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Holy hell, that has to be one of the most frustrating intersections. I would have hoped it would have been more of a priority than waiting 20 more years to do something more substantial about it.
 
A neat little hotel project in Beltline. 7 storeys, on a midblock site on 1 ST SE south of 15th AV SE, basically across the street from Alpha House. I love these little small-footprint midrise projects for midblock sites and hope we see a lot more of them.
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Planning to begin on next generation of Stampede Park​


Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley talking about making Stampede Park being a year round destination:
“When you think of Stampede Park and the surrounding area, people go there for events. It’s entirely event-driven. It’s either a sporting event, it’s the Stampede, it’s a trade show, it’s a consumer show, it’s a concert. We have such an incredible opportunity with the land, and in particular, the open land that’s in the area to develop it into an everyday destination,” Cowley said.

“With that beautiful Elbow River flowing there to the east, thinking about the Saddledome coming down and opening up, and eventually, maybe the bus barn coming down and a river walk on that side along with all the development that will surround Scotia Place, this will be a place where people want to come every single day, and that’s really exciting.”

He said that the planning would focus primarily on Stampede Park and it’s connection to the Culture and Entertainment District.

“We have to anticipate future needs and expectations as well as we plan, but we’re also mindful that Stampede Park really needs to join the Culture and Entertainment District and be complementary to it,” Cowley said.

He also talks about the historic 1920s era agriculture building being potentially demolished:
Cowley highlighted that building in particular as one to be examined by the Stampede, during Calgary Municipal Land Corporation’s 15th speaker series event held on March 20.

“It was built in the 1920s. We have a beautiful building next to it called the Nutrien Western Events Center that meets current needs and expectations with regard to livestock and horse show expos. But I’ll be blunt with you, no one wants to stall in the 1920s building. It’s not big enough, and it’s expensive to maintain,” he said.

“We need to look at it as an organization… that was founded on agriculture and promoting agriculture and that industry. We need to really look at that building in particular.”

There wasn’t yet a decision to be made on its future, and that he was personally a proponent of saving heritage buildings, but there was also a need to do something different.
 
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Among other recent Stampede Park news are the new entrance signs being installed in April:​

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Planning to begin on next generation of Stampede Park​


Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley talking about making Stampede Park being a year round destination:


He also talks about the historic 1920s era agriculture building being potentially demolished:
Ice cold water poured on the prospect of a hotel:

CMLC and the Calgary Stampede previously announced in 2022 plans for a $80 million luxury hotel that was set to begin construction in 2024, but which fell through due to financing.

I said it a thousand times but I'll say it again. Put something like the Silos Waco Texas where the dome is. They will not regret it.

I'd also like a downtown sports field and Stampede park would be a great spot for it. It could be well used during Stampede and other events outside of being used for local sports.

Final thing on my wish list would be an amphitheatre.

I'd like the Stampeders to be able to share the Grandstand with the Stampede but I don't think that will happen and I actually don't know why.
 
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Among other recent Stampede Park news are the new entrance signs being installed in April:​

Entrance-Feature-Bull.jpg


Entrance-Feature-Buffalo.jpg


Entrance-Feature-Horse.jpg
The signs look surprisingly nice. I really like the first one especially.
 
I really want to see them build out a year round fair ground and place for entertainment that integrates with the City. Best I've been to and what I would hope to see something similar to is Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen.
Here is a comparison of the land that Tivoli gardens takes up compared to the Stampede grounds:
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Tivoli is approximately 23 acres large and is a great a well-used place year round by kids and adults alike. It is well connected to the rest of the City despite being a Theme Park. Copenhagen's city population is 1.378M and Metro population is about 2.1M. Calgary's City population is 1.3M and the metro is about 1.8M, pretty comparable. We both get a fairly similar amount of tourists per year as well.

I feel confident that the City of Calgary and Calgary Stampede could build a year round theme park that integrates with it's surroundings that is the size of Tivoli Gardens (23ac) anywhere inside of this area:
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Just need to have some vision and stop giving every square inch of the land for pavement and cars. It doesn't just work in Europe, Denver has Elitch Gardens.

I would suggest it would need to be a cultural experience place as well not just an amusement park to become an interesting year round cultural destination. Tivoli has drink carts, places to eat on beautiful water features, has fireworks and does themed things for holidays. That is what I think could create a real destination, year round out of the Stampede. Don't just leave it as a shit-hole parking lot all year long, make actual improvements and take away space for cars and parking, we have enough of it. This would also have two LRT stations connected to it, so ditch the surfacing parking.
 
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Year round fairground means a lot more maintenance and constant complaints of noise. You also risk losing the crowd that comes by once a year because theres a fair. That said I really wish we had something better than Calaway Park, which has owners only interested in entertainment suited for pre-teens and young families.
 
Ice cold water poured on the prospect of a hotel:

CMLC and the Calgary Stampede previously announced in 2022 plans for a $80 million luxury hotel that was set to begin construction in 2024, but which fell through due to financing.

I said it a thousand times but I'll say it again. Put something like the Silos Waco Texas where the dome is. They will not regret it.

I'd also like a downtown sports field and Stampede park would be a great spot for it. It could be well used during Stampede and other events outside of being used for local sports.

Final thing on my wish list would be an amphitheatre.

I'd like the Stampeders to be able to share the Grandstand with the Stampede but I don't think that will happen and I actually don't know why.
Sounds like a good use for a retrofitted Saddledome. Absolutely ridiculous that everyone seems to have concluded that demolishing it is a foregone conclusion. Makes me sick
 
Sounds like a good use for a retrofitted Saddledome. Absolutely ridiculous that everyone seems to have concluded that demolishing it is a foregone conclusion. Makes me sick
The Saddledome is literally falling apart, it sucks it's going to be gone, but the cost to repair would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Then there's the question of what to actually do with it, CSEC made the city agree that it can't compete with Scotia Place.
 

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