1. As noted by Duck Lightning, the site (now 10 ac) is larger (~40%) than it was previously. I would think there should now be room for a ramp (Edmonton buried it’s parking on a smaller site). There may be other constraints I’m not aware of (cost probably being the main driver), but space doesn’t seem like one anymore.
2. How many parking stalls does $35.4M buy? I don’t think we know the answer to this yet, but I believe someone on the forum counted the number of stalls in the last design and it was 190. It looks like the new parkade area will be larger, but I’d say best case scenario, the Parkade has 1,000 spaces at ~$35k/stall. More realistically, the Parkade probably has 300 - 500 stalls for a significantly higher price per stall.
3. There is a significant amount of parking within a 10 minute walk of the event centre, including Platform which cost $80M for 509 stalls (I acknowledge that a significant amount of the costs are related to the Innovation Centre).
4. $35.4M would pay for a lot of transit. Assuming 18,000 seats, $3.60/trip, and 2 trips per game, 41 home games per season (not accounting for pre-season games, playoffs, non-Flames events, or increased transit prices), $35.4M could pay for free transit for every Flames fan for 13+ season. $35.4M could also pay for a lot of shuttle buses to existing parking lots on game day. There are pro sports teams that have free transit and shuttles as part of their tickets.
5. The only good justification for the parkade is for the Community Arena, but how much will people who use the community arena pay for parking? Also, let’s call it what it is, a training facility for the Flames and CSEC.
6. Burying the Parkade creates more area for plaza space. I’d rather see 200 stalls buried (mostly for players and staff on game nights, and community arena participants) than a 300-500 stall Parkade.above ground for the same cost.