[News] CalgaryNEXT Announcement. New arena details emerge.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by T@T

Would one 2 minutes from the Zoo on the LRT line do.?

Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by T@T

Would one 2 minutes from the Zoo on the LRT line do.?

What? Stampede Park? You want to fit an arena AND a stadium there? Remember you can't tear the Saddledome down until the new one is built.

[Clarkey]

The whole unsymmetrical blobby design that is a fad now will look so dated and cheesy in 15 years from now when that look goes away. Especially if it's set among rectangular shaped condos.

Not to mention, seating should be symmetrical, you should have roughly the same number of fans on either end the ice and either side of the football field. The functional sacrifice imposed due to the river shading bylaw are not worth putting it there. It's a lose-lose that the Flames and Stampede Board were too pig-headed to put it at the right location at the Stampede Grounds. There is endless parking lot space there that they could have put it in with no design limitations due to the river.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

What? Stampede Park? You want to fit an arena AND a stadium there? Remember you can't tear the Saddledome down until the new one is built.

Stampede Park is more than 2 minutes from the zoo.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by T@T

Stampede Park is more than 2 minutes from the zoo.

Okay, enough guessing games. Do you care to enlighten us?

[bax]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

The whole unsymmetrical blobby design that is a fad now will look so dated and cheesy in 15 years from now when that look goes away. Especially if it's set among rectangular shaped condos.

Not to mention, seating should be symmetrical, you should have roughly the same number of fans on either end the ice and either side of the football field. The functional sacrifice imposed due to the river shading bylaw are not worth putting it there. It's a lose-lose that the Flames and Stampede Board were too pig-headed to put it at the right location at the Stampede Grounds. There is endless parking lot space there that they could have put it in with no design limitations due to the river.

You should design it! Seems like you have all the answers!

But in all seriousness, there is a lack of details on the designs because they are no where close to being finalized. There are much bigger things to worry about regarding this project right now.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

Okay, enough guessing games. Do you care to enlighten us?

He's talking about Firepark and it's a dumpster fire of a site. Next.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by Tyler

He's talking about Firepark and it's a dumpster fire of a site. Next.

And it's most likely contaminated as well. Vulcanizing rubber is not a clean process.

[stone hands]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

Building arenas out in the boonies doesn't work. Where is an alternative CENTRALLY LOCATED plot of land that is not contaminated?

Even if they did lose money, why do we, the taxpayers, care? Should people care more about adding an extra 20 minutes to their drive to the game, or raising 800 million dollars? Seems pretty obvious to me

The city of Calgary and the province of Alberta isn't here to make the flames more money. They also don't HAVE to contribute anything. Gillette stadium was built 100% out of Robert Kraft's pocket, 22 miles outside of Boston, and the patriots seem to be doing OK. The flames are not the patriots, but they aren't the coyotes either

[Vulcan]

I remember reading that one of the Flames owners owns Firepark though but yeah, it's contaminated and outside the city centre.
My choice is the area north of Stampede park and south of the CPR tracks. It was the favoured site since we started talking about a new arena.

It looks to me that the Flames are mostly financing the arena while the stadium-fieldhouse will need government money. This is no surprise as the CFL only survives with government financed stadiums.

For those citing Vancouver and Ottawa as examples of owners paying for their own arenas, remember both owners went bankrupt soon afterwards.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by stone hands

Even if they did lose money, why do we, the taxpayers, care? Should people care more about adding an extra 20 minutes to their drive to the game, or raising 800 million dollars? Seems pretty obvious to me

The city of Calgary and the province of Alberta isn't here to make the flames more money. They also don't HAVE to contribute anything. Gillette stadium was built 100% out of Robert Kraft's pocket, 22 miles outside of Boston, and the patriots seem to be doing OK. The flames are not the patriots, but they aren't the coyotes either

That's a whole different debate. I was responding to a poster who gave a why not type of response to a sarcastic suggestion that the arena be located in Balzac or Spruce Meadows.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Clarkey

Not to mention, seating should be symmetrical, you should have roughly the same number of fans on either end the ice and either side of the football field.

The old Winnipeg football stadium used to be like this before they added a second level to the East side stands. From a form standpoint, it did look rather bush league but functionally, it worked.

