Winnipeg | True North Square | 86.9M | 77.8M | 25F | 17F | 22F | 17F | 19F | U/C

[robertocarlos]

Thanks for fixing my post. You're right, the police can walk or ride a bicycle. People only.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by tree

if this becomes a yearly problem it means the Jets are regularly making deep playoff runs which I as much as i'd like I can't see happening lol

also - when the jets clinched the playoffs in 2015 there was a party at P&M that closed down the street. This year when jets clinched the playoffs there was almost no one there lol. (which is fair as we kind of knew it was coming this time - but still thought people would be more energetic about it).

Quite presumptuous to say it but I think if Jets make regular playoff runs these parties won't have 10,000+ at them - this year is pretty special for the city. If this follows in coming years the logistics should be easier to handle.

Exactly!

It doesn't happen everyday that these Whiteout Parties happen in our downtown. If anything, there will be lessons learned here, and when True North Square is completed, I'm sure the folks involved will make it better for everybody the next time around. It could be next year, it could be years down the road.

For now, let's be glad we have an extra 40,000+ people hanging out in downtown! (Those numbers included the 15,000+ inside Bell MTS Place).

[The Jabroni]

On a side note...

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by The Jabroni

Exactly!

It doesn't happen everyday that these Whiteout Parties happen in our downtown. If anything, there will be lessons learned here, and when True North Square is completed, I'm sure the folks involved will make it better for everybody the next time around. It could be next year, it could be years down the road.

For now, let's be glad we have an extra 40,000+ people hanging out in downtown! (Those numbers included the 15,000+ inside Bell MTS Place).

Actually, of the 27,000 tickets distributed only 15,000 came out to the Street Party Saturday evening. That would mean just 30,000 people were downtown. Expect it to be much less for Game 2, as it is a Monday, and TNSE and the City implemented that stupid ticket distribution system. The street party will be lucky to attract 10,000 people.

Hopefully they admit the ticket distribution system was a huge fail, and look at some other avenue of controlling the crowds.

[esquire]

^ Where's the fail? They controlled the crowds, that was the point of the exercise.

Someone has to pay for all the costs associated with the street party, they don't want it to expand to crazy numbers. The PR bang that comes with the street party is the same whether there are 10,000 people there or 50,000.

[rkspec]

I think it takes away from the freedom of going out to support your team.
They can still control the crowds with a first come first entry system, have the gates people communicate with each other to crunch door numbers and lock off at 25k.

[The Unknown Poster]

Definitely issues with the ticket plan.

Requiring you go online and buy tickets automatically makes it less accessible and takes the organic nature of it away.

It also creates a scalping problem. And most people will "buy" more tickets than they need to ensure they have enough (ie. if I need 4, I might get 6 or 8 because a few friends are "maybe").

It makes the idea of a downtown party more work to go to.

They should have just expanded it. I get their reasoning, what if 50,000 people showed up for an area that holds 27,000? But...Im not sure this was the best solution either.

Realistically, the Forks would be a great venue minus our silly open liquor laws and the fact that its not downtown.

[optimusREIM]

^ the forks would be a fantastic venue for overflow. Even as the main venue. We already saw how amazing the forks can be for major events with the Canada games last summer so it could definitely work.

The liquor law thing is something that requires attention. Europe is far ahead of us.

[h0twired]

Originally Posted by The Unknown Poster

Realistically, the Forks would be a great venue minus our silly open liquor laws and the fact that its not downtown.

It really boggles my mind that the game isn't being shown at The Forks or at the Lyric Stage at Assiniboine Park.

Not everyone needs a licensed venue to watch hockey. I would be happy enough sitting at the park with a pizza and slurpee on a blanket with my kids watching the game as the sun sets.

[esquire]

^ The Lyric would be a good idea for a no-liquor family friendly destination away from the downtown frenzy.

I wouldn't be too hard on the powers that be here. No one was expecting or really prepared for a protracted Stanley Cup playoff run this spring. I'm sure this will be a much smoother operation next year. It's clear that having the Jets in the playoffs is not going to be an isolated occurrence, at least not for the next few years.

[bomberjet]

I really feel the best location is on Donald. It gives that connection to the game.

Maybe have a licensed, ticketed party on Donald St only. Then have an open viewing party at the Forks for everyone else. More than that and it's getting spread out too much.

Otherwise leave as is and get rid of the tickets.

