UCalgary moves to next phase in building new home for Dinos athletics

It appears the Calgary Dinos’ days at McMahon Stadium are numbered, and if Calgary gets a new CFL stadium, the Dinos won’t be part of it.

The University of Calgary has made a call for architectural designs to build a new home for the Dinos athletic teams. The proposed Dinos facility would be just west of the Olympic Oval and would accommodate between 3,500 and 7,000 spectators for football, soccer and rugby.

The proposed facility, which would be domed over in the winter to allow year-round use, would also be available to community groups.

“A really important component of it is making a new hub for Calgary,” said U of C kinesiology dean Dr. Nick Holt. “What we imagine is the Dinos heavily using it during the fall and when our seasons are in full flight, and then throughout the year, making it available to community groups so that we have a hub of activity throughout the year. We know there’s a huge demand for field space in Calgary, so we hope to address that.”

“In the wintertime, we put up the dome and turn it into an indoor facility and divide it into multiple fields to maximize use.”

It would mean separate homes for the USports teams from the CFL’s Stampeders, as one of the main tenants of McMahon Stadium would be leaving.

A month ago, the Stampede unveiled its 20-year expansion plan, and part of that was a revelation that there are talks between the Stampeders and the Stampede about collaborating on a new football stadium that would convert to chuckwagon and rodeo during theStampede.

It would replace the aging GMC Stadium, which hosts rodeos and chuckwagons for 10 days in July.

Stampeders president Jay McNeil says the team is open to ideas for a new home and fully realizes that investing any more money in McMahon isn’t wise.

“We’re trying to have those conversations,” McNeil said. “This shouldn’t be a Stampeder-led facility. It really needs to be the community driving this forward.

“Certainly there would be some modifications to GMC Stadium. How would the field be engineered into that? What’s on the other side of the grandstand, and how do you put it all together? If there’s a new home that provides a better experience for our fans, we’re all for it.”

The Stampede is still in the exploratory stage of planning on what Stampede Park will look like once the new hockey arena opens and the Scotiabank Saddledome is torn down. They are dreaming big with an idea to create a live events zone adjacent to the new Scotia Place.

Built in 1960, McMahon Stadium’s main tenant has been the Stampeders, while it now also hosts the women’s soccer side, the Calgary Wild of the Northern Super League.

The University of Calgary is much further ahead in its timeline, although Dr. Holt doesn’t have a target date for their facility.

The Dinos Football Fifth Quarter group spearheaded funding efforts and had raised more than $ 21 million as of late March. The total cost of the facility is still undetermined, but it would have training facilities for Dinos athletes and also be home to amateur and high school football in our city.

“We’ve been funding raising for this project for quite some time and we’ve had quite a lot of success,” Dr. Holt said. “It will have positive impact on our attendances and will draw more people from off campus.”

McMahon Stadium will host the Grey Cup this November, and McNeil expects it to be the last one at the venue.

“It’s all talk right now. We have to get it into action,” he said. “We’re not replacing the turf here again at McMahon Stadium.”

“I love McMahon Stadium and I’ve had a lot of great memories here. When I go to new stadiums and see the fan experience there, I know it will be something special whenever that day comes.”