CANADA - Stadium and Arena Development News

[vivayo]

i have to say that I love it, very close to downtown, and i think that great for atmosphere, could be better with more capacity ( maybe 30-35 k ) but i presume that there is no need for more than 15,000

[DiggerD21]

I think a 15000-seater dedicated mainly for soccer in North America is pretty good. Comparing it with german clubs and their stadiums, it would be a nice 2nd league stadium.
And it is said on the stadium-website that the capacity can be easily increased in the future if needed.
What I especially like is the excellent connection to the public transport system.

[Bahnsteig4]

Beautiful!

[Bahnsteig4]

"no parking spaces"

Sorry, but is this something to be proud of?

[Sir Costa]

It's very beautiful, but it doesn't sounds normal to me. It's a unlike stadium, it isn't?

[rt_0891]

Originally Posted by davidkunz/VIE

"no parking spaces"

Sorry, but is this something to be proud of?

Yes, because it's transit friendly. Typical North American stadiums are plagued by ugly parking lots on the outside. (Think of Dodgers stadium in LA)

[crazyjoeda]

Originally Posted by davidkunz/VIE

"no parking spaces"

Sorry, but is this something to be proud of?

Most cities in North America try and be very car freindly, Vancouver is pretty much the only exception.

Vancouver has no highways that lead downtown, taxes on every parking space in Lower Mainland (Greater Vancouver) and Canada's largest Transit authority which by 2010 will operate Canada's largest rapid transit system.

If you live in Vancouver proper it can be easier to get around by taking transit then a car.

Having no parking at a stadium in N/A is landmark. That said technicly there is no parking on site, but it is right next to the convention centre and walking distance from many pay garages.

[GASpedal]

Wow, nice stadium. Great setting there.
If there's a redevolpment for that 30k capacity, would they close the gaps behind the goals? Wouldn't be a nice thing in my opinion and I doubt that there's enough space.

[DrJoe]

Canadian cities in general do a better job of trying to negate parking than the US. Montreal has a downtown arena with very little parking, in Toronto skydome has no parking at all except one for buses, the Air Canada Centre has parking but it is slated for highrise development, not sure about Calgary, Edmonton, etc. Oh btw this looks like a great stadium and perfect for the location.

Look at Dodger Stadium in LA, this not uncommon for American stadiums.




Anyway getting way off topic here.

[416]

^ Man is that ugly and a waste of space.

I think the lack of parking is great. There's something like 35,000 parking spaces within a 10 minute walk of the stadium anyway so it's not people can't drive if they have to.

What I like is that it will have REAL grass and the grass can be removed to make way for other uses IE. Concerts, volleyball, tennis, motorcross, x-games, etc. Downtown Van really needs a venue like this. Congrats.

I also imagine that once Vancouver's powerful Urban Design Panel rips through this thing, the end result will be magnificient.

[Welshlad]

that dodger stadium makes me fucking sick, would it be so hard to put in some transport links, buses, rail service what ever, you shouldnt be allowed to build a stadium anywhere if you dont try and discourage the use of cars. how many spaces are there??? i bet theyre all filled with 3litre gas guzzlers aswell on a matchday!!
Im glad to see vancouver have got things sorted

[GASpedal]

"Discourage the use of cars" might be a bit exaggerated.

A decent parking garage solves at least the aesthetical part of the problem.
e.g. nobody cared about the huge parking garage nearby the Allianz Arena so far (maybe some didn't know, because it's rather well hidden ).

The point is that there's obviously (judging from that picture) no need to build a parking garage at the Dodger stadium due to it's location outside the city, and a new railway line might cost too much. If it was located somewhere downtown LA, I'm pretty sure there would have been other solutions due to the high price of the ground.

[Alle]

The stands should be more steep to give the audience better view, and closer to the action.

[BobDaBuilder]

Went to a baseball match back in Sept. 2000 at Dodger's Stadium. Giants v. LA. Bonds cracked a 6 into the car park itself!(Or is that a homer?)

It was pretty good, lovely weather, well behaved spectators and easy to drive to because the place is a landmark and situated near a load of freeways and pretty central to LA itself which in not always the case in the city of angels. It is such a spread out city, you have to experience it to understand what I am on about.

The Rose Bowl on the other hand out in Pasadena. I seem to recall I couldn't fit my legs in between the next set of benches in front. Obviously this was an older generation stadium, built when people were somewhat shorter.

Well I still cannot figure out how to managed to find the place and even more so how I actually got back to Hollywood via public transport(various buses). Now I can see why NFL has left LA. It is like going to another town and more trouble than it is worth just to get to the local footy stadium in LA/Orange County.

