McMahon Stadium will host the Grey Cup on November 15, as Calgary considers what should eventually happen to the 66-year-old facility.
The City is seeking bids for a feasibility study expected to cost $875,000. The work would examine the market, financial and operational case for a proposed major sports and event facility, including options affecting the future of McMahon Stadium.
No replacement has been approved.
The stadium's condition is not in dispute. This summer the McMahon Stadium Society spent close to a million dollars fixing the sewage and water system, work its president Steve Allan said was necessary because the problem could have put the building at risk of failure before the Grey Cup.
"We have a desperate need for facilities and McMahon Stadium is way beyond its best before date," Allan said.
What the City is studying
Global News reported the City has been seeking bids on a pair of contracts for a firm to assess the feasibility and planning of a proposed major sports and event facility project.
The study would help officials make informed decisions regarding the future of McMahon Stadium, along with broader stadium-related infrastructure. The contract is expected to be awarded in October.
The City called the work early-stage due diligence that doesn't represent a decision or commitment to build anything. "The study will help the city assess potential needs, opportunities, risks and next steps in a coordinated way, including how future facilities could support sport, events, tourism, economic development and community use," it said.
The Stampede is studying GMC Stadium separately
The Calgary Stampede and the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation are evaluating bids on a contract of their own, to study whether GMC Stadium on Stampede Park could be multi-purposed.
"What we're really asking our consultants, when we've awarded this work, to focus on is field sports," said Jim Laurendeau, the Stampede's executive vice-president of park development and operations. "That could be CFL football, it could be soccer."
GMC Stadium seats 17,000 and hosts the rodeo and chuckwagon races during the ten-day Stampede, with upgrades already part of the organization's 20-year master plan. Laurendeau said it looks like a no-brainer on the surface, with half of a CFL stadium already on the site.
The complication is the horses. "Animal safety is number one for us at the Calgary Stampede," he said. "We need to have a consistent surface through a whole track for our horses to run."
The Stampede hopes to award its contract in the coming weeks, with a study complete by next summer.
The University of Calgary's stadium proposal
The university, which owns McMahon, began pursuing an on-campus stadium earlier this year. The proposal is a training and competition venue seating between 3,500 and 7,000, covered by a seasonal inflatable dome for year-round use, hosting Dinos football, soccer and rugby.
The school has raised more than $21 million, much of it through Dinos 5th Quarter, the football alumni group. The design phase is expected to begin this fall.
"We've known for some time that the Dinos will outlive McMahon Stadium," said Nick Holt, dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology.
The Stampeders aren't part of it. A 7,000-seat venue is nowhere near CFL scale.
No replacement decision has been made
None of the three organizations has committed to demolition or to a new build for the Stampeders.
The City's contract language concerns "the future of McMahon Stadium," which covers renovation, replacement and relocation equally. The Stampede's study is about adapting a venue that already exists. The university's project is a definite new build, but it replaces McMahon only for the Dinos.
The renovation option isn't hypothetical. McMahon has been upgraded repeatedly, most recently with new turf and the concourse expansion going in for the Grey Cup.
The three projects are separate, but their outcomes could shape the future of McMahon Stadium and professional football in Calgary.
What happens if the Dinos leave
If the university builds its own stadium and the Dinos move out, the Stampeders are alone in a 66-year-old building.
"The university doesn't want to put more money into a new building if we're going to have to keep McMahon going on some basis or build a new stadium there," Allan said. "It's the critical piece of the puzzle right now."
Farkas supports replacement, with conditions
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said the need for new sports facilities is absolutely vital as the city grows.
"As we see the need for supporting local arts, culture, but also sports like the CFL, would strongly support a replacement for that facility," he said. "But as I say, the devil is always in the details, and I want to make sure that if taxpayers are asked to contribute that it's in a fair way."
Farkas said he sees potential in incorporating commercial space or housing. That's a different frame from the arena deal, with Scotia Place costing the City $853 million up front ahead of its fall 2027 opening.
Allan points to an eight-year timeline
Allan has given the most concrete timeline anyone involved has offered. He hopes to have a new stadium in the works within eight years, because that's how long the newly installed artificial turf is expected to last.
"I hope that this is the last time we put artificial turf down at McMahon," he said when it went in.
McMahon Stadium's history
The stadium opened in 1960, built quickly after the Stampeders lost their previous home. It cost just over $1 million, nearly a third of it from brothers Frank and George McMahon, oil and gas men whose name the building still carries.
The original build put 22,000 seats on both sides of the field. Capacity peaked at 38,205 in 1988 and sits around 35,650 today. It hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics, and the cauldron still stands beside it.
McMahon has hosted the Grey Cup five times, most recently in 2019. November will be the sixth. Today it's home to the Stampeders, the Dinos and Calgary Wild FC of the Northern Super League.
What happens next
The City's contract is expected in October. The Stampede's is expected within weeks, with results by next summer. The university's design phase starts this fall.
The 113th Grey Cup is at McMahon on Sunday, November 15, with the festival running from November 8. Ahead of it, the Stampeders are building concourses out into parking lot space, part of the CFL's hosting requirements.
When Calgary was awarded the game, CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie stood by having previously called McMahon terrible.
"I'm not going to back away from the fact I believe the city needs a new stadium for the CFL, it needs a new stadium for the Calgary Stampeders," Ambrosie said. "It would be disingenuous to say anything else."
Sources
City of Calgary, statement and contract tenders
Calgary Stampede and Calgary Municipal Land Corporation
University of Calgary
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