I'm wondering whether adding the roof to the Flames design to the asymmetrical design further cheapens the overall look. Again, however, those renderings are pretty awful so it is pretty hard to say whether the lack of symmetry is what makes them look so bad.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Tyler

He's talking about Firepark and it's a dumpster fire of a site. Next.

I'm amazed people seem to think that the other side of Deerfoot is another country or something

Yeah, let's build it where there's no room, brutal costs and no roadways to get in or out.

Firepark might not suit you..but it is a better spot for a project this size, way cheaper and it is only 5 minutes from downtown, hotels/restaurants could go up with ease and they could service airport traffic as well. Revitalization shouldn't begin and end with the downtown core.

But by all means support the turd that Ken King wants.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by stone hands

Even if they did lose money, why do we, the taxpayers, care? Should people care more about adding an extra 20 minutes to their drive to the game, or raising 800 million dollars? Seems pretty obvious to me

The city of Calgary and the province of Alberta isn't here to make the flames more money. They also don't HAVE to contribute anything. Gillette stadium was built 100% out of Robert Kraft's pocket, 22 miles outside of Boston, and the patriots seem to be doing OK. The flames are not the patriots, but they aren't the coyotes either

The Flames aren't really even the issue here. Their $450M commitment should be able to pay for a hockey arena. Le Centre Vidéotron is costing about that much to build. The question is about a much needed replacement for McMahon and a home for the Stampeders, and they DEFINITELY are not the Patriots. A new stadium is definitely not going to be built without some kind of public/private partnership, hence the idea of marrying it to the fieldhouse project. If that can be done using the $200M the city was planning to use on a fieldhouse anyway, I could see the value in that. I'm kind of having sticker shock on CSE's $890M price tag though. Most recently built CFL stadiums were in the $200M range. Add that to the Flames $450M commitment for the arena portion and I'm only coming up with $650M. Does it really cost another $240M to add the fieldhouse functionality? And this is at a $300M savings due to combining the buildings in one? I guess I really shouldn't be worrying about it since I won't be paying for it here in H-town.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by T@T

I'm amazed people seem to think that the other side of Deerfoot is another country or something

Yeah, let's build it where there's no room, brutal costs and no roadways to get in or out.

Firepark might not suit you..but it is a better spot for a project this size, way cheaper and it is only 5 minutes from downtown, hotels/restaurants could go up with ease and they could service airport traffic as well. Revitalization shouldn't begin and end with the downtown core.

But by all means support the turd that Ken King wants.

It's not a good spot. Otherwise something would already be built there. You're simply wrong.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Tyler

It's not a good spot. Otherwise something would already be built there. You're simply wrong.

Amazing reasoning.

[upperloge77]

regarding the shade concerns and not having symmetrical stands in the fieldhouse, why wouldn't they dig down and put the bowl underground like the new stadiums in winnipeg and regina? keeps the overall height of the build down, and if you're digging up all the dirt to re-mediate the land, why bother putting it back after it's cleaned so you build on top of it? or would that be a water table issue etc etc?

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

The Flames aren't really even the issue here. Their $450M commitment should be able to pay for a hockey arena. Le Centre Vidéotron is costing about that much to build. The question is about a much needed replacement for McMahon and a home for the Stampeders, and they DEFINITELY are not the Patriots. A new stadium is definitely not going to be built without some kind of public/private partnership, hence the idea of marrying it to the fieldhouse project. If that can be done using the $200M the city was planning to use on a fieldhouse anyway, I could see the value in that. I'm kind of having sticker shock on CSE's $890M price tag though. Most recently built CFL stadiums were in the $200M range. Add that to the Flames $450M commitment for the arena portion and I'm only coming up with $650M. Does it really cost another $240M to add the fieldhouse functionality? And this is at a $300M savings due to combining the buildings in one? I guess I really shouldn't be worrying about it since I won't be paying for it here in H-town.

That is a fair question. I could see the arena being on the higher end of "nice" and a little more expensive and the fieldhouse being indoors is going to cost more than some of the new CFL stadiums (which by the way look like the new high school stadiums in TX if you want to get into use of public funds) but to get to $890 including cost savings I assumed that would include some other development.

Have the Flames hired a PR firm to help then with this?

[Finger Cookin]

Debating about alternate site locations seems pointless since the site has been chosen. The site argument is so 2009.

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Finger Cookin

Debating about alternate site locations seems pointless since the site has been chosen.

I'm back east on holiday's..did I miss the city approval announcement?