Moncton new stadium

Anyone have news, infos or pics about the new stadium they'll build in Moncton? I've read its going to be a 10 000 seats stadium. It kinda surprise me. I would have expect a bigger stadium(+/- 25000) ...

Actually, that would be interesting to see. I'll be back. Im going to try and find some.

zartan posted these along time ago

I cant find any thing. It might help if I knew what it was going to be called but I cant find that either.

And its only going to be 10 000 because they are only trying to get track and feild championships. I dont know if its Canadian or International. But this stadium is not for the CFL

The building of the stadium hinges on Moncton winning the bid to host the 2008 IAAF world Junior championship. As of today they are awaiting the word on who will be the winning city. Yesterday this was posted on Athletics Canada web page

Prime Minister Harper and New Brunswick Premier announce backing for bid
March 24th 2006, OTTAWA – Athletics Canada is thrilled with today’s announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord confirming the support of the Federal Government, and the province of New Brunswick for the bid to host the 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships in Moncton, New Brunswick. Prime Minister Harper announced a commitment of $6 million in Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) funds and New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord committed $5 million from the province. The funds will be used to build a brand new state of the art stadium if the city of Moncton’s bid is successful to host the international event.

Jean-Guy Ouellette, Athletics Canada Chairman of the Board, indicated that hosting the event in Moncton would play a key role for years to come; “The 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships would be the largest international sporting event ever hosted in Atlantic Canada. With over 170 countries competing, the championships would not only leave a positive economic impact in Canada, the province of New Brunswick and the City of Moncton, but they would also establish a lasting legacy in the form of state of the art facilities and athletic knowledge, both playing a critical role in the development of athletes.�

They'd have no reason to build a 25,000+ seat stadium without an assurance of getting a CFL team when the stadium is ready. However, maybe it could be the start of getting a team in town someday. They would definitely need to find someone to finance the expansion of a stadium to do that though.

If they want a CFL team, they should build this stadium so it can be easily expanded to fit 20 000 or more.

Well, I must say this is not only interesting but further supports my view that for the CFL to be better, it needs to downsize and see that cities that have nice 10,000 seat stadiums can fit right in with the CFL. If not, well, I'm afraid that soccer will be bigger than the CFL in terms of more cities with pro teams in no time.
To me this is the CFL's challenge, and as much as I think Candadian football is a much better game than soccer, or NFL football for that matter, soccer may find it's way professionally in more cities in this country than the CFL will. And this is problematic.

I hope your wrong.

I hope I'm wrong sproty but the way I see it with guys like Saputo and Kerfoot in Montreal and Vancouver, and the 20,000 new soccer stadium going up in Toronto, well, soccer is getting new stadiums and doing it professionally at the 10,000-20,000 seat level. And this potentially brings in places like Saskatoon and London who have nice new stadiums in this size, and maybe many others, not too, too big that cities can't maybe afford.
It will be interesting how this plays out in the next 5-15 years but I can really see a future for pro soccer in this country albeit on a smaller stadium scale than CFL but maybe more cities. Does this matter? I don't know.

I can't see it Earl. Soccer is only getting new stadiums in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, and you may see a small spike in interest with the 2007 Fifa tournament. Pro Soccer has been tried and tried again in this country without success.

Currently you have the CPSL (Canadian Professional Soccer League) that has 10 teams extending from Windsor to Montreal. However, over 1/2 of those teams are in the GTA, and they are really only club teams with limited appeal outside of the communities they exist in. A couple of years ago, I saw a game between the CPSL "All-Stars" and a German League team, and it wasn't even close. The Germans toyed with the CPSL boys all night and laid a solid beating on them.

The last Canadian Soccer League died in 1992 and since then, there has been limited Canadian presence in Soccer's A-league and United League.

Soccer simply doesn't have the appeal in North America as it does in the rest of the world and any attempt at creating a national or continental league has met modest success at best because it is viewed as sub-standard to European leagues.

