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BASE said:
A wake up call for sure on the stadium. I have to believe some renos were proposed as part of the bid but I don't know if they would have been on the level of the 500+ Million reno BC place underwent recently.
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We don't need 500M+ to put it up to par with BC place. I would estimate around 100~150M to do that, considering the current infrastructure.
With 600M you'd build a brand new, modern arena for ~40k people, on par with some premium European arenas.
 
The dated stadium argument is a bit of a red herring for me, given BMO in Toronto. I know that they are planning a major renovation to be able to be a host city, but I thought we were as well. I remember something $100M plus? $100M+ will get a whole lot more than a new grass pitch. And the renderings that were posted earlier in this thread showed some of what was planned. I'm sure the concourse area, concessions and washroom deficiencies would have been addressed and accounted for in the $100M + reno budget. And even with BMO's reno it will still only hold 45,736 (per their website). That's at least 10k less than what Commonwealth holds. 10k seats x $avg ticket price x 3 or 4 games would work out to a fair chunk of change. If they were making the host city selection based on the current state of various Cities stadiums then Toronto/BMO should have got cut before Commonwealth/Edmonton. If the selection is based on the future state (including the proposed renos/expansions) then I would like to know exactly where we fell short compared to Toronto/BMO.

Disclaimer - I have absolutely nothing against Toronto/BMO. Wonderful city and, I'm sure, a good stadium to watch a football game in. What I am trying to get to, in my own mind, is if the stadiums in the various cities played a part in a successful (or not) selection, then how did BMO (be it current or future state) make the cut when Commonwealth didn't?
 
JNO1 said:
The dated stadium argument is a bit of a red herring for me, given BMO in Toronto. I know that they are planning a major renovation to be able to be a host city, but I thought we were as well. I remember something $100M plus? $100M+ will get a whole lot more than a new grass pitch. And the renderings that were posted earlier in this thread showed some of what was planned. I'm sure the concourse area, concessions and washroom deficiencies would have been addressed and accounted for in the $100M + reno budget. And even with BMO's reno it will still only hold 45,736 (per their website). That's at least 10k less than what Commonwealth holds. 10k seats x $avg ticket price x 3 or 4 games would work out to a fair chunk of change. If they were making the host city selection based on the current state of various Cities stadiums then Toronto/BMO should have got cut before Commonwealth/Edmonton. If the selection is based on the future state (including the proposed renos/expansions) then I would like to know exactly where we fell short compared to Toronto/BMO.

Disclaimer - I have absolutely nothing against Toronto/BMO. Wonderful city and, I'm sure, a good stadium to watch a football game in. What I am trying to get to, in my own mind, is if the stadiums in the various cities played a part in a successful (or not) selection, then how did BMO (be it current or future state) make the cut when Commonwealth didn't?
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Absolutely agree with the BMO vs. Commonwealth point. Problem is, although BMO is inferior to Commonwealth, Toronto scores so many other points (location, population, accommodations, airport) that it was never realistic to think they would be excluded.
 
I’m a big F1 fan have been for many years and I have a fondness for Vettel except when he drove for Ferrari But the hypocrisy of wearing a tee shirt with this message is beyond the pale. Coming from a country that relies on Russia for it’s energy supplies a country that has no accountability to the world’s climate crisis leaves me speechless. Well perhaps not. Very disappointed he should stick to what he knows best driving an F1 car and his country’s energy miss steps.
 
Glenco said:
I’m a big F1 fan have been for many years and I have a fondness for Vettel except when he drove for Ferrari But the hypocrisy of wearing a tee shirt with this message is beyond the pale. Coming from a country that relies on Russia for it’s energy supplies a country that has no accountability to the world’s climate crisis leaves me speechless. Well perhaps not. Very disappointed he should stick to what he knows best driving an F1 car and his country’s energy miss steps.
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I quite like Vettel, usually agree with him on things, but I agree that this was a pretty poor choice for him. I think he definitely knew this would go over well in Montreal too. What he really should've worn was a t-shirt saying "Stop importing Saudi Oil", but I don't think that would've went over quite as well for him
 
why is no one commenting on the elephant in the room?

