Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[FactaNV]

Originally Posted by Wpg_Guy

Feasibility study planned for arena on former Kapyong Barracks site
Malak Abas
Sunday, Jul. 5, 2026

A First Nations development group is hoping to pull in prospective sports teams with plans to build an arena in south Winnipeg.

The Treaty One Development Corp. is exploring the feasibility of a 6,000-person arena in Naawi-Oodena, the former Kapyong Barracks site, on the southeast side at Taylor Avenue and Kenaston Boulevard.

The hope is to give aspiring athletes a large space to practice, and possibly even bring a junior or professional sports team to Winnipeg, said chief development officer Cody Mercer, who listed the Western Hockey League or National Lacrosse League as examples.

“Not just working for Treaty One, but also in our membership of the seven communities, there’s a ton of athletes, and really we see that when they’re getting to that higher level of hockey or anything like that, they’re having to move away,” he said. “We thought this is an idea that we can try to bring (in) a team.”

Treaty One is partnering with the city on a feasibility study.

The city is covering $95,000 of the planned $128,000 study, funded through land dedication reserve funding from the River Heights-Fort Garry ward and the Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry ward. The rest is being funded by Treaty One Development Corp.

“I saw an opportunity, because we’re in quite desperate need, and (it’s) a great partnership opportunity to work with Treaty One to see if we can help facilitate the creation of community rinks,” said River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow.

The city is only helping to fund the study for now. Orlikow said the city would be unable to offer funding for a large-scale arena because True North Sports and Entertainment currently holds a non-compete clause that limits the size and type of arenas that can be built.

“Two community rinks, even three, would be fine,” Orlikow said.

The Free Press has reached out to True North for comment.

But Mercer said with the prospective arena being built on an urban reserve, there is a separate permit system, and building a large rink may still be possible.

The feasibility study will make that clear, and if a 6,000-seat rink isn’t possible, Treaty One plans to build as large of a space as they can, Mercer said.

“It really gives that pride to our membership that we’re owning an arena, we’re operating an arena, and, really, showing how First Nations were cut out of the economy for so long — but we’re here now, and we’re pushing to be a part — and a big part — of it.”
Winnipeg Free Press

Possible 6,000 seat stadium being studied in Winnipeg.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Sounds like a great First Nations led project. Winnipeg deserves a major junior hockey team, and it would be great to see both the team and arena be indigenous owned.

I wonder if they will also be investing in community outdoor rinks at this site for the winter months and ball hockey during the summer.

[Dalreg]

Winnipeg had a few teams over the years. Not sure if they can handle a second pro or WHL team long term.

[FactaNV]

PWHL or NLL most ljkely if they go through with it imo.

[J.OT13]

Some updated renderings of the new Flames arena, including a peak inside. The practice/community ice name rights sold to Esso. Based on the renderings, Calgary seems to have done a decent job activating 3 or 4 sides of the arena. Certainly one of the more challenging parts of designing an arena. Can't think of any other NHL arena that's decent on three sides. Usually just one good face, maybe two. Arenas are one of few examples where abutting elevated highways is actually beneficial.

• Video Link

Construction videos:

• Video Link

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A bit of McMahon and potential CFL move to the Stampede grounds.

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[craner]

^Thanks for posting those videos J.OT13 - especially the McMahon Stadium one, some interesting old shots of the various stages/expansions of McMahon.

[craner]

Scotia Place - June 2026 time lapse

• Video Link
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F8utVSaHBc

[Nicko999]

Quebec approves Olympic Stadium interior renovation

The Quebec government has green lit the modernization of the interiors of Olympic Stadium even as the Big O’s roof replacement work continues.

The renovation project will reportedly include rehabilitating the bleachers, upgrades to dressing rooms and adding luxury boxes, as well as modernization of washrooms and concession stands.

https://montreal.citynews.ca/2026/07/17/quebec-approves-olympic-stadium-interior-renovation/

[Glow Fun City]

Definitely worth it! BC Place did both roof and interiors together and it's really given the venue a new lease on life.

[srperrycgy]

Originally Posted by craner

Scotia Place - June 2026 time lapse

• Video Link
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F8utVSaHBc

One of the trucking companies that my work uses is hauling steel from Ontario to Scotia Place. 70 million pounds on 300 truckloads.

[craner]

Originally Posted by Nicko999

Quebec approves Olympic Stadium interior renovation



https://montreal.citynews.ca/2026/07/17/quebec-approves-olympic-stadium-interior-renovation/

Kind of committed to do this once the roof reno got underway. Once started down the renovation path you might as well go all the way.

Question:
Will the new roof still require the use of cables to support it ?

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by srperrycgy

One of the trucking companies that my work uses is hauling steel from Ontario to Scotia Place. 70 million pounds on 300 truckloads.

I don't think they're going to quite be able to fit 233,333 lbs (116 tons) on each truck .

(I think it's ~17 million pounds, not 70)

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by craner

Kind of committed to do this once the roof reno got underway. Once started down the renovation path you might as well go all the way.

Question:
Will the new roof still require the use of cables to support it ?