Now to "downsize" the CFL would also be a bad idea. You may be able to accomodate the league in more cities that way, but at the same time you would have to reduce budgets, reduce salaries and would almost certainly be losing out on the calibre of player that currently plays in the CFL. Like it or not, the CFL's chief competition in terms of players is not the NFL, but rather the Arena Leagues. Right not the CFL and Arena leagues are roughly equal in terms of salary level, so the CFL does have the ability to compete for the best players not in the NFL. If the CFL were to "downsize", that competitive level would be gone and the quality of play will suffer.

I'd rather have a high quality league with fewer teams than a lower quality one with more teams.

Disagree about downsizing, whenever you do so you marginlize your own sport. Talk about creating a further wide gap between the haves and the have nots. On the one side you have Edmonton at 41,000 average several other teams in the 30,000 + and the rest in the high 25,000 +(not counting the Gades) so what would be the point of bringing in another Gades fiasco with 10,000, 15,000 or even 20,000 seat stadium.
The smaller the venue the less likely and the perception is definitely minor league. If a potential suiter cannot build a facility for at least 25,000 therte is nothing to be gained from lesser stadium, $ etc.

well I remember when the Atlanta Flames moved to Calgary and into that 8,000 seat barn we all laughed our @sses off until the saddledome was built.......you can never go wrong moving into a market that wants a team even if you have to wait a few years for a proper stadium..........

That new stadium will be a nice size for a CFL exhibition game, but nothing more. And still, the problem with the Moncton idea is that even though it may have more people in a certain radius, that radius is too large (compared to Halifax's) to be worth it - are all those people going to drive all that distance? Whereas Halifax has enough people, and concentrated in one area to boot.

I don't see soccer overtaking the CFL. Don't get me wrong, I love soccer and I would love to see a thriving pro league here in Canada. But soccer has had such a hard time getting a foothold in North America (let alone Canada) whereas the CFL has had a foothold in Canada for 100 years. And if, hypothetically, we saw a soccer league in Canada, playing in 10,000 seat stadiums, that league would be smaller than the CFL, even if it was in more cities. Player salaries would be a lot smaller, fan interest would be less, etc. And they two sports don't even compete with one another. Think of the AFL2 ... it has billions of teams, in small markets, but it's not popular ...

http://www.tsn.ca/headlines/main_story.asp?id=160477

Moncton won the rights to the track and feild event. I gues they will be building the stadium now.

That's good stuff. Too bad they won't have a CFL team as the league insists on 25,000 seat stadiums. Which is too bad.

CanucKev, you say if the CFL was in lots of cites but in 10,000 seat stadiums, the interest would be less. How do you mean? Look at major junior hockey in this country, it is very popular in far more cities than the CFL and even in some major cities like Vancouver that have NHL teams. Maybe you are saying there wouldn't be as much hype because player salaries would be so low that we couldn't attract quality Americans here or Canadians to play for poor salaries. That is something to consider I suppose but junior hockey is alive and well and these guys play for practically nothing. I think the CFL in say 15 Canadian cities where the average salary is $20,000 per year would be ok. Now don't get me wrong, I want the CFL to stay as it is and not necessarily go this way. But if the CFL can't survive the way it is now, then a new model like I'm suggesting should be considered. By that time, soccer will probably be well established along the lines I'm talking about and this is something the CFL should consider though.

I might add that some junior franchises like the London Knights are more than likely at least what a CFL franchise is worth.

You know, I was thinking about a stadium like this that Moncton seems to be getting and the new MTS Centre in Winnipeg which seats 15,000. I've heard on some forums that the city of Winnipeg was crazy not building a 18,000 seater but I think they got is exactly right. They built the arena for their needs and if the NHL wants to come calling, fine, but this is our arena and if it's not big enough, well, then a new owner can spend the money to expand it but since this is unlikely, we have the facility we need for our needs. Just like Moncton and some other cities to the CFL, hey, we have a nice facility for our needs but if you want a team here, then an owner can spend money to upgrade it but in the meantime, we have what we need.
I like this thinking!

impressive :shock: :roll:

They don’t expect THAT to draw a CFL frnchise, do they?

No. Its for a track and feild event in 2010. It was made specifically for that without the CFL in mind.

If they really had to, I bet they could add some more temporary bleachers and bring up the capacity to 20,000.