it’s not surprising that fifa didn’t award games to a city that has poor - if any - air connections to the cities that teams will be coming from or the cities they will be departing to is it?

it’s not just the teams and their entourages this is important to, fans from all over the world need to be able to book flights and can’t do so until after the previous matches have determined where their team will play next.

try and book a large group - say 6 - 12 people, not even a really large group - to any of the other 15 cities and then on to any of the other 15 cities and see how much of your trip is spent in airports or overnighting in or adjacent to airports (if you can get that many rooms on short notice), particularly when you need to transfer from an arriving international flight to a domestic flight and vice versa.
 
as for vettel, maybe i missed somehing here?

was there a t-shirt in bahrain or saudi arabia or azerbaijan or miami with an anti-oil slogan and a picture of an oil tanker or a pipeline with a climate crime description below it?

what's planned for the t-shirt and the helmet for the aramco gp in austin texas or those upcoming races in mexicoand brazil and abu dhabi to wrap up the season?

if this was a belief and not a publicity stunt, vettel would at least be driving in formula e instead of formula 1.

as an aside, vettel's personal car collection includes a ferrari california t, a ferrari f430, a ferrari 488 gtb, an aston martin vantage, and an aston martin dbx. not a chevy volt or toyota pius or even a tesla in the bunch.
 
kcantor said:
why is no one commenting on the elephant in the room?

it’s not surprising that fifa didn’t award games to a city that has poor - if any - air connections to the cities that teams will be coming from or the cities they will be departing to is it?

it’s not just the teams and their entourages this is important to, fans from all over the world need to be able to book flights and can’t do so until after the previous matches have determined where their team will play next.

try and book a large group - say 6 - 12 people, not even a really large group - to any of the other 15 cities and then on to any of the other 15 cities and see how much of your trip is spent in airports or overnighting in or adjacent to airports (if you can get that many rooms on short notice), particularly when you need to transfer from an arriving international flight to a domestic flight and vice versa.
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Certainly a factor but I would say one that would have been easily resolved with the likely addition of widebody frequencies from various hubs. without looking too speficically of the host cities chosen I would say YEG would have had the weakest air connections but it wouldn't be a country mile worse than other cities selected such as Kansas City and Monterrey.
 
kcantor said:
why is no one commenting on the elephant in the room?

it’s not surprising that fifa didn’t award games to a city that has poor - if any - air connections to the cities that teams will be coming from or the cities they will be departing to is it?

it’s not just the teams and their entourages this is important to, fans from all over the world need to be able to book flights and can’t do so until after the previous matches have determined where their team will play next.

try and book a large group - say 6 - 12 people, not even a really large group - to any of the other 15 cities and then on to any of the other 15 cities and see how much of your trip is spent in airports or overnighting in or adjacent to airports (if you can get that many rooms on short notice), particularly when you need to transfer from an arriving international flight to a domestic flight and vice versa.
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That is mostly irrelevant.

I'll give you the example of Brazil 2014, as I am familiar with the cities and their connections, but I know similar things happened in both Russia and South Africa.

Out of the 12 host cities, as of December 2013 (new flights were acquired later), the direct international flights were (divided by region):

Southeast:
São Paulo (GRU+VCP) had direct flights to pretty much anywhere on Earth (together, over 160 international destinations)
Rio had direct flights to most major cities in the western hemisphere, and several important destinations in Asia (over 90 International destinations)
Belo Horizonte (a metro area about the size of the GTA) had 1x week Miami 2x week to Orlando, 2x week to Buenos Aires and 3x week to Panama City

These three cities had multiple flights a day between each other. They are the largest, richest and most important business centers in Brazil. Rio and São Paulo will also had multiple flights a day to all the other cities in the list (except for Cuiaba, which had a 3x week frequency from Rio and 1x day from São Paulo )

Northeast:
Salvador (a metro about the sizer of Montreal's) had 1x week flights to Lisbon and 2x week to Buenos Aires
Fortaleza (another metro about the sizer of Montreal's) had 2x week flights to Orlando, 2x week flights to Lisbon and 1x week to Amsterdam
Recife (yet another metro about the sizer of Montreal's) had 1x week to Cabo Verde, 1x week to Fort Lauderdale and 1x week to Lisbon

