Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

A shot from our 'seats' aka Pil Zone from the other day (pre-game). What an awesome stadium!

Definitely the best in the country, Winnipeg a close second.

[J.OT13]

Skydome renovations progress:

• Video Link

What it should look like when it's all done:

• Video Link

[elly63]

Wonder what they are doing with the old seats.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

I was in the stadium and there were quite a few 'empty' groupings of tickets, 10 here, 20 there, but the concourses were packed throughout the game as well.

Clearly some of the blocks were either not used or abandoned by the group. It was odd seeing those given that it was sold out and that it was not one of the big 3 (BC, Sky, Commonwealth), but it didn't really detract.

The game was announced as sold out weeks if not months ago, so I'm not sure what the CFL can do about people who spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on tickets and decided not to use them...

You touched on another thing that is common in newer stadiums, a lot of people do like to stand around in common areas such that their seats are empty. We see this a lot at IG Field, people will buy cheaper upper deck seats and then stand by the Rum Hut all game. So it's not like the old days where empty seat automatically meant unsold seat. In Regina on Sunday, the empty seats were sold...

[Coldrsx]

I can say that throughout the game (when heading to the can or bar), there were thousands on the concourse at any one time.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

I can say that throughout the game (when heading to the can or bar), there were thousands on the concourse at any one time.

This is a legit design flaw with IG Field. The concourse is wide enough if you assume that people are just walking through it on their way to their seats. It is not wide enough if you have thousands of people standing around on it while others are trying to get around.

Anytime the crowd exceeds 30,000, you really notice that congestion leading up to kickoff and at halftime.

I'm old school, if it were up to me there would be absolutely no views of the game from the concourse. You want to see the game, sit in your damn seat and watch the game

[Coldrsx]

Agreed in full, but folks aren't there for sport as much as they used to be... it's easily 50% a social (booze) fest.

[esquire]

^ Ha, yes, I realize that my position on the matter is not the most profitable one.

[Coldrsx]

80s Commonwealth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn7_KppKOrs

[Djeffery]

And I thought the walk to the top row of Skydome was bad lol

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Coldrsx

80s Commonwealth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn7_KppKOrs

The best outdoor stadium ever built in Canada. The only shortcoming that it really has is lack of covered seating of any type.

It's so big and so audacious, even to this day... it easily fit right in with the NFL stadiums of its era, let alone the CFL. Only Vancouver and Montreal can also say that.

I still love the 70s aesthetic that typifies Commonwealth. It has been marred slightly by additions and alterations over the years, but the original character still shines through.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by esquire

It's so big and so audacious, even to this day... it easily fit right in with the NFL stadiums of its era, let alone the CFL. Only Vancouver and Montreal can also say that.

There is such a huge gap between the kinds of projects that were successfully completed in Edmonton in the 1970's and what might be built in a comparable Canadian city today. Commonwealth stadium and the LRT both opened within a few years and Edmonton was a Kitchener-Waterloo style and scaled metro area, with much less economic activity back then, growing at what's now a fairly standard rate in Canada.

The excuses given for why we can't build things today were all true back in the 1970's. Inflation and economic issues, disruptions, etc. The 2020's so far are a lot like the 70's.

I think we are going to find that we do not have enough infrastructure in the next decade and it will impinge on our quality of life. As a hypothetical scenario imagine that prices to attend events at stadiums go way up beyond what we are already accustomed to and it becomes normal for people to commute only in small portions of metro areas, like how a lot of third world cities function. Eventually I think this norm will break and there will be politicians who have a "break a few eggs" mentality, don't care about the sacred cows we have now, and change course. The window of opportunity to make the transition more gracefully is rapidly closing or already gone.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by someone123

There is such a huge difference between the kinds of projects that were successfully completed in Edmonton in the 1970's and what might be built in a comparable Canadian city today. Commonwealth stadium and the LRT both opened within a few years and Edmonton was a Kitchener-Waterloo sort of scaled metro area, with much less economic activity back then, growing at what's now a fairly standard rate in Canada.

