[towerguy3]

Curious as to the REAL reason why GM Place opted for the NHL sized ice rink for 2010 (measures 200 ft x 85) as opposed to spending the money to remove the first three rows of seating and use the Olympic size ice rink.

I would've preferred the Olympic size to make it consistent with IOC Standards and make it a bit more challenging for the NHL players. Why make it easy?

What other upgrades have they made to GM Place and which ones are still forthcoming?

[dreambrother808]

Curious as to the REAL reason why GM Place opted for the NHL sized ice rink for 2010

because they want to give advantage to NHL players? the reason is cost, non?

[deasine]

-_-"

They opted for NHL size rinks because of two main reasons.
1) There was no point in speding millions of dollars upgrading to Olympic Size rink then downgrading to NHL.
2) We can fit more stands which increases revenue when it's NHL Size rink

[mr.x]

1) They would've had to spend $15 million to move all the lower-bowl seats back 3-inches to expand the ice surface to Olympic-size. This would also mean that seating would be reduced from 18,500 to 16,000 seats....a lot of lost ticketing revenue. In addition, the Canucks have no plans to keep this arrangement as they need a NHL arena, and would have undo the process.

The IOC has also allowed VANOC to use NHL-size arenas for the UBC Winter Sports Centre and the hockey practice facilities. This has allowed VANOC to save another $15 million.


2) VANOC paid Orca Bay around $20 million for the use of the arena during the Games. Part of the deal was the Orca Bay would use that money towards improvements....and they did: new scoreboard, ring videoboard, new exterior blue paint. This was all of VANOC's doing.

[MistyMountainHop]

2) VANOC paid Orca Bay around $20 million for the use of the arena during the Games. Part of the deal was the Orca Bay would use that money towards improvements....and they did: new scoreboard, ring videoboard, new exterior blue paint. This was all of VANOC's doing.

Pity they couldn't have picked up a scoring forward at the trade deadline while they were at it.