[The Unknown Poster]

Presumably, True North intends TNS to be the main hub going forward so perhaps their sense is, whats the point in moving away from downtown now.

And as we know, they do have a plan to close Portage if neccesary. I suspect they didnt feel the over-flow would be *that* massive that would make the Portage plan feasible.

In other words, they have room for 27,000 and maybe though, gee, 35,000 might show up so lets try to chill it a bit.

If we go to the final, and you're looking at 50,000 or even more, they will have to adjust their plans a bit.

Going forward, if TNS only holds about 3,000, this is still an on-going issue.

If Four Play were still open, they'd have made enough money to cover their operations for the year.

[bomberjet]

Where's the 3000 number from? I would think they can fit more than 3000 people in the square. And if Carlton is closed could be quite a large number.

Maybe some of the planning people know. What's the typical assumption for people in area for standing room only?

[Ando]

That's how they intend to do it. It would be the square and an adjacent road closure in the future.

[rkspec]

Originally Posted by The Unknown Poster

If we go to the final, and you're looking at 50,000 or even more, they will have to adjust their plans a bit.

Originally Posted by buzzg

Kevin Donnelly said in an interview a few weeks ago that TN/EDW/CoW already have contingency plans in place for rounds 3 and 4 if they want to close off Portage as well, and WPS is on board.

Surprised they wouldn't do it yet, but maybe they just need more planning time.

Been to 2 so far, by far one of the best outdoor events i've ever been to in this city. Cant wait for the square to open and to see what they have planned for the obvious overflow.

[The Unknown Poster]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Where's the 3000 number from? I would think they can fit more than 3000 people in the square. And if Carlton is closed could be quite a large number.

Maybe some of the planning people know. What's the typical assumption for people in area for standing room only?

Oh I have no idea if the number is correct, but I've seen it mentioned online that the capacity of TNS for an event like isnt that much, certainly not to the extent it would make a major dent in a crowd of 30,000.

[buzzg]

They released 37,000 tickets today, add in the 15,000 in the arena means a potential of 0f 52,000 people with a capacity of 27,000 – and it's beautiful out. I'm sure it'll be near or at capacity by gametime.

One big issue with the ticketing system is there's actually quite a lot of people coming here for the party/game, or who happen to be in town and want to go – but many may not have known or been able to get tickets, and that sucks. Spoke to a group of 8 people in from Sweden at the Kings Head today who really want to go but didn't know they needed tickets – I told them to talk to their hotel about trying to get some.

I also spoke to management at the Alt Hotel (before Saturday's game) and they said that they've had a huge spike in traffic and have been close to or at capacity every home playoff game. Said it's been an even split of people coming to town to check the party out (with or without game tickets) and locals making a night of a game.

Sportsnet has also stationed about half of their reporters here for two weeks – they've brought in mobile studios and are doing all the broadcasts from here. Was talking to Irfaan Gaffar – he said it's like all hands on deck covering this series.

[Roger Strong]

Originally Posted by The Unknown Poster

Oh I have no idea if the number is correct, but I've seen it mentioned online that the capacity of TNS for an event like isnt that much, certainly not to the extent it would make a major dent in a crowd of 30,000.

That doesn't matter once it's built. What counts is the number you use to promote it before construction.

Pre-construction real estate listings for houses inevitably show them surrounded by mature forest, not another house in sight. Even though they'll be dense-packed side-by-side with other houses, maybe with a fresh sapling or two in the yard.

Crowd-attracting features are the same thing for commercial buildings. I'm still waiting for the farmers' market at the base of 201 Portage used to promote it before it was built.

Which is why we've seen all the promotional images of crowds watching fireworks going off within in the TNS square, which would never happen in real life. Or the earlier images of with light rail transit along the square plus dozens of funnelators that would never fit in real life.

[trueviking]

I'm not a fan of the Forks idea that I keep hearing. The party has to be adjacent to the arena so the 15,000 people going to the game can be part of it before and after. It would be dumb to have two locations.

I dont get the ticket thing...why not just say the first 25,000 can come in and close the gate once that number is reached.

[trueviking]

TNS can only hold 3-4000, but is expandable down Carlton. The reality is this kind of celebration is very rare in the long term and closing streets tempoaraily makes way more sense than building permanent space for a huge crowd maybe for a few times a year if we are lucky...and is a black hole the rest of the year....TNS will be the centrpoint but if we are lucky enough to have this kind of Jets run again it will be in the streets.