Daly: Minor changes to MTS Center to bring up to NHL standard

[garnetpalmetto]

Do most arenas have 2 levels or 3 levels? GM Place was built with 2, which seems to be great. Anyone know which arenas have 3 levels?

RBC Center has 3 levels as well. Total capacity is 18,680 for hockey

 

[saillias]

I wonder if that will include the seats in the 100+ boxes they'll undoubtedly stuff into the place.

I hope not, selling out in favour of big corporations with less seats for the average joes is kind of ****ty. If they can sell out a 19,000 capacity arena why not go bigger, the city is going to grow to a mid-sized market soon enough.

 

[pondnorth]

You can also look at the other side of the argument in that a 17-18k capacity arena affords you the flexibility (revenuewise) to be able to host promotions (a la college nights, charity groups, etc.) With deeply discounted tickets. Collee nights are a perfect example in tha you could say its business and fanbase development as well as kids group nights.

With college students, even if 10% get hooked on the habit, some of them will return with a greater disposable income and curiousity that they would want to purchase higher margin seats ng become recurring revenue as STHs eventually. Parents with pockets would also be interested, etc.

It would be smart for TNSE to run walk up ticket promotions, because en if you get 10% out of 200 or so people, that's nmore potential waiting list and eventual STH, but in the meantime full price payers.

TNSE has no reason to do this because there are really no tickets available,the walkup will sellout instantly and the wait list is capped at 8000.Whats the point here?

 

[Benny27]

Hopefully they upgraded the washrooms in the MTS...Bring back the trough!!!

 

[TBLightningFan]

With this logic, one would think a team with such a large arena capacity would not get blasted for not selling out every seat.

 

[TBLightningFan]

I hope not, selling out in favour of big corporations with less seats for the average joes is kind of ****ty. If they can sell out a 19,000 capacity arena why not go bigger, the city is going to grow to a mid-sized market soon enough.

The Leafs could probably build a HUGE 30,000 seat arena and even sell it out regularly. Why not? So they can keep prices inflated. It's never as much about the fan as they make it out to be. It's about the well-qualified fan in some markets...lol

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Hopefully they upgraded the washrooms in the MTS...Bring back the trough!!!

The two bolded words contradict one another.

 

[Positive]

The two bolded words contradict one another.

It's whether you're concerned about speed, or appearances. The throughput of a men's room with a trough is astonishing. The women's line will have moved 10 feet in the time that you finish your beer, are in and out of the men's room, and back in the beer line.

 

[cbcwpg]

"Seemless glass in our buildings does cause more injuries than an acrylic system so we're moving to acrylic."

Does this just change the makeup of the glass or does it change the optics as well? IE: Does this mean bringing back the metal support beams as well?

I like the glass in the MTS Centre as is, but if they have to change, they have to.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

"Seemless glass in our buildings does cause more injuries than an acrylic system so we're moving to acrylic."

Does this just change the makeup of the glass or does it change the optics as well? IE: Does this mean bringing back the metal support beams as well?

I like the glass in the MTS Centre as is, but if they have to change, they have to.

Yep stanchions need to be in for player safety. Without them the glass is too stiff, causing injuries. This needs to implemented through all levels. Back in AAA I used to play in Red Deer where the Rebels play out of I believe and boards were surrounded by...concrete. Talk about no give in the boards, it was just asking for injuries.

Also to the earlier post, Edmonton's current rink Rexall Place also has 3 levels.

 

[Benny27]

It's whether you're concerned about speed, or appearances. The throughput of a men's room with a trough is astonishing. The women's line will have moved 10 feet in the time that you finish your beer, are in and out of the men's room, and back in the beer line.

This...

The trough would be an upgrade over the current washrooms as it would bring back the speed factor....when you see the guys line out the door and it is longer than then the womens line then you know there is an issue there....

 

[Big McLargehuge]

The "Fenway" affect. Lower number of seats creates a higher demand. People know they may not be able to get a ticket on a walk-up so that causes a higher advance buy guaranteeing the team the money. Also with the higher demand they can charge more and probably make more than if they had more seats.

We've already seen this in effect. The two newest arena in the league are modestly sized. The Prudential Center has a capacity under 18k (roughly a 1.5k rollback from the size of Izod/Continental Airlines/Brendan Byrne Arena) and Consol Energy Center is at 18,087 when the Penguins could sell out a 20,000 seater without any issue right now. That doesn't seem to be that small, but throw in demand and realize that it's smaller than buildings in places like Raleigh, Atlanta, Sunrise, etc...

The Southeast has the largest average maximum capacity of the league's divisions as of right now (soon will probably change for a year, with the MTS Centre being about 3,500 seats smaller than Philips Arena). Verizon Centre is the smallest in the Southeast and behind only Philadelphia in the Atlantic.



I'm a proponent of it. It's worked great with the decade old stadiums in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are able to attract more people at higher prices at mini-sized PNC Park (38,496 is second to only Fenway in least amount of seats...fourth lowest capacity in the majors with Tampa and Oakland tarping off a ton of seats) than they were in the cavernous Three Rivers Stadium. The Steelers could fill an 80,000 seater with no issue, but went with an open endzone instead, which has created a huge home field advantage for the team (and the 'intimacy' helped in it being ranked the 2nd hardest stadium for visitors to play in in a recent ESPN ranking). We'll see the long-term effects for the Penguins, but Consol Energy Center is a million times more 'intimate' than Mellon Arena was, even with around 1,100 extra seats in it.

The Igloo had 3 levels, sorta. For the longest time it only had one...but then again it wasn't built for hockey. Consol is a straightforward 2 level design.

