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Would the existing grandstand be completely gutted and redone? That structure isn’t getting any younger either and needs a major overhaul.
 
The Familia said:
Would the existing grandstand be completely gutted and redone? That structure isn’t getting any younger either and needs a major overhaul.
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Could grab the ~2016, 2017 reports from the Olympic Bid Exploration Committee (or whatever its name was). I don't remember either way. They're all available on the city website.
 
darwink said:
Could grab the ~2016, 2017 reports from the Olympic Bid Exploration Committee (or whatever its name was). I don't remember either way. They're all available on the city website.
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Looks like just over 26 Million in 2018 dollars. Right in the first section it mentions creating a stage the size of a CFL Field... Holy, it is right there in black and white.

More seats behind the infield stands and on the track to bring capacity to 40,000. Good Grey Cup capacity.

And Paris thought they came up with the Athletes parade, nope, we did, except it would've been around a dirt chuckwagon racing track, very on brand for us. (Not starting the cliche "western" debate).

To sum up... 18-ish Million to remove the infield roof and install temporary seating, 1 Million for washroom upgrades, and 7-ish Million for the stage (one hell of stage I'm sure). That's the 26 Million Dollars (in 2018) total.

So 100 Million (even in 2024 almost 2025 dollars) could get you to a pretty decent 30,000 seat venue.

Sources: https://www.calgary.ca/major-projects/2026-olympic-bid/reports.html
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It's a fantastical idea (though it shouldn't be), but the condition for public funding on the arena should have been an ownership stake for the Stampede (a not-for-profit org that is essentially arms length from all orders of gov't). And CSEC could have a seat on the Stampede Board. CSEC and Stampede should be complimentary, not competitive (and tbf they are fairly cooperative, but there are plenty of friction points with diverging interests).

The Familia said:
Would the existing grandstand be completely gutted and redone? That structure isn’t getting any younger either and needs a major overhaul.
Click to expand...
It's actually in pretty good shape. At the end of the day you really just want things like:

- Climate controlled concourse that is roomy enough (but thousands of people in same place/time will always end up somewhat cramped), with escalators and elevators to upper levels.

- Actual seats (many under some degree of shelter)

- The big revenue opportunity is the premium event spaces (kind of a different form of 'suite')


With a bigger+better infield grandstand the Stampede could sell more better seats for the rodeo. It's pretty easy to design around the chucks (though ideally we just move on from it altogether...). The evening show would need a re-think (tbh I might have bigger ethical concerns about TYCs than the horse slaughter); I'd look to move the concert series to the new/improved stadium (after or instead of the chucks), and reprogram the arena.
 
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The existing grandstand is a fair bit longer than McMahon (note the corners of the seats are visible and there's a substantial curve so you don't get neck strain watching anything out of the red zone).

The thing that occurred to me is that the chuckwagons just need to go. The track takes up an incredible amount of space on a grounds that are getting overcrowded; my measurement is 86K sq m vs 82K sq m for the midway (including Nash North, Coke Stage, etc). The attendance record keeps getting approached or broken, but it's just too crowded these days; a stampede has another meaning when there's a dense crowd of people involved. The vast majority of animal deaths are chuckwagon horses (72 of 102 between 1986 and 2019, and 4 of 5 since then). There have been lots of changes to the rules; it looks unlike what it did 20 years ago, and there were still 3 horses killed last year. The rodeo is a high-prestige rodeo on the North American circuit drawing global competitors;' the chuckwagon race is a local oddity.

If one venue could host 10 days of rodeo and evening show, 9-11 days of CFL football, 14-15 of CanPL soccer, and 12 or so of Northern Super League soccer plus maybe 2 or 3 concerts, that's actually great usage of a large-field outdoor venue.
 
lemongrab said:
With a bigger+better infield grandstand the Stampede could sell more better seats for the rodeo.
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That's actually a good point. It seems like the rodeo always sells out, even given how expensive it is.

ByeByeBaby said:
The thing that occurred to me is that the chuckwagons just need to go.
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It's a weird event for sure. It's basically a thing in Alberta and neighbouring provinces/states, and that's it. A bunch of the competitors are even from the same family, the Sutherlands.

But I think that because it's so Calgarian, it's not going anywhere for a long time. Until people stop showing up for the chucks, they're going to keep doing it.
 
If they tear McMahon down to the bones and do a full renovation, it could still function just fine.

The Chuckwagons likely do need to go, but they are one of the most popular events at the Stampede and are even televised. Zero chance they let that one go.
 
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