[Silence&Motion]

I would hate to live in your vision of Calgary and I suspect most people under 50 would agree.

Events are pretty important in a vibrant city.

Without an event center to host these types of occasions, the city will continue to bleed young people.

Lots of cities manage to hold events without transferring hundreds of millions in public funds directly into the pockets of billionaires.

Also, lots of people under 50 don't give a damn about the NHL or the Rolling Stones.

 

[Disraeli]

Also, lots of people under 50 don't give a damn about the Rolling Stones.

They can't get no satisfaction with that attitude

 

[heightjunkie]

It makes me sad seeing all of the other potential renders that were thrown out, and thinking of Calgary next, then knowing this is what we got. Olympic dollars would have gone a long way towards something nicer... Sigh.

I think this will be an EV back breaker.

 

[IceCreamMan]

It makes me sad seeing all of the other potential renders that were thrown out, and thinking of Calgary next, then knowing this is what we got. Olympic dollars would have gone a long way towards something nicer... Sigh.

I think this will be an EV back breaker.

Makes you miss what CalgaryNEXT could have been, especially in an ideal spot like the West Village:

More images here: https://gecarchitecture.com/projects/calgarynext/

 

[Duck Lightning]

The render of CalgaryNEXT was also done by Rossetti and featured an inverted bowl. The Inverted bowl concept only seated 15K max in the current Event Centre project. This means that with a traditional arena bowl CalgaryNEXT could have cost more and taken up more space than was shown at the time. Also note that there is no sizable parkade in that render which would have been a guarantee given the lack of surface parking in that area.

 

[IceCreamMan]

Sure; however, those were still the conceptual phases of the project. The bowl size, the stadium programming, a future parkade, etc. could all have been further designed and developed as the project progressed, budgets pulled tighter (or expanded), and priorities changed. I highly doubt the iteration you see in the above form would have been the final form, it's way too preliminary to say what would have been the final result. Too many factors. However, the concept and location are more impactful and impressive than what we've seen in the current iteration - and I don't hate the current iteration. That's just my opinion though.

 

[Duck Lightning]

What I'd like to see with the new arena is a farmers market on Stampede Trail during off times in the summer. That should keep the foot traffic up in the area in between sporting events and festivals.

 

[The Familia]

I’d say the current arena concepts are not much better than the Edmonton library architecturally. Still bitter that after all the talking, time, arguing, and money this is all we could come up with for $600 million. I actually find it embarrassing that a firm like HOK could even come up with this amateur design.

 

[polak]

I’d say the current arena concepts are not much better than the Edmonton library architecturally. Still bitter that after all the talking, time, arguing, and money this is all we could come up with for $600 million. I actually find it embarrassing that a firm like HOK could even come up with this amateur design.

This is being so dramatic. Can you find a better arena in North America built for $600MM CAD (2021 dollars)?

 

[Duck Lightning]

This is being so dramatic. Can you find a better arena in North America built for $600MM CAD (2021 dollars)?

Nationwide Arena in Columbus cost $175 million USD in 1998. That's $291,698,159.51 USD or $365,308,190.06 CAD in 2021. It holds 18,500
PPG Paints arena in Pittsburgh cost $321 million USD in 2008. That's $405,077,569.75 USD or $507,242,183.62 CAD in 2021. It holds 18,387
Either material costs are crazy high leading to an ugly exterior or the internals are going to be state of the art. Or both

 

[UrbanWarrior]

This is being so dramatic. Can you find a better arena in North America built for $600MM CAD (2021 dollars)?

Are you on the design team or something?

 

[darwink]

^ Since it was a private arena, that is most likely only the hard costs of the arena project, not everything else that came along with it—the concessionary land lease, the cost of financing, the huge parking garages. Even much of the interior outfit could be considered a leasehold improvement, not an 'arena cost'.

In the end, the $10 million yearly lease was too much for the team, and the city had to bail them out.

 

[Duck Lightning]

Prudential Center which opened in 2007 in Newark NJ has a similar lot size of about 160m by 200m. It includes a practice rink on the same lot and it only held a max of 17,625 for hockey when it opened. It also has flat walls pressed up against the the street

 

[UrbanRED]

This is being so dramatic. Can you find a better arena in North America built for $600MM CAD (2021 dollars)?

CapitalOne Arena was constructed for US$260M ($442M in today's dollars, or $553M CAD), and has great street interaction

 

[ShotArch]

This is being so dramatic. Can you find a better arena in North America built for $600MM CAD (2021 dollars)?

Vegas somehow managed to put this flashy thing together for 375 million USD in 2014, that's 430 mil in 2021 or about 539 million CAD.

Now that's what I call a bargain...