 

[Jet]

A business trying to maximize profits? Oh the horror! Poor, poor customers spending all that money on tickets that they buy voluntarily.

I know!!! I can't count the times I've had that discussion around the water cooler about how it sucks paying taxes and having to buy hockey tickets

 

[LadyStanley]

Anaheim kinda has three levels: lower bowl, suites/seats, upper bowl.

 

[Pyke*]

The Saddledome has 4 levels if memory serves.

 

[Roughneck]

The Saddledome has 4 levels if memory serves.

I'd call it two and a half. The 300s are only on the 'high sides of the saddle.'

 

[tbcwpg]

This...

The trough would be an upgrade over the current washrooms as it would bring back the speed factor....when you see the guys line out the door and it is longer than then the womens line then you know there is an issue there....

It's because there are about 4 or 5 stalls in the washrooms as well that no one uses. They choose to use the urinal rather than just go in a stall into a toilet like they would at home.

Minnesota's an arena that has washroom issues. I spent 20 minutes in line at that one. That arena also has 3 levels, although the 2nd level has maybe 6 or 7 rows from looking at it.

 

[bodybreak]

I'd call it two and a half. The 300s are only on the 'high sides of the saddle.'

I wouldn't... by the time you've made your way up to the 300 seats in Calgary, you could probably have made your way to and from your Winnipeg 300 seats...twice! It's very high up, even if it isn't a full bowl. The top of Toronto's 300 level will get you about the same view as Calgary's 300 level. Too bad the Flames don't have single game seats in the 100s or 200s, cuz I would definitely take advantage of that when I'm out there for a week... but I don't blame them for wrapping those up as season tickets etc either! (And yes, I do go sit in 300 anyways).

 

[jiggsawpuzzle35]

Anaheim does indeed have 3 levels. If you look at Pepsi Center which opened a couple of yrs after, the seating area pretty much looks the same. 17,174 and 17,600 for standing room. This suites well for us since SoCal is a bandwagon market who only supports winners. Honda Center was suppose to add more suites here in the upper bowl had a NBA team came. Looking at pics of MTS Centre, they can probably do the same. In my opinion, the worst arena design is Staples Center since they have 3 consecutive level of suites. If you are in the upper level of seats there, you are kinda screwed. Consol Energy Center, Xcel Energy Center, Jobing.com Arena, Prudential Center, and Nationwide Arena seem to all have similar layouts which is stupid to me.

Xcel

Jobing.com

Consol

Prudential

 

[Oscar Acosta]

So with a smaller building will they have the most badass camera angles in the NHL? How did the Moose look on TV?

 

[ps241]

based on the amazing (shocking for me really) demand for the luxury boxes i think they can revisit the idea of two (to begin with) ultra high end Sky suites like the Best Buy suite in former GM place now Rogers place in Vancouver.....please watch uber cool video link!!!

watch he video but also click on the best buy photo gallery for some interesting photos of the two level lay out

http://canucks.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=40080

i have pitched this idea to a few people at TNSE.....I would ask someone like Peter Sullivan who has more talent how it could be done structurally but if it was possible i would put one or two directly across from the current expanded press box (one on each blue line), or maybe build them as extensions off the existing press box structure?

from a business perspective my guess is that TNSE could get them built for know cash down by either the sponsor (for naming rights) or even by the government as part of their commitment.

now that we know there is a waiting list for boxes you would have a built in clientele that would want to purchase inventory.....marketing them would probably be interesting and i see the possibilities being endless

does anyone from Van like Leftcoast know what this box fetches for a fee?

anyways don't be shocked to see something along this line if it is possible

 

[sepHF]

Anyone have any idea what the capacity of the proposed Edmonton arena is?

18,500 from my understanding

 

[Confucius]

based on the amazing (shocking for me really) demand for the luxury boxes i think they can revisit the idea of two (to begin with) ultra high end Sky suites like the Best Buy suite in former GM place now Rogers place in Vancouver.....please watch uber cool video link!!!

watch he video but also click on the best buy photo gallery for some interesting photos of the two level lay out

http://canucks.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=40080

i have pitched this idea to a few people at TNSE.....I would ask someone like Peter Sullivan who has more talent how it could be done structurally but if it was possible i would put one or two directly across from the current expanded press box (one on each blue line), or maybe build them as extensions off the existing press box structure?

from a business perspective my guess is that TNSE could get them built for know cash down by either the sponsor (for naming rights) or even by the government as part of their commitment.

now that we know there is a waiting list for boxes you would have a built in clientele that would want to purchase inventory.....marketing them would probably be interesting and i see the possibilities being endless

does anyone from Van like Leftcoast know what this box fetches for a fee?

anyways don't be shocked to see something along this line if it is possible

Great pics, all but the seats and view of the ice look great.
Scary, narrow isle in front

 

[ps241]

Great pics, all but the seats and view of the ice look great.
Scary, narrow isle in front

very true Hockeyhopeful lucky they have the bar in there to get the courage up .....i do like the lounger style chairs on the narrow isle though and the MTS centre in more intimate and i think your view would be far more attractive.....high but much closer to the ice.....this box looks like it is more for socializing and less about watching the game but it would offset the "Sky" aspect by being super cool and probably the top "place to be" in the building

 

[Other Little Mikey]

Also to the earlier post, Edmonton's current rink Rexall Place also has 3 levels.

Well, sort of. It has two levels that go all the way around. The 300s are on one side only.

By the way, until Calgary made its run to the Final in 04 and boosted their popularity again, they were covering some of those upper seats in the Saddledome because they didn't sell out.