No shit, I just checked is out on Wikipedia... pretty impressive building. I've heard of a couple indoor NCAA football stadiums with around 20 - 30 000 capacity now.
There ain't much to do when you live in the Dakotas.
I had no idea the saddledome is such an acoustic mess so i was reading about other possible venues and found the stampede corral and then further down the line I found the southern alberta jubilee auditorium but unfortunately there really isn't anything else in Calgary that comes close to the size of the saddledome.
If I may digress a bit, in 2005 we Victorians got our major arena (the save-on-foods memorial centre) finished which was the same year you Calgarians fixed up your old dilapidated S.A.J.A. To build our 7000 seat arena from scratch cost us $30 million, yet according to wikipedia you guys spent over three times that amount just to upgrade your facility that only seats about 2500. I could understand a major upgrade to a facility that size costing 10 or 12 million, but $91 million?!?!?!?!
How is that even possible?
A concert hall and a hockey arena are two very different beasts. Unless your hockey arena is lined with french walnut panels, has concert quality acoustics, has a full fly gallery, etc. this is hardly a reasonable comparison. Bare steel, concrete floors and plastic seats are relatively cheap to construct.
A quick comment on the acoustics of the dome:
I frequently work alongside the company currently responsible for maintaining the in house sound system and was chatting with them about this topic. The dome isn't that bad compared to many other arenas, the major problem for concert sound however is the new clock - there is no way to remove it. Some of you may have noticed for the last few years that the home opener and playoffs had a completely different sound system in there than the installed (and shitty) Bose system. As of this year, that system is now permanent and the Bose crap has been removed. What this means is that the area behind the clock now has, when the system remains in place, concert quality fill speakers to reduce the negative effect of the clock should the touring AE want it (for Metallica they were removed to increase roof load capacity which is still a major issue). Handled by a skilled AE most seats in the dome can sound pretty good. If it sounds like crap in there - it is probably the fault of the guy behind the desk or the system techs - not necessarily the building.
That being said, we do need a new building to handle the larger tours. But the dome isn't as bad as it is being made to sound here.
The Saddledome is far past its prime... Peter Maher was saying on the broadcast from NY the other night that once Pittsburgh has its new arena, the Saddledome will be the 3rd oldest building in the league behind MSG & Rexall.
The Saddledome is far past its prime... Peter Maher was saying on the broadcast from NY the other night that once Pittsburgh has its new arena, the Saddledome will be the 3rd oldest building in the league behind MSG & Rexall.
Peter forgot Nassau coliseum, which is 2 years older than Rexall.
There is an Eagles show coming up in Winnipeg, so there should be one probably in Edmonton or Calgary.
AC/DC always comes through Winnipeg as well. They aren't on this tour, so I would imagine that there might be some other Canadian dates announced sooner or later.
I had no idea the saddledome is such an acoustic mess so i was reading about other possible venues and found the stampede corral and then further down the line I found the southern alberta jubilee auditorium but unfortunately there really isn't anything else in Calgary that comes close to the size of the saddledome.
If I may digress a bit, in 2005 we Victorians got our major arena (the save-on-foods memorial centre) finished which was the same year you Calgarians fixed up your old dilapidated S.A.J.A. To build our 7000 seat arena from scratch cost us $30 million, yet according to wikipedia you guys spent over three times that amount just to upgrade your facility that only seats about 2500. I could understand a major upgrade to a facility that size costing 10 or 12 million, but $91 million?!?!?!?!
How is that even possible?
Actually Phil, $91 million was for both SAJA and NAJA in Edmonton which is a twin facility. the entire inside was gutted and the HVAC was completely redesigned and replaced. It still sounds like shit though.
AC/DC never missed Calgary & Edmonton with any of their other tours... what's with this Toronto & Vancouver only bullshit this time?
I would assume AC/DC is going to do another set of North American dates and Calgary/Edmonton will be included. They were here in 2001 for their 'Stiff Upper Lip Tour'. I was 10 at the time, so I never got to go.
Now if we could just get Plant on board for a Led Zeppelin tour...
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