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

Do you support the proposal for the new arena?

  • Yes

    Votes: 88 64.7%
  • No

    Votes: 39 28.7%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 9 6.6%

  • Total voters
    136
how about this: Demolish everything but the roof and leave it on stilts. Then we can have a giant floating concrete pringle.
That's some outside the box thinking. Demolish everything but the roof - have a semi-protected from hail parking lot underneath for 50 years!
 
Given:
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I bet you could remove most of the lower bowl without destroying the supportive structure, and use it as a very large open span exhibition space, and even as an indoor 'music festival' space/2nd tier concert space with a bit more care paid to washrooms.

Think about it as a 'super' big 4 replacement, instead of as a modification of the current use and I think you'll see a bit of what I think is possible there.

More boxes, lodges, 'rails'. I could see it being CSEC wanting to get more expensive things they want anyways, using an excuse of social distancing to reduce overall ticket counts (remembering that a flat ticket 'tax' is how the facility is being paid for!)
If you could remove the lower bowl and maintain the upper and remove the roof I wonder if you could fit a CFL field for the Stamps new home - probably not.
 
I distinctly remember seeing a feasibility report about placing a second level at bottom the upper bowl, creating space for 5 minor hockey rinks (2 lower, 3 upper). It'd require some structural upgrades, but the cost was pretty low compared to the demolition and creation of a 5 rink center from scratch, and it keeps the building in the hockey community.
 
Definitely not big enough for football, not even close.
Didn't you hear? The CFL is converting to an arena football league. Now they can repurpose the Saddledome. 😁

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I distinctly remember seeing a feasibility report about placing a second level at bottom the upper bowl, creating space for 5 minor hockey rinks (2 lower, 3 upper). It'd require some structural upgrades, but the cost was pretty low compared to the demolition and creation of a 5 rink center from scratch, and it keeps the building in the hockey community.
I think that was in edmonton.
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Whatever happens, the greatest benefit of clearing out a large open space for convention use is it buys time if we want a different use further in the future that isn't apparent now. You're removing most of the items that need to be lifecycled, significantly reducing ongoing costs, and possibly even extending the lifespan of current things, like the roof system (" Constructed using precast concrete panels suspended by post-tensioned cables") by reducing hung loads.
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It would also be nice to have a roof like that on the new event centre, but yeah, it’d be Uber cool if the Saddledome had it.
 
Gotta love how a city of 130,000 in New Zealand with a relatively amazing climate can get an indoor rugby stadium like that, yet we can't even get a field house... a city thirteen times the size.
 
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