The excuses given for why we can't build things today were all true back in the 1970's. Inflation and economic issues, disruptions, etc.

I think we are going to find that we do not have enough infrastructure in the next decade and it will impinge on our quality of life. As a hypothetical scenario imagine that prices to attend events at stadiums go way up and it becomes normal for people to commute only in small portions of metro areas.

By today's standards, Edmonton was off the charts in terms of what it managed to get built from the period 1970-1990. Huge stadium, huge arena, LRT (including underground segment), world's largest mall with various outsized attractions, freeways and expressways. It was like a highlight reel of various interesting Chinese projects you'd see today, but all condensed into one city.

The funny thing is that there wasn't a ton of braggadocio coming out of Edmonton in those days, except with regard to WEM which was just so unique and one of a kind. Things like Commonwealth Stadium didn't come with a lot of hype the way new stadiums and arenas get now... it was just accepted and normal that this was a new piece of necessary infrastructure and that was that.

I agree that we are slowly falling into a situation where we are going to be unable to keep building infrastructure at a rate that will be sufficient to maintain quality of life. This is especially so in the top six metros.

[craner]

Originally Posted by esquire

The best outdoor stadium ever built in Canada. The only shortcoming that it really has is lack of covered seating of any type.

It's so big and so audacious, even to this day... it easily fit right in with the NFL stadiums of its era, let alone the CFL. Only Vancouver and Montreal can also say that.

I still love the 70s aesthetic that typifies Commonwealth. It has been marred slightly by additions and alterations over the years, but the original character still shines through.

Agreed - I love Commonwealth.

[UrbanClimate]

Originally Posted by elly63

Definitely the best in the country, Winnipeg a close second.

Here's a couple of drone shots of Regina's stadium from the TSN broadcast of Grey Cup weekend.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by someone123

There is such a huge gap between the kinds of projects that were successfully completed in Edmonton in the 1970's and what might be built in a comparable Canadian city today. Commonwealth stadium and the LRT both opened within a few years and Edmonton was a Kitchener-Waterloo style and scaled metro area, with much less economic activity back then, growing at what's now a fairly standard rate in Canada.

The excuses given for why we can't build things today were all true back in the 1970's. Inflation and economic issues, disruptions, etc. The 2020's so far are a lot like the 70's.

Commonwealth and the LRT received funding from all three levels of government because the existing depression era stadium was inadequate for the Commonwealth Games and the LRT was built to connect Commonwealth to the hotels downtown.

The Eskimos wanted a roof. They were even willing to pay most of it. Montreal 's O killed that idea with their ridiculous overruns.

Waterloo just needs to land an sub Olympic Games (X? Pan American? )and take on a whole lot of debt

[elly63]

Commonwealth before the Universiade expansion
Edmonton's Stadium Legacy
Brief Commonwealth Stadium Construction History

[esquire]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Waterloo just needs to land an sub Olympic Games (X? Pan American? )and take on a whole lot of debt

The profile of the lesser games (in Canada that basically means Commonwealth and Pan Am) has fallen so much that I'm not sure they are really enough to get a new stadium built.

Other parts of the world still go big on these events, e.g. Asian Games, but Commonwealth 1978 was literally the last time a big stadium was built in Canada for one of those two. I guess some might say that Tim Hortons Field was a 2015 Pan Am Games project, but that really just seemed like a convenient cover... I imagine that stadium would have been built either way, and it played a minor role at best in the Pan Am Games.

If a place like Halifax landed the Commonwealth Games I'd expect them to put up a temporary 20,000 seat venue and call it a day. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I would not expect that... costs have increased while our national ambition, at least in that department, has declined.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by UrbanClimate

Here's a couple of drone shots of Regina's stadium from the TSN broadcast of Grey Cup weekend.

I'm not a fan of the siding, tbh however, that is an impressive stadium. Night shot, well the entire bowl day or night, is worthy of the NFL.

[Coldrsx]

^it looks better in person.

They need to work on developing some of the lands east of it towards the Downtown though.