[News] CalgaryNEXT Announcement. New arena details emerge.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

PS: Calling it the Heritage Classic was a travesty. The dome was closed, and there is nothing Heritage about playing hockey indoors in a temporal rainforest.

Totally agreed. But man, as a Flames fan who went out there just for the spectacle, I enjoyed the relentless mediocrity of the event immensely. From the fake cotton "snow" to the closed roof to the miserable light drizzle to the Luongo/Lack/Tortorella controversy to the fact that the Senators just made Vancouver their bitch.

Honestly, I think "Heritage Classic" was appropriate, since the entire event just screamed "Vancouver Canucks". That was their NHL heritage in a nutshell: They exist and they suck.

But BC Place is what it is. And what it is is a functional concrete circle that is far too large for 99% of the events held there. It is also a big step up on McMahon.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Retractable roofs are massively expensive. I think King said adding a retractable roof to this project would add $180 million alone.

Vancouver - inexplicably - spent $600 million to put a retractable roof on BC Place. Now it is just a mediocre concrete monstrosity with a cool roof.

I would counter it's mediocre going by NFL facilities standards but for a Canadian stadium it's surprisingly decent. Good concessions and washrooms and I was actually pleasantly surprised visiting a few weeks ago. If it seated less than 40k it would be a great place for CFL but it's just too big and looks stupid with the upper bowl tarped off.

[BloodFetish]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I would counter it's mediocre going by NFL facilities standards but for a Canadian stadium it's surprisingly decent. Good concessions and washrooms and I was actually pleasantly surprised visiting a few weeks ago. If it seated less than 40k it would be a great place for CFL but it's just too big and looks stupid with the upper bowl tarped off.

The soccer setup is cool. The Whitecaps have decided to only sell tickets to the lower bowl and screen off the upper bowl to create a cosier atmosphere.

[RM14]

Lions have the same set-up as of this season. They need to get creative and tarp the entire end zones, but open up the upper bowl only between the goal lines. Would be a mess though!

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I would counter it's mediocre going by NFL facilities standards but for a Canadian stadium it's surprisingly decent. Good concessions and washrooms and I was actually pleasantly surprised visiting a few weeks ago. If it seated less than 40k it would be a great place for CFL but it's just too big and looks stupid with the upper bowl tarped off.

No doubt. I haven't been to any NFL games, but I've been to about 25 different NHL and MLB stadia, and that era's buildings are all obvious and mediocre. The Dome, Rexall, Nassau, Skydome, Tropicana, Comiskey Park, BC Place.

There just isn't much you can do with any of them to improve it either.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

No doubt. I haven't been to any NFL games, but I've been to about 25 different NHL and MLB stadia, and that era's buildings are all obvious and mediocre. The Dome, Rexall, Nassau, Skydome, Tropicana, Comiskey Park, BC Place.

There just isn't much you can do with any of them to improve it either.

To be the fair the last time I was at Rexall a bunch of cinder blocks fell off a wall and opened a nice view to the ice... They could now sell standing room!

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by RM14

Lions have the same set-up as of this season. They need to get creative and tarp the entire end zones, but open up the upper bowl only between the goal lines. Would be a mess though!

Is it just me or did the Lions take a huge hit in attendance this year? I thought they were always around the 30k mark, with some games in the 27-28k range.

I just glanced at the attendance for their last game on the box score and saw 20k. That seems incredibly low for them.

[rayne008]

Ken King and Rob Kerr taking calls tomorrow morning from 8 - 9 am on the Fan. (Thursday, Aug 27)

(whoops, may be a 7am start)..

[MissTeeks]

Ken King is supposed to be on with Rob Kerr tomorrow on the Fan960 morning show taking calls on CalgaryNext.

@FAN960RKerr: We're hosting a series of @Sportsnet960 town hall's on #CalgaryNext. Your chance to ask @NHLFlames Ken King questions Thursday 7-8am.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by octothorp

That's one way of looking at it, but they're also expecting the city to put significant funds into cleaning up the land, potentially moving the roadways, and then foregoing any significant sale or tax revenue that the city would get from what becomes the most prime available land in the city. I love the idea of this project, but that's tough to swallow.

Look at the library in the east village. Yeah, a lot of public funds went into it, but it occupies only a small amount of land out of the east village development, and the city will get a great return on the rest of that project. With the west village, the stadium/arena complex looks to take up maybe 50% (just estimating by looking at the map), and probably the more valuable portion of it, at that. The city could build a fieldhouse in that location (or better yet, across bow-trail in the pumphouse area), forget the arena, clean up, develop, sell, and tax that land that the arena would be on, and probably come out a lot further ahead than this proposal.

I want the various parties to find a way to make this project go ahead, but I also don't want to see the city get screwed here. There needs to be an opportunity for the city to make back their share and then some, given that they're the ones taking by far the larger risk.

Why do people keep bringing up remediation and infrastructure as if that wouldn't have to happen anyway no matter what is done with that land?

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

How much are they paying for the land?

Kind of disingenuous considering the proposal is they won't ever own the land, no?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

Why do people keep bringing up remediation and infrastructure as if that wouldn't have to happen anyway no matter what is done with that land?

Because it is a valid question as to whether we can or should do that remediation now vs. some time in the future.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

Why do people keep bringing up remediation and infrastructure as if that wouldn't have to happen anyway no matter what is done with that land?

Because the Bow/Crow interchange has been a nightmare for 40 years, and Bow Trail is choked with traffic because it was designed for a city of 400,000, and creosote is leaking into West Hillhurst, and these things are TOTALLY THE FLAMES' FAULT. Obviously the hockey team should pay for them.

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Because the Bow/Crow interchange has been a nightmare for 40 years, and Bow Trail is choked with traffic because it was designed for a city of 400,000, and creosote is leaking into West Hillhurst, and these things are TOTALLY THE FLAMES' FAULT. Obviously the hockey team should pay for them.

Green text?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by TX_Flame

Green text?

Gee, ya think?

[TX_Flame]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

The events center part is what seems to throw this thing for me. I mean if the Flames put up the $450 mil for the arena part and pitched $200 mil to the city for the field house and reduced operational costs of a combined facility it would make sense. Then a smaller CRL could go to remediation and road re-alignment as well as some actual community revitalization. But the $250 mil tack on for the events center aspect just seems unnecessary to me.

The arena IS the "Events Center".

[Bill Bumface]

I've had a hard time keeping up with the thread, so sorry if already discussed, but can anyone post up an example of an indoor stadium that has ever been built that didn't suck?

[T@T]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I've had a hard time keeping up with the thread, so sorry if already discussed, but can anyone post up an example of an indoor stadium that has ever been built that didn't suck?

/thread

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

I've had a hard time keeping up with the thread, so sorry if already discussed, but can anyone post up an example of an indoor stadium that has ever been built that didn't suck?

Ford Field is pretty sweet as far as indoor football stadiums go. That said, the CFL can't really get away with amazing designs like that given the place would be cavernously empty for most games if we're talking a 60k+ stadium; economics don't really support it for CFL sadly.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

A quick Wikipedia search provides plenty examples of covered stadiums of varying capacity. Whether they suck probably depends on who you ask, but I don't think they always suck (especially in this climate).