Manitoba Centre - Football Configuration
Manitoba Centre - Hockey ConfigurationA reader suggested to me a stadium drawing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Canadian Football League team, so here it is. The stadium would be an indoor domed stadium which would seat 37,500 in the football configuration. The lower level would have 24 rows surrounding the playing field and the upper level would have 23 rows in a horseshoe configuration. There would be 42 suites, 14 along the sideline and 28 in the end zone as part of the hockey configuration.......
Yes the hockey configuration. I know that Winnipeg already has the MTS Centre, which was built not long ago and just slightly too small for NHL hockey. The NHL is going to move back north, be it Hamilton, Winnipeg, or Quebec. My thought is that if we're going to the trouble to design a new stadium for the Blue Bombers, why not make it work as a higher capacity hockey arena too? The Jets (I assume that would be the name for the NHL franchise) could play most regular games at the MTS Centre, but could play Saturday Nights, games against Edmonton, Calgary, playoff games, etc. at the Manitoba Center. This configuration would have 22,000 seats, and would have very good sightlines for hockey. The sideline football stands would retract, allowing the East endzone stands to be moved into a complete bowl configuration in the West half of the stadium. Red seats on retracting risers would complete the seating all the way down to ice level.
This seems pie in the sky, but NBA teams have used dual venues in the past, and this would be a novel way to get around the capacity problem at the MTS Centre. This venue would also be a good, intimate football stadium. The stadium would also provide over 150,000 square feet of floor space for exhibitions with the sideline seats retracted, making this a very versatile venue.
