[News] CalgaryNEXT Announcement. New arena details emerge.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

Where do track & field athletes in Calgary train now? the Oval?

Considering the footprint ask, and limited real estate available, this layout is fantastical. Is there a more refined, realistic layout out there?

The only full track in Calgary is at Foothills Athletic Park which is next to McMahon. That's where the athletes do their full training but obviously they are limited by weather.

Dryland training is done in multiple places, depending on their club or coach - Winsport, Oval, UofC, Talisman etc.

The layout photo looks fantastical but remember it was designed to fit in the same area beside McMahon + the fields next to it. Not that great of a footprint.

For CalgaryNext the courts aren't next to the track, they are located at the south end of the building and are in multiple levels, like Mattamy Centre in Toronto.

[timun]

Originally Posted by craigwd

The only full track in Calgary is at Foothills Athletic Park which is next to McMahon.

There is a full 400 m, eight-lane track at Glenmore Athletic Park too...

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by timun

There is a full 400 m, eight-lane track at Glenmore Athletic Park too...

Also at Rotary Challenger Park.

[craigwd]

Originally Posted by You Need a Thneed

Also at Rotary Challenger Park.

My bad, though I believe both aren't used frequently for training. The athletes I know use Foothills for training due to their proximity to where they do dryland training.

[Reaper]

To boot, none of those tracks are indoors which is a key need in a fieldhouse situation.

[The Yen Man]

The Calgary NEXT announcement was a huge blunder on Ken King and the Flames part IMO. Usually, to sway public opinion, you need to wow them with fancy renderingsof a state of the art arena and fancy entertainment district, and show people how awesome everything will look when it's done. It would have appealed to the impulsive side of the public, and they probably would have been way more receptive of the plan.

Instead, all we got was a boring powerpoint presentation with a bunch of bullet points on how to finance the place, a crappy grade school rendering of a placeholder arena, and a bunch of empty promises and vague ideas. The whole insistence on it being in that site feels a bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. I hate how it's all or nothing, with King publicly saying they haven't considered any alternative sites.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by craigwd

My bad, though I believe both aren't used frequently for training. The athletes I know use Foothills for training due to their proximity to where they do dryland training.

When my daughter was running middle distance her club trained at Foothills during the good weather. During the winter it moved around from the Talisman Centre, to the Oval to a gym at the U of C ( Fitness Centre?). None were very good options and that it hasn't improved in 20 years is a sad state.

[T@T]

Had lunch with an alderman today and in his opinion NEXT will never go ahead its current form.

[OutOfTheCube]

Why not put it out in Balzac, near the new Century Downs Casino/Race Track. Tons of space for everything (including parking), access off Deerfoot/Stoney, no environmental clean-up...

...5 minutes from my house...

[jammies]

Because people that work at the mall are far less likely to have season's tickets than corporate workers downtown?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Why not put it out in Balzac, near the new Century Downs Casino/Race Track. Tons of space for everything (including parking), access off Deerfoot/Stoney, no environmental clean-up...

...5 minutes from my house...

Look at rinks that are mostly failures around the NHL...then look at their locations in relevance to their cities downtown....that should provide you with an answer.

A stadium/fieldhouse might make more sense in that location though. Football games tend to get played on weekends, when people are not downtown anyways, and it's only really a one day commitment to go to a game.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Why not put it out in Balzac, near the new Century Downs Casino/Race Track. Tons of space for everything (including parking), access off Deerfoot/Stoney, no environmental clean-up...

...5 minutes from my house...

Notice how when you moved out there your friends never come over anymore?

The same would happen at the arena.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Why not put it out in Balzac, near the new Century Downs Casino/Race Track. Tons of space for everything (including parking), access off Deerfoot/Stoney, no environmental clean-up...

...5 minutes from my house...

And you'd have 100 cars in the ditch a night. People on the QE2, Deerfoot, and Stoney, in winter, after a few dome beers.

We've got to be realists in that a despite whatever efforts put in place, a number of people are driving home after a game after having too many. So keeping them on slower roads away from 100+km/h roads is a good thing.

Having the dome away from public transit would only make it so everyone HAS to drive, and thus, your DUI #s go up along with it.

[timun]

Originally Posted by craigwd

My bad, though I believe both aren't used frequently for training. The athletes I know use Foothills for training due to their proximity to where they do dryland training.

True. I know the track at Glenmore is mostly used by junior high and high schools, and general public drop-ins. The fact that most higher-level athletes use the facilities at Foothills serves to reinforce the original plan for the 'Fieldhouse': build it at Foothills, not the West Village as part of a Flames-driven franken-stadium project.

[timun]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Why not put it out in Balzac, near the new Century Downs Casino/Race Track. Tons of space for everything (including parking), access off Deerfoot/Stoney, no environmental clean-up...

...5 minutes from my house...

Five minutes from your house, and the houses of your immediate neighbours, but a hell of a lot longer from the other-million-people-in-Calgary's houses.

It's hard enough as it is some nights to be able to make it from an office downtown to the Saddledome for a 7 o'clock puck drop on a weeknight. If the Flames built an arena in the middle of nowhere Balzac no one would go.

[T@T]

Who started this Balzac idea?, you could build them an arena for free and charge no rent for 5 years and they still wouldn't move that far from the core.

[Caged Great]

If they put it out Balzac, that would pretty much eliminate all the season ticket holders on the west and south side of the city. I wouldn't travel an hour + each way X 40 games a season, especially in winter with the snow/bad roads.

Plus it's really convenient for the players to practice at Winsport etc as it's close to downtown. Move it out to "the middle of nowhere" and it makes things more difficult for everyone involved.

[Cappy]

Originally Posted by T@T

Who started this Balzac idea?, you could build them an arena for free and charge no rent for 5 years and they still wouldn't move that far from the core.

King started it, really. He constantly refers to not wanting to have the arena in Balzac. I think its a ploy to get people to approve this plan

"I don't want it in Balzac! Build CalgaryNEXT now!"
- sheeple

[Finger Cookin]

An interesting read on Wired, especially given the nature of the fieldhouse proposal.

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Cappy

King started it, really. He constantly refers to not wanting to have the arena in Balzac. I think its a ploy to get people to approve this plan

"I don't want it in Balzac! Build CalgaryNEXT now!"
- sheeple

Anyone who uses the word 'sheeple' should be hog-tied and quartered