[p5archit]

Nice looking proposal! I always have liked when buildings bridge over things- in this case the rail-tracks-! Also, being right on the waterfront, will only benifit the stadium and its patrons...Will this also be used for the Lions?

p5

[rt_0891]

Originally Posted by GASpedal

The point is that there's obviously (judging from that picture) no need to build a parking garage at the Dodger stadium due to it's location outside the city, and a new railway line might cost too much. If it was located somewhere downtown LA, I'm pretty sure there would have been other solutions due to the high price of the ground.

Wouldn't the Dodger's stadium be considered inner-city though? It's right across from Chinatown, and it's about an exit away from downtown Los Angeles on the freeway.

[tritown]

Originally Posted by Welshlad

that dodger stadium makes me fucking sick, would it be so hard to put in some transport links, buses, rail service what ever, you shouldnt be allowed to build a stadium anywhere if you dont try and discourage the use of cars. how many spaces are there??? i bet theyre all filled with 3litre gas guzzlers aswell on a matchday!!
Im glad to see vancouver have got things sorted

The funny thing is that it is so incongruous with the history of the team. The LA Dodgers were formerly in Brooklyn. They got the name "dodgers" because it reffered to how people would dodge trolleys to get to and from the games. You won't have to worry about that at the stadium in LA.

[.affed]

What's going to happen to all the rail lines converging at Waterfront Station?

[j4893k]

^Stadium's being build over them.

[rt_0891]

Originally Posted by .affed

What's going to happen to all the rail lines converging at Waterfront Station?

The stadium, which has been named Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium, will be built about seven metres above a seven-hectare parcel of rail lands property east of the Waterfront Station SeaBus terminal. The stadium has the capacity to be expanded to about 30,000 seats with the addition of two upper decks.

***

from OfficeDweller @ SSP:

This City Report shows the footprint of the stadium - no rendering though:

http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk...cuments/pe6.pdf



Note that the site still allows Cambie St. to extend out over the tracks - but any road between the CP Station and The Landing would be eliminated. Presumably, canada Place Way will be extended over Waterfront Road to Cambie St.

The Whitecaps organization is proposing to locate a new soccer stadium on a site over the CPR rail yard between Granville Square and the foot of Cambie Street. They propose a facility with 15,000 seats initially, expandable to 30,000 at a later date. The facility would be the site of Whitecaps Soccer games, as well as other sports events and concerts.

Because of the unusual and challenging nature of such a facility in this location, the City has determined that an initial, high level review of the proposal is needed to determine whether it has a reasonable chance of being successful in meeting City planning objectives for the area; and of having sufficient public support.

The Review will be undertaken partly by City staff and partly by an outside consultant team.

After the Initial Review is complete, staff will report to City Council who will decide whether to proceed further with the planning for the project. If so, the proposal would be folded into the anticipated Waterfront Lands/Hub Structure Plan Study, followed by an Official Development Plan process and/or Rezoning process, as normal for such a major project.

Other interesting stuff:

5.1 Development Scenarios

The Review needs to look at both phases of the stadium, and also needs to account for the fact that development in surrounding areas will continue.

Three scenarios will be reviewed:

A. a 15,000 seat stadium as at “opening day”. Given normal timelines on major projects, the earliest the stadium could open would be Fall 2009. This scenario will assume that RAV and VCEC are operating, other currently known downtown development projects are in place, and a reasonable amount of development has continued in Downtown peninsula under current zoning.

B. a 15,000 seat stadium with maximum future development. This will assume the above, plus Granville Square 3 tower, and Downtown capacity built out.

C. a 30,000 seat stadium with future development, with context as in B above.

The Central Waterfront Port Lands have development potential (Central Waterfront Port Lands Policy Statement 1994), but the range of development options is so wide that it is not practical to include development statistics for this site in the scenarios. However, the Review will assess whether or not the stadium development would pose significant problems for major development on the Central Waterfront Port Lands.

In addition, assumptions cannot be made about possible development over the CP rail yards east of the Stadium. The Review may inform judgement as to what may be possible there in the future.

5.3 Other Assumptions

A. The stadium proposal will be designed so as not to use the Waterfront Port road for access.

B. The capacity of the CP rail yard will not be diminished, although trackage may be realigned. While noting that the proponents will be responsible to coming to agreement with CP rail regarding realignment of rail tracks, the City is strongly concerned that the rail yard be able to handle the anticipated growth in goods movement through the Port of Vancouver, rather than seeing goods movement diverted to truck, which is much less environmentally sustainable.