Flames to announce plans to announce arena plans in the... future...

[smiggy77]

Originally Posted by 1stLand

I think we should get an NFL team before we get an MLS team.
So many NFL fans in this city. My facebook newsfeed is littered with people's posts of them wearing seahawks jerseys and driving down to seattle for games.
Keep the Stampeder name but throw them in the NFL.

I am not particularly a football fan at all, but think Calgary is ready for the bright lights of the NFL

Agreed. There is more chance an NFL team would thrive in Calgary over an MLS team. I don't think either will happen tho in the near future cuz if the NFL Canada, it'll go to Toronto and Vancouver before Calgary.

[heep223]

To those talking about an NFL team in Calgary:

[JBR]

Originally Posted by heep223

To those talking about an NFL team in Calgary:

There is a higher probability of me quarterbacking a NFL team to a Super Bowl victory than a team coming to Calgary.

LA, San Antonio(?), London and likely several other places would be considered before Calgary. IMO, Toronto is a big long shot as it is.

[DiracSpike]

Calgary sports fans have proven that they are exceedingly poor at supporting any team that isn't the Flames or a successful Stampeders outfit. Any other attempt at sports has failed, AAA baseball, vipers baseball, countless semi pro soccer, various lower league basketball teams like the crush, and the roughnecks are on life support.
That being said I would hope for a baseball configuration to try and lure back a AAA baseball team

[DiracSpike]

Nm

[Tyler]

Originally Posted by Frequitude

To be completely honest, I would be far less inclined to go to Stamps games if it were a fully indoor stadium. There's nothing better than a Stamps game outside in the middle of the summer.

You not attending a summer game because of a roof will be offset by the thousands of more people willing to attend a November game BECAUSE of a roof

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Tyler

You not attending a summer game because of a roof will be offset by the thousands of more people willing to attend a November game BECAUSE of a roof

Not to mention it will in all likelihood have bothoptio ns available. We'll Frequitude AND the thousands of other fans. This is going to be great! I was afraid we'd lose Frequitude, but nope! We're likely going to still get him.

[Hockey Fan #751]

Originally Posted by JBR

There is a higher probability of me quarterbacking a NFL team to a Super Bowl victory than a team coming to Calgary.

LA, San Antonio(?), London and likely several other places would be considered before Calgary. IMO, Toronto is a big long shot as it is.

Calgary would be a better NFL market than a few current teams (such as Jacksonville and Buffalo) but nobody in Calgary has a billion dollars lying around to buy a team and another $600 million for a 70,000 seat stadium.

If they got those two things, though (impossible) they could support a team. They'd probably be 20-25 in revenue.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

If they got those two things, though (impossible) they could support a team. They'd probably be 20-25 in revenue.

They’d be a distant last in TV ratings for the U.S. networks, though. Since that network money is what keeps the NFL in clover, you can forget the pipe dream.

Rightly or wrongly, the NFL caters to that segment of its market that, as Al Capone said, doesn’t even know what street Canada is on.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by calgarygeologist

The Dinos (especially in terms of football) have small crowds for a number of reason. One important reason is because of the nature of the UofC. The UofC is largely a commuter university which serves students from the immediate area. As such, campus life has always been fairly tame compared to other Universities. Students commute to the school, do their classes and commute home. There are ~30,000 student at the UofC and only about 3,000 live on residence. I was a commuter student and coming back up to the UofC/McMahon on a Saturday for a Dinos game had little to no priority. Another important factor is that the alumni community really doesn't care that much about the school post graduation. For a vast majority of the students a bond or connection just isn't established while studying there and that leads to poor alumni relations with the school.

Speaking of Dinos, if a joint facility is built in the downtown area I wonder if the Dinos will play there as well. I would assume they would stay at McMahon otherwise the UofC would have to sign some sort of new usage agreement with the facility owners.

The venue itself is a huge factor as well. People who live on campus don't care to go to the game since the atmosphere for the game isn't that great since it's such a small turnout for a greatly over excessive seating capacity. The Stamps moving downtown leaving McMahon obsolete could actually be a benefit for the university administration as they would be tempted to construct a new football stadium on a much, much smaller scale, and more suitable for a CIS crowd.

The atmosphere for the games would be better since the impression of the games being massively under attended wouldn't be as prevalent with a +5,000 seating capacity stadium compared with a 33,000 capacity stadium. The crowd interaction would be more intimate, and have more of a fun/party attribute to it which appeals to the student demographic. People would be more inclined to go to games if a lot of others are going; especially if you could average ~50% turnout at the start, which could lead to attendance growing overtime.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Tyler

You not attending a summer game because of a roof will be offset by the thousands of more people willing to attend a November game BECAUSE of a roof

Yeah, I'm that fairweather fan who would show up more if the environment was more palatable. The Stamps will always be #2 in this town, they need to cater a bit more to wimps like me if they want to up their attendance.

