BattleBorn
50% to winning as many division titles as Toronto
On their face all of your arguments make sense, but I don't think they're strawman arguments to start. The design of the arena does create some difficulty, and the lower bowl's size has got to have an impact on the revenues of the Flames. While I'll admit I'm not a Flames ticket pricing expert, a quick search of the seat map on the Flames site definitely shows that the lower level tickets do sell for significantly more than the first few rows of the 200 level. That just makes a lot of sense, the 200 seats lateral proximity to the ice from the lower rows is offset by height. In fact, I think height is the major issue with most of the seats/suites in the Saddledome. Sure, there's a ton of suites, but the second tier of suites is very high and likely doesn't bring in the revenue of other places with less suites in better locations.Typical arguments from someone who buys into the narrative the Flames/NHL are selling.
"There are too few lower bowl seats (which sell for the most $)" is a strawman and factually incorrect: the most expensive seats in the Saddledome are the lower rows of the 200s. "Luxury boxes are limited": the Saddledome has 72 of them. As a point of comparison Little Caesars Arena has 62, and T-Mobile Arena has 46.
"There are none of the loge seats / restaurant seating options arenas like to utilize."
K.
"... the darn roof has terrible acoustics..."
Factually incorrect, and I'm tired of hearing this BS being trotted out.
"...and makes for lousy site lines from the upper most seats."
K.
(I will concede the concourse is small.)
Acoustics isn't my thing, but it doesn't matter much to the hockey team, so I figure that's just a throw in argument that doesn't mean much to anyone with regards to hockey.
Those top level seats are weird to me. While you can definitely see the ice, not seeing the rest of the arena or scoreboard is something that's very strange. I don't know that it would stop me from seeing a hockey game from those seats, but the pictures I've seen feel claustrophobic.
What I'll say is that the Saddledome has been around for 30-something years and there's a reason it's unique. Architects tend to use techniques, designs, and best practices from previously completed projects and nobody's really copied the Saddledome. That says something.
Is it as urgent as people are making it sound? I doubt it. However, the place definitely needs to be replaced.