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Urban Development and Proposals Discussion

darwink said:
To pay for the post Olympic round of renovations, the BC government provides $15 million a year, on top of an $8 million yearly operating subsidy. They're in the middle of a third renovation for FIFA, which is now estimated to be $176 million give or take 5 million.

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That would be a big cost to take on, given the city and province currently provide $0 yearly to McMahon.

I'd guess that a baseline $1 billion stadium would end up in the $40 million a year range to build and operate.

If can build it AND use it for Rodeo and Chucks, you add a lot of events. The Grandstand is also old. If you made it enclosed, it could also be used as more tradeshow floors. Replace McMahon, the Grandstand, and the Big 4, maybe you start to get to 'viable'.

Eye balling that, it might work.
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Interesting numbers, the budget deficit isn't great, but its far below the secondary revenues the stadium events bring in.

TBH I'm really not sold on the grandstand / stadium 2 for 1, too niche of a use to incorporate well IMO, and from a branding perspective I don't think the greatest outdoor show on earth should be in an enclosed venue, never mind a covered one!

Can't find the stats right now, but I seem to recall reading that BC place was booked for over 200 days a year, with a lot of that being conference use, not just sports or concert events. That's more of the primary lens I see the project through, adding that space to BMO and the arena to get bigger conferences, which is why I think the location closer to grand central is a better fit.
 
Mountain Man said:
Again, a football stadium on the Saddledome site will require demolition of the Stampede HQ. Not sure if that's in the card for them at this point, maybe they decide to build something new as part of this revamp Populous are going to look into.
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C'mon Populous... I can very easily see them telling the Stampede to move their HQ into a strip of buildings along Stampede Trail. The street-level would of course have a Stampede Store and other retail food and bev.

Curious what Populous will come up with for the Saddledome land... @Surrealplaces has said the requisite parties have had a conversation, I wonder who that is? The City, Province, CSEC, the Southern's, the UofC, does it include the Stampede? If it does maybe Populous at least puts something out there. I know there are doubters but I think in ten years there will be at least a decently renovated McMahon or something new in the 20,000 to 25,000 seat capacity range. The thing with McMahon is because the University owns it, the Province owns it, so when you look at the future of the stadium, the Province needs to be at the table.
 
ByeByeBaby said:
A 50,000 seat stadium opened less than three weeks ago in Toronto. It's designed as a temporary 5-year facility, and it's only for concerts, but nonetheless it's fascinating to see the numbers worked out for that project.
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This one isn't really comparable. It's just bleachers with a stage. A lot of the costs of facilities isn't the seats alone. There's not even permanent washrooms, all porta potties. And no field, which means none of the infrastructure associated with it like drainage, watering systems, etc.
InfrastructureEnthusiast said:
View attachment 666778

I still think the above is a reasonable goal for Calgary.

The metro Vancouver population was under 1.5 mil when it opened, and I don't think its ever been considered oversized..

Seems like the bus barn site would offer the best synergy between facilities, could always integrate new bus barns into the basement if there's nowhere else for them to go.
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I think a key part of that lies in the name. It's the provinces stadium primarily. And most provinces have at least one of these stadiums. We got one too, it's just in Edmonton
Roaring Flames said:
I think the only new arena we'll likely see built in the future will be a 5k-8k arena for the Calgary Surge as they appear to be ready for it and Scotia Place really doesn't have room for another team. A good opportunity would be with the replacement of Father David Bauer Arena
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The most recent budget request from the city still had the fieldhouse. Not sure if it'll stay if there's a new mayor but for now seems like they're still going ahead. If that gets done, a new arena will probably be needed on the site, something a bit bigger than WinSport.
Albertasaurus said:
Realistically, I don't see enough public money being available to build a stadium for a long time. Especially with so many expensive city-building projects already underway.
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I don't think this is true. It always gets said when there's lot of building happening, but that's literally all the time. Before the Event Centre it was BMO, before that was the Central Library, and before that was two of the largest rec centres in the world. The city by its nature runs a surplus every year. Yes, we've drew down a bit on our reserves, but there's still a lot of money left there.
 
Does anyone known the timeline of how the land ownership around McMahon evolved?

The Stampeders official page says
Built in an astounding 103 days in 1960, McMahon Stadium replaced the dilapidated Mewata Stadium as the Stampeders’ home field.
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The stadium was built on 40 acres of land with a 99-year lease from the City of Calgary.
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From Wiki on U of C:
In July 1957, the University of Alberta signed a one dollar lease with the City of Calgary, for 121.4 hectares (300 acres) of land. In 1958, the University of Alberta changed the name of the branch campus to the "University of Alberta in Calgary," and unveiled plans for new permanent facilities on the leased land.
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And now the city's website shows U of C as the landowner:
Screenshot 2025-07-18 at 12.40.45 PM.png


Is it still under the lease agreement, or does the U of C actually own the land now (and presumably pay property tax)?
 
lemongrab said:
Does anyone known the timeline of how the land ownership around McMahon evolved?

The Stampeders official page says



From Wiki on U of C:


And now the city's website shows U of C as the landowner:
View attachment 666997

Is it still under the lease agreement, or does the U of C actually own the land now (and presumably pay property tax)?
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From the wiki about McMahon:

The university acquired complete ownership of the stadium and land in 1985 after the original financing was retired (1973) and a land exchange agreement was signed with the City of Calgary.
 
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