So are they going all in on soccer/football setup? I thought that was the case, but read something today on social media that it was still going to be a baseball friendly stadium, which just doesn’t make any sense to me, especially if they’re going to be spending billions on this renovation.

Another questions is will the roof be removable, or always closed? I’m not sure the roof on/off is the end all be all when it comes to growing and maintaining a natural grass field at Olympic stadium, but I’d like to think if the plan was to spend billions, that they’d have a solid plan for the stadium to be used for both soccer/football, and takes advantage of the full size of the stadium. (Which would mean getting rid of the baseball scoreboard entirely, and turning all that area back into seats, like in the original configuration of the stadium)

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by northernlights99

Interesting articles below about Olympic Stadium however it leaves me more confused than ever about the seating capacity, is and was.

We go from 73,000 to 56,000, over the years the numbers fluctuate.

Where are the missing seats ? That empty end zone alone couldn't hold 17,000 .

When they speak of Permanent seating I assume that is the concrete shell part of stadium, the seats that are Not removable. There are some bleacher stands that can be moved around to bring fans closer to the sidelines for soccer games. They have done this for some soccer games which brought seating up to 60,000 plus.

The football seating capacity is listed as 66,308 so that must be with all the temporary seating brought in.

One thing I am sure of is how Loud Olympic Stadium is when Full or even near full. I've been to several playoff games with 50,000 plus and that place Rocks. That Concrete roof really reverberates the sound, much louder than BC Place even with the old teflon roof.

The closest comparable stadium I can think of in Loudness level was the Kingdome in Seattle which was Entirely Concrete, building and Roof. The Noise from the fans was a definite advantage for the Seahawks back then (the Steve Largent era) assuming they were playing another team not too much better than them lol.

The Kingdome held over 64,000. The decibel level reached 130 when Ken Griffey Jr hit his walkoff home run and Mariners won a playoff series.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/olympic-stadium-montreal/

in this below article you can move your mouse over the right column to see the different seating configurations over the years.

It was 404 feet from home plate to deep center field. Also note the original 1976 Olympics configuration with All seats installed around the track oval which I assume was a 400 meter track ? :

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/OlympicStadium.html

Compare the 1976 Olympic configuration to the post 1992 baseball, football and soccer configuration with the end zone sections completely removed.

Note how the footprint of the stadium is dictated by the track oval and the oblong CFL field at 160 yards x 65 yards by 1976 rules. A typical NFL football specific stadium today Without the track oval would cover a much smaller footprint.

Case in point, look at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, with the track oval dictating the shape of the stadium, the seats are set farther back from the sidelines especially in the end zones which are Really far back.

Took me a while to find this post, quoting it to show the different configurations for Olympic Stadium over the decades.

Fingers crossed the reconfiguration will get back to something like the original configuration and say au revoir to baseball at Olympic Stadium for good!

[TorontoDrew]

I'm surprised it took so long for Calgary to start building a new arena. The Saddle Dome's site-lines in the cheap seats can be terrible. Depending on where you are sitting you can't even see the full scoreboard.

SaddleDome_Obstructed views by Andrew Moore, on Flickr

[Calgarian]

They have scoreboards there for people to see and the whole ice surface is visible, what more do you need?

Those are the Press Level seats, they may not have the best view in the house, but the most hilarious and fun people usually sit up there, much better than the sterile suits in the lower bowl.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by TorontoDrew

I'm surprised it took so long for Calgary to start building a new arena. The Saddle Dome's site-lines in the cheap seats can be terrible. Depending on where you are sitting you can't even see the full scoreboard.

SaddleDome_Obstructed views by Andrew Moore, on Flickr

Yeah, that's not great. You miss out on the atmosphere when your view is obstructed like that.

That's one thing about the Civic Centre in Ottawa; as much as I love it from tis architecture and history, the sightlines are pretty bad for probably a quarter of patrons easy. The section below the north side football stands is very awkward, and along the main bowl, high level seats are obstructed by luxury boxes added in 1992 for the return of the Senators, boxes that have since been abandoned.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD_Place_A...en's_Curling_Championship_draw_4.jpg

[cjones2451]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

Took me a while to find this post, quoting it to show the different configurations for Olympic Stadium over the decades.

Fingers crossed the reconfiguration will get back to something like the original configuration and say au revoir to baseball at Olympic Stadium for good!

The renders released show a completely updated lower bowl without a Baseball set up





from LaPresse

[TorontoDrew]

Originally Posted by Calgarian

They have scoreboards there for people to see and the whole ice surface is visible, what more do you need?

The same thing a lot of people also apparently need and that has been addressed in the new design, unobstructed views of the entire arena. Part of the fun of going to a game is the atmosphere created by the crowd. Even if it's only a few sections that had this site-line it's still terrible. You may as well watch at home.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by cjones2451

The renders released show a completely updated lower bowl without a Baseball set up





from LaPresse

What about the giant black curtai where the baseball scoreboard wasn? That’s really gotta go if they want to do this proper.


These renders look like the bottom configuration, not the original configuration which had seating around the entire lower bowl of the stadium.