Scotia Place | 36.85m | 11s | CSEC | HOK

Do you support the proposal for the new arena?

  • Yes

    Votes: 103 67.3%

  • No

    Votes: 40 26.1%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 10 6.5%
  • Total voters
    153
The Familia said:
I truly feel a couple hotels would be the major catalyst for the area. They would provide constant foot traffic of people looking for something to do. People who live in the condos nearby don’t necessarily go walking around the area. They come home from work, maybe cook, watch TV, go to bed. People staying in hotels don’t usually want to hang around their room and would rather be out exploring and spending money.
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I had no idea people who live in Condos live such depressing lives where they never leave the house but to work. I guess all the foot traffic Chinatown gets is solely anchored by the Delta hotel off 1st street
 
Honestly it's more than just the roof, otherwise I doubt they would have any issue spending the hundreds of millions to renovate the roof instead of the hundreds of millions more to replace the whole arena. The Saddledome just has too much out of date compared to a new facility to make it worth renovating. Not enough loading docks, a small club area, shallow lower bowl, outdated interior spaces, only one concourse, not enough bathrooms, a small event level, not enough office space, no elevators (without club/suite tickets), no escalators, no full sized team store, etc.
 
The issue is the roof is in terrible shape (it's literally falling apart), but it was also designed too low and can't support the weight of touring sound systems, which is why most acts skip Calgary and play Edmonton. The roof is the defining feature of the Saddledome, but also the biggest limiter to what events it can host. There are many many other problems as you allude to, but the roof makes fixing the building a non starter.
 
Mountain Man said:
The issue is the roof is in terrible shape (it's literally falling apart), but it was also designed too low and can't support the weight of touring sound systems, which is why most acts skip Calgary and play Edmonton. The roof is the defining feature of the Saddledome, but also the biggest limiter to what events it can host. There are many many other problems as you allude to, but the roof makes fixing the building a non starter.
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I'm curious what happens when our arena is finished. Will we take concerts away from Edmonton? Will tours just add Calgary on top of their tours? Or do we both get more tours because they CAN do both?

With equally capable arenas, you'd assume Calgary would be a little more desirable destination (bigger population, generally wealthier demographic, more easily accessible via road/air) but I'm curious if that will be the case or does Edmonton have something else (besides the smell of sewage) that gives it an edge.
 
When it comes to concerts Rogers Place and Scotia Place are kinda equal? Edmonton has the Hotel directly across the street which is a plus, and Calgary has the better green room and dressing room layout (closer to the stage) but that's about it. The metro populations are close enough in size and close enough in distance from each other not to really matter. This becomes doubly true if a high speed rail connection is built.
 
DiscoStu said:
I'm curious what happens when our arena is finished. Will we take concerts away from Edmonton? Will tours just add Calgary on top of their tours? Or do we both get more tours because they CAN do both?

With equally capable arenas, you'd assume Calgary would be a little more desirable destination (bigger population, generally wealthier demographic, more easily accessible via road/air) but I'm curious if that will be the case or does Edmonton have something else (besides the smell of sewage) that gives it an edge.
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This is one of the stats I really want to see too. That's has long been the pitch by the pro-public funding for an arena crowd: pay for a new arena, with a better roof = more concerts and bigger acts. I have long been an arena skeptic, but think this one area where the booster argument might make sense, at least logically.

I took a quick scan of the 2025 February event calendar for Edmonton's new and Calgary Old arena is the same - only 2 concerts (Mother Mother and Our Lady Peace play both). Edmonton is getting Cirque du Soleil, we are not - so that's one event. Future months seems fairly similar between the two - there doesn't really appear to be much difference in events. This is hardly scientific - would be great if there was a way to apple-to-apples compare the two arenas.

Is the idea that having 2 high quality arenas in the province will be the critical mass to attract more acts that currently 1 arena alone can't attract? I would love to see the proof once this arena opens. Will we actually get more/different/better concerts?
 
I know its wishful thinking but a modern 30k capacity stadium on the Saddledome site would be awesome to replace McMahon if they could make it work with that space, have the Stamps and the Cavs (down the road) play there & truly make this the sports and entertainment district. They would need to allow tailgating in the main lot. I love the vibe of the games out at Spruce Meadows, but the transportation out there is a massive obstacle to really start pulling in a bigger crowd.
 
CBBarnett said:
This is one of the stats I really want to see too. That's has long been the pitch by the pro-public funding for an arena crowd: pay for a new arena, with a better roof = more concerts and bigger acts. I have long been an arena skeptic, but think this one area where the booster argument might make sense, at least logically.
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Having a better space for concerts is not a BS argument by any means, but yeah, I feel like it got way too much weight in the argument for spending hundreds of millions of public dollars on a new arena. I'm sure it will be a positive addition, but listening to some people it was almost like we were going to be getting a new concert venue that occasionally would also host a hockey game.
 
I can remember U2 skipping Calgary years ago, and Elton John more recently. But, true, it's not like Edmonton is getting these kinds of shows all the time.

Either way I'll be happy for a replacement venue for arena-sized concerts. As much as I've enjoyed most of the shows I've seen at the dome over the years (shout out to System of a Down + Mars Volta), the sound there is usually terrible, and the sight lines are awful in many of the seats.
 
The sound definitely is terrible. I saw Tool there about a year ago, and I was right beside the sound booth on the floor, and it was still echo-y. It doesn't help that they can't lower the jumbotron (or whatever it's called now) so they just put acoustic blankets over it lol. Hopefully the new building they can lower it and take it away, it's just a bunch of LED screens now anyway...
 
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