These cities had at least one flight a day to each other and daily (Mon-Fri) to Brasilia, but less than 2x week to all of the other destinations, and no direct flights to two of the cities on the list (Porto Alegre and Cuiaba)

North:
Manaus (a metro about the sizer of Vancouver's) had 1x week Lisbon, 1x week Orlando, 1x week Miami

Daily flights (Mon-Fri) to Brasilia, a few flights a week to Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife and Fortaleza, no flights to the other cities (except Rio and São Paulo)

Centre-west:
Brasilia (the nation's capital and also a metro about the sizer of Montreal's) had 4x week Buenos Aires, 1x week Lisbon, 3x week Orlando, 2x week Miami, 2x week Orlando
Cuiaba (whose metro is smaller and MUCH MORE ISOLATED than the Edmonton Proper) had 1x week Assumpcion, 1x week Bogota

Brasilia has at least one daily direct flight to each of the cities here, Monday to Friday, with a few more to Salvador, Recife and Porto Alegre. Cuiaba only had flights to Rio, São Paulo and Brasilia.

South:
Curitiba (another metro about the sizer of Vancouver's) had 1x week Miami and 2x week Buenos Aires
Porto Alegre (you guessed, a metro about the sizer of Montreal's) had 5x week to Buenos Aires, 3x week to Montevideo, 1x week to Punta del Este and 1x week to Santiago

They both had multiple flights a day between each other, Rio, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo, but barely any direct flights to the other regions of the country, other than a 2x week from both of them to Recife and Salvador, only during the summer (November to February)

As you can clearly see, all but two (which happen to be two of the larges cities on the planet, one of them being the biggest financial hub south of the equator and the other one of the world's top tourist destinations) had FAR LESS direct connections than Edmonton, both domestic and international. Most of the airports (all of them except GRU, GIG and BSB) have a far inferior infrastructure than YEG's.

For the 6 months preceding the event, and through the duration of it, and up until the end of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, ALL of these cities had at least 1x week flights to major destinations in North America and Europe, as well as daily connections between each other (most of them, twice a day, at least). A lot of them kept some of the flights through early 2020 (then Covid reshuffled the industry).

Similar stories happened in Russia and South Africa, and there is ABSOLUTELY NO REASON why it couldn't happen here.

If you stop to think, out of the 16 host cities, we have direct flights to:
YVR, YYT, LAX, SFO and SEA, and one could fly SAN to get to Guadalajara. Considering the regionalized approach they took, it wouldn't be an issue for any of the teams playing here.
I could also see us getting flights to and from other major destinations that we had, or even some airlines temporarily redirecting flights from YYC here for the duration of the event, for example (Dallas, Miami, Boston, New York, Mexico City)
 
'I could also see us getting flights to and from other major destinations that we had, or even some airlines temporarily redirecting flights from YYC here for the duration of the event, for example (Dallas, Miami, Boston, New York, Mexico City)'

You obviously do not comprehend the airline industry (nor do I for that matter), for they don't make temporary shifts or changes like that for 3-5 days.

The fact of the matter is that we need LHR or FRA and ORD or MSP to really move the needle for YEG, Edmonton, bids and our business/leisure community.
 
"Lander said the condition could have also been a shrewd political move by the Alberta government to offer a large sum of money with conditions that were never going to be met.

'At least now the government can shrug its shoulders and say: 'Well, we tried.'"

Part of me thinks that sounds plausible, but another part of me thinks that it's giving Kenney too much credit.

ca.finance.yahoo.com

Economic loss would have exceeded gains if Edmonton had held World Cup games: expert

EDMONTON — An economics professor says Edmonton should be happy it was not selected to host games for the 2026 FIFA World Cup because the cost would have exceeded the economic benefits. "Edmonton can focus its money on (light rail transit) security, linking up to the airport, building some...
ca.finance.yahoo.com ca.finance.yahoo.com
 
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