahon stadium is good enough and the arena is the only thing that counts.
Your persuasive argument convinced me. By all means let's spend a couple hundred million dollars so the stamps can get those 5-7000 extra fans to their 10 home games. Sounds like a good investment.
Last edited by longsuffering; 05-15-2013 at 09:39 AM.
What a joke. So just I'm getting this right, in order to demonstrate pride in the city you have to be 100% behind the building of a completely unnecessary stadium regardless of taxpayer expenditure? Is that your position?
No you don't have to be 100% behind it. We have yet to hear about how much the Flames plan on paying and what will be expected from taxpayers. It's all speculation at this point. However if/when it comes to fruition please accept it and even embrace that the city will be getting one or two stadiums that will be able to rival any other in Canada in and the US. This is actually not a bad thing in the big picture. You have a right to an opinion but you can also accept that your view isn't shared by anyone. These things will get done regardless of how many people like you stant up to it as there were people in Winnipeg, Regina, Ottawa, Hamilton that shared your views but it's getting done. I don't necessarily agree myself how these things happen but I've given up wasting my time opposing such things as life is short and if it's going to happen may as well embrace the positives and what I can do to get my taxpayer money out of it and I will when I take my sons to as many games as I can.
Last edited by Erick Estrada; 05-15-2013 at 09:39 AM.
I don't think you are a parasite but yes you lack the pride in this city that longtime Calgarians have.
Get over yourself. I'm a born and bred Calgarian and I don't see the need for a $200 million publicly funded stadium just so the 30-35 thousand paying Stamps fans can stay warm in the winter, while the owners of the Team reap the financial reward.
Funny that a guy who seems to base his self esteem on the quality of his city's sporting facilities thinks he should call anyone out.
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Get over yourself. I'm a born and bred Calgarian and I don't see the need for a $200 million publicly funded stadium just so the 30-35 thousand paying Stamps fans can stay warm in the winter, while the owners of the Team reap the financial reward.
Funny that a guy who seems to base his self esteem on the quality of his city's sporting facilities thinks he should call anyone out.
Well when it happens you have a choice. To use the facilities or spend the rest of your life bemoaning the monumental waste (in your opinion) of your taxpayer money. The choice is yours.
