Calgary Event Centre | 36.85m | 11s | CSEC | HOK

[Duck Lightning]

I'm actually sceptical whether that ribbon jumbotron in the Intuit Dome will catch on. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to maintain because it hovers over seats and cant just be lowered down to the arena floor like jumbotrons usually are and the acoustics are gonna be a pain in the ass to tune for concerts. You also risk blocking audience noise from the upper bowl in a similar way the roof / press boxes do for the press level of the Saddledome.

 

[badc0ffee]

Wow, that wall thing is a bit different: https://www.nba.com/clippers/thewall

Clippers fans only, and only to those who are "chuckmark"-approved: https://www.nba.com/clippers/chuckmark which is utterly alien to me. If they want to make sure only the most passionate fans are there and not just people posing for social media, I'm not sure that's the way to do it.

 

[Duck Lightning]

Probably the closest thing we have to that in the NHL is Bridgestone Arena because the seating bowl is designed primarily for concerts: https://www.bridgestonearena.com/assets/img/ADAseating_v2-5f332e4c40.jpg

 

[Tothewest]

I'm actually sceptical whether that ribbon jumbotron in the Intuit Dome will catch on. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to maintain because it hovers over seats and cant just be lowered down to the arena floor like jumbotrons usually are and the acoustics are gonna be a pain in the ass to tune for concerts. You also risk blocking audience noise from the upper bowl in a similar way the roof / press boxes do for the press level of the Saddledome.

I'd say it has a very low chance of catching on. Wildly expensive i am sure, and as a "viewer", what exactly is the net positive. Certainly some more stats that would otherwise go on auxiliary boards, but the viewing arena for replays and stuff is actually smaller than a normal board.

 

[Surrealplaces]

It definitely seems like you'd need something that can host a lot of things...Stamps, Cavalry, concerts/festivals, University/Community sports, perhaps track and field, etc....It would probably need to be a compromised jack-of-all-trades type building, but I don't think any one entity can really justify it by itself. And it would most likely need some sort of big event catalyst to get the proper government funding...I just don't see it being very viable for any private enterprise, unless they are in the business of losing money.

I'm on the fence about whether to renovate McMahon, or to put our efforts into a smaller stadium/large field house say around 20-25,000 that could be used for multiple sports. I've been to a couple of football matches in Europe in stadiums that were smaller, and it was quite enjoyable. The smaller footprint allowed the stadiums to integrate better with the surrounding neighbourhood, you hardly noticed them until you right in front of them. One of the ones I liked was this stadium in Villarreal Spain. It holds 23,000 and has a nice atmosphere, and you can see here it's not overpowering in the neighborhood. I'm not saying that exact design, but something more compact in a more central location that blends in with its surroundings. I haven't been to the new TD Place stadium at Lansdowne, but that's also another example. Something in that style of footprint and in a more central location.

 

[DiscoStu]

I'm all for a smaller stadium like your Villarreal example. With it's failing demographics I don't really see the CFL getting back to ever needing 40-50K stadiums again any time soon, and a smaller stadium would just have more atmosphere for them and for the Cavalry if they ever want to be closer to the city.

And yeah, I love stadiums that integrate instead of overwhelm. There are ton of them in Europe, but here in North America, I remember the Timbers stadium in Portland integrating really well.

Apart from the McMahon lands, I could even see something like this working well directly next to UD (perhaps where the existing soccer field is), where it could directly draw from a young population always on the lookout for some (cheap) entertainment. Make it a more accessible alternative to the NHL, and I think you could build yourself a pretty good fanbase more akin to what you get at American college towns.