STADIUM LOVE
With three new or refurbished stadiums opening recently and a fourth about to be completed, the rankings of our favourite CFL stadiums have changed dramatically, writes Mike Beamish.
1 INVESTORS GROUP FIELD (WINNIPEG)
With its undulating, corrugated metal roof covering most of the stadium’s 33,500 seats, IGF is the ideal size for a CFL ballpark. “It’s a very loud place, hard for a visiting team to communicate,” says B.C. Lions head coach Jeff Tedford. “I thought it sounded more like 60,000.” It has vaulted Winnipeg from worst (good riddance, Canad Inns Stadium) to first among the league’s stadiums. Equal-opportunity washrooms (14 for each gender) with separate entrances and exits ensure good flow of traffic from the rum huts and vodka bars on the concourse level, where fans can view the game, on the field or from one of 250 TV monitors, while plunking down $12 for a 16-oz. cup of premium beer.
Downside: Stadium is a long hike from Portage Avenue and traffic snarls on the way to the game are a regular occurrence.
2 TD PLACE STADIUM (OTTAWA)
Part of the $450-million Lansdowne Park restaurant, shopping and residential project south of the downtown core, TD Place Stadium trumps every other CFL outdoor venue for its neighbourhood vibe. Outside its doors are a host of trendy bars and restaurants for pre- and post-game noshing and imbibing. Inside, the young, urban crowd seems bent on having a good time (not necessarily hung up on watching a good football game). The Ottawa Citizen’s Redblacks beat writer, Gord Holder, gives the media facilities a “mixed review.” Good sightlines are a plus.
Downside: Crowd circulation has been criticized for its lack of flow, especially when fans try to access concessions and restrooms.
3 TIM HORTONS FIELD (HAMILTON)
Pivoted 90 degrees to afford better sight lines and protection from the blustery winds that blow off Lake Ontario and Burlington Bay, Tim Hortons Field has risen phoenix-like from the footprint of old Ivor Wynne Stadium to provide Hamiltonians with unimagined luxury: Minimum 19-inch-wide seats, ranging to 21 inches, with armrests and cupholders, a far cry from the bench seating that was a throwback to football’s prehistoric past. “It’s also all about the quality of the bathrooms, too,” says Ticats reporter Carol Phillips, recalling the women’s bathroom in the press box at Ivor Wynne could never be locked.
Downsides: Concession food is unimaginative and not cheap.
4 BC PLACE STADIUM (VANCOUVER)
Given a half-billion-dollar facelift at public expense, many times the original estimate, the appeal and attraction of BC Place varies wildly, depending on whether you’re a fed-up provincial taxpayer or an enthralled out-of-town visitor raving about the innovative concession food, the iconic LED windows and the giant Jumbotron. “I personally love covering games at BC Place,” says Kirk Penton of the Winnipeg Sun. “The view from the press box is the best in the league.”
Downsides: The stadium’s biggest failing is its sheer size — 54,500 seats. Lacking both intimacy and fans, the esprit under the retractable-roofed stadium is found wanting.
5 PERCIVAL MOLSON STADIUM (MONTREAL)
The most worshipped cathedrals of sport blend tradition with some cutting-edge amenities (see Soldier Field and Wrigley Field in Chicago). As such, Molson Stadium, which opened 100 years ago, works on one level: The views of downtown Montreal, looking south, and Mount Royal, to the north, are stunning. Wroughtiron fencing and stonework were used to seamlessly blend the old stadium with the expansion on the southside grandstands.
Downsides: The seating is on benches, with no backs, and the climb to the nosebleed seats is steep, without railings. Scary.
6 MOSAIC STADIUM (REGINA)
Broiling in the summer, freezing in the late fall, Roughrider fans have to be as tough as the hardy prairie homesteaders who carved out a living on the grasslands. But nobody has more fun at a CFL game than the Melonheads, about to take possession of a new $278-million stadium, just to the west, on Elphinstone Street, when it’s finished next year. Fans will take good memories of Mosaic Stadium with them.
Downsides: Long beer lines, sketchy washrooms, the human tide ingressing and egressing up and down labyrinthine ramps. “There is comfort in visiting Mosaic Stadium (for the tradition),” says Regina Leader-Post sports editor and columnist Rob Vanstone. “But it is simply not a comfortable place to watch a game.”
7 COMMONWEALTH STADIUM (EDMONTON)
Closing in on 50 years since it opened for the 1978 Commonwealth Games, the expanded and renovated home of the Eskimos is fresh from another rehabilitation and continues to buck the ravages of time and the lethal northern Alberta winter. Commonwealth scores major points for being close to light-rail transit. Any holder of a prepaid football ticket gets to travel there for free.
Downsides: It takes a goodsized Alberta city, the population of Fort McMurray, to fill it. And with a running track surrounding the field, you can barely make out the players from a long way up. “It’s very sterile,” says Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun.
8 McMAHON STADIUM (CALGARY)
Calgary is the undisputed tailgating champion of the CFL, although the parking lot action at Fort Whoop-Up can resemble an Arctic street fair when the thermometer tumbles. At least mittened Calgarians don’t have to worry about the ice cubes melting.
Downsides: McMahon’s usefulness as a football stadium (it’s 55 years old) leaves us a little cold — tired-looking, cramped press box, slowest elevator in the West — despite upgrades to turf, video scoreboard, concourse and concessions.
9 ROGERS CENTRE (TORONTO)
Since SkyDome (now Rogers Centre) opened in 1989, the 3.25-hectare roof on the mammoth concrete and steel structure has never failed to impress. It has continued to open and shut on command throughout its 26year history.
Downsides: The staging of CFL games in a cavernous expanse designed for baseball has been a problematic proposition since Day 1. “Zero atmosphere and it looks empty with 20,000 people in it,” says Chris O’Leary, who covers the Eskimos for the Edmonton Journal. The football team hopes a move to BMO Field next season can be its salvation.