I'm also a guy who thinks the CFL needs to move up their schedule so they start earlier on in the year, so the playoff games are not played during sub-zero temps. The 3-4 spectacular summer game days are great...but it sucks that the games that mean the most are in the worst weather. That game yesterday might've been a sellout if they played in September/October.

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Yeah, I'm that fairweather fan who would show up more if the environment was more palatable. The Stamps will always be #2 in this town, they need to cater a bit more to wimps like me if they want to up their attendance.

I'm also a guy who thinks the CFL needs to move up their schedule so they start earlier on in the year, so the playoff games are not played during sub-zero temps. The 3-4 spectacular summer game days are great...but it sucks that the games that mean the most are in the worst weather. That game yesterday might've been a sellout if they played in September/October.

Aside from Saskatchewan, no other outdoor CFL team have sold out their playoff games because we don't want to deal with the damn cold. Tradition be damned, the CFL would be wise to bump up the schedule so it finishes right around the end of October, when people may be willing to be brave enough to attend the games.

[#-3]

Originally Posted by Hockey Fan #751

Calgary would be a better NFL market than a few current teams (such as Jacksonville and Buffalo) but nobody in Calgary has a billion dollars lying around to buy a team and another $600 million for a 70,000 seat stadium.

If they got those two things, though (impossible) they could support a team. They'd probably be 20-25 in revenue.

Talking about Calgary getting a team in one of the worlds biggest pro sports leagues, when there isn't a single team in Canada is just ridiculous. Even if the NFL wants to come to Canada which I am not certain they do Calgary would be anywhere from 3rd to 6th on their list of prospective Canadian Cities.

Desire, Money, Fan Base any way you want to look at it. Speculation is ridiculous up to the point that there is already an established team in Toronto, and Even then I am still certain they would move to Vancouver of Montreal before considering Calgary, depending on their goals.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

I am completely a fair weather Stampeders fan, in both senses. To attend a game, it would have to be nice weather, and the team needs to be doing well.

The Stamps have their "real" "true fans" that support the club regardless, and with out a doubt they are the most important. But that business model misses out on a lot of revenue from what I'm sure are thousands of people like me in the city who never attend games because the most meaningful games they ever play happen when I wouldn't dream of attending due to poor weather.

Get that team a Dome, retractable or not (obviously retractable would be preferred, but if cost prohibit so be it) and I'm sure they increase ticket sales and revenue. Increase it enough to justify the cost, maybe another question.

[puffnstuff]

Originally Posted by JBR

There is a higher probability of me quarterbacking a NFL team to a Super Bowl victory than a team coming to Calgary.

Well, first I'd need to know your wonderlic score, your combine numbers and how you looked at your pro day

[stampsx2]

Not a smart move by the cfl, they lose a ton of money each year because of older people and parents with kids not attending stampeder games in poor weather. Throw in an overlapping nfl season and you've lost a big chunk of your fan base.

Yup, i'm a fair weather fan as well. Had free tickets a few times and would rather watch at home then be a true supporter in the rain or cold.

Why Winnipeg just built an outdoor stadium is beyond words.

[Muta]

There's a very big fan base to be had with a covered stadium. A lot of those fairweather fans (no pun intended) now become permanent fans, or even season ticket holders.

Outdoors is a romantic idea in northern climates, but at the end of the day, no one wants to sit outside for anything below 0. This city is now at the point where we are big enough and wealthy enough to have a covered stadium.

[Frequitude]

Originally Posted by flameswin

Not to mention it will in all likelihood have bothoptio ns available. We'll Frequitude AND the thousands of other fans. This is going to be great! I was afraid we'd lose Frequitude, but nope! We're likely going to still get him.

A retractable roof would be amazing. It would get me to an extra October/November regular season game or two, thats for sure.

I probably get out to 4 or 5 summer games a year and the playoffs every other year regardless of weather. Enough to be somewhere between tier 1 and 2 fan.

I just don't see myself planning a summer weekend around an indoor game as often. I like to get outside for my entertainment in the summers. My favourite way to do that in this city is sitting on the east side of McMahon watching the Stamps.

[FaFaFlamey]

I was just in a Melbourne, Australia (4.3 million people) and was drooling when I saw the facilities they have. A downtown 50,000 retractible roofed stadium (Etihad Stadium) for both AFL and soccer, another 100,000 AFL/cricket stadium (MCI)a new 30,000 outdoor rugby stadium (AAMI Stadium). The tennis facility is off the charts and they're in the process of building another retractible roofed woman's stadium...which is next to Rod Laver Arena (retractible too). I asked the tour guide where the money comes from, and she said taxpayers. I started to describe what Calgary has, and was rather embarrassed. She said Melbourne is pretty much the sports capitol of the world. They really believe spending money on sports is a good thing. It's what they're known for. There's even some big interest in hockey down there. Obviously, it's not a good comparison of cities and situations, but you'd think we'd have at least one fancy arena in this allegedly rich town/province.

[Tyler]

Um we're going to have the 2 nicest arena's in North America in 4 or 5 years.