Observations at Commonwealth

I went to first non-Rider CFL game today at Commonwealth Stadium and saw some history.

A few observations:

  1. Yes Edmonton gets a lot of fans, more than anyone else, but their stadium is so big the fans are dispersed quite a bit and the atmosphere isn't all that great. There wasn't a lot of people around me and I was on the 50 yard line.

  2. It is also a relatively quiet stadium, with the most fans in the CFL I expected them to be cheering loudly when the Argos had the ball, especially in the fourth quarter.

  3. The score clocks do not show how many time-outs each team has left, I found this a bit annoying.

  4. I only saw one Argo fan (He had an Argo cap), I also saw a Lions fan, and quite a few Rider fans.

  5. It's great having a train going to and from the games, I love not having to worry about parking or driving home in traffic.

  6. The Eskimos had a great of 34 years, I was happy to be there to witness the end.

The Rogers Centre doesn't keep track of how many timeouts are left for each team either. Would probably be different for gasp NFL games if they had them there, but with each team only getting one time out per half in the CFL, I guess its pretty much a moot point.

that stadium looked quiet and ugly, people complain about all the concrete at rogers centre, well commonwealth is worse, the eskimos make so much for going to the playoffs for 34 straight seasons and they are too cheap to renovate their freaking stadium. First of all remove that dumb running track and move the seats closer to the field, nobody cares about track and field in this country and track and field doesnt generate any money anyways. Second get some field turf and move into the 21st century, get some bigger video boards, better sound system, and reduce the number of seats in order to limit the capacity and increase crowd noise.

GOOD NIGHT NOW!

Are you doing all right? Did you soil your diapers? Edmonton spent hundreds of thousands of dollars renovating Commonwealth Stadium for the 2001 World Track and Field Championships. The third largest sporting event in the world, behind only the World Cup of Soccer and the Summer Olympics. Having that seating capacity also allows them to attract such world class events. You also need the track for such events. They also have a very large jumbotron at Commonwealth already. Back to your cartoons, son.

  1. If you can count to two then you should be able to manage the timeouts in your head.

  2. I saw one guy in a Rider jersey and 15-20 Argos fans.

Remove the track and move the seats closer? SO basically what you’re saying is rebuild the stadium? I think you’ve got some of that concrete in your head.

Get a bigger “video board”. Errr… you mean jumbo tron? Isn’t it the biggest one in the World?

Idiot.

edmonton is a joke city, your facilities are garbage, commonwealth is far from world class, if it was such a good facility the under 17 world cup gold medal game would be played there instead of toronto, and rexall place is a joke arena, its old and useless, its so old that the press box is on the same side as the benches,which makes it look bush league, especially when viewing it on TV and seeing the penalty box on the opposite side, its the only nhl arena built like that.

I still like your recomendation to move the seats closer! It was brilliant! ROFL!

edmonton doesnt need a running track, unless they want jermaine copeland to run another relay, LMAO, the eskimos are a joke, they are a soft team, they allowed nik lewis to cut block kelly and end his career, and they dont even retaliate, then they allow the stamps to run a relay, and i dont see any eskimo players starting beef, lets face it macciocia is a soft coach, he tries to act tough through the media, yet he lost control of his team.

  1. I can count, but it’s a nice feature to have, especially if fans go down to get a snack or go to the bathroom during the game.

  2. That’s probably because we were sitting in different sections.

To be honest I never noticed a time out counter at Molson stadium

  1. I realize that I was just giving my observations too.

Actuall the biggest one in the world is at Turner Field in Atlanta. Its something like 19 stories tall.

200 feet tall?
I kinda doubt that!
I'll have to look it up

Well, I'm not sure how up to date the Esks facts are, but on their home page it stats the jumbo tron at Commonwealth as being the largest in the World.

http://esks.com/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=861

"The $6.2 million Sony JumboTron video scoreboard is currently the largest and most advanced system of its kind in the world – measuring 40' x 24' with a 16:9 aspect wide-screen picture format"

turner field
The 80ft by 72ft high definition video board, added before the 2005 season, is located above the hitters backdrop in centerfield.

[url=http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/Turner%20Field.htm]http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/nl/T ... 0Field.htm[/url]

I am also finding sites thayt say Toronto's is the biggest

my mistake ro, perhaps i meant 9 stories haha. anyway, according to the commentators who do the braves games its the largest high definition video board in the world

A lot of the "biggest in the world" stuff has to do with when the webpage was last updated ...

Edmonton does do well to get the most fans out, but they could certainly do better by closing off a few more sections of seats - maybe put some tarps over them, like BC and Toronto. Because although there are always at least 30,000 people at an Esks game, it looks pretty lame on TV, and I suspect it's not great from within the stadium either (the only times I've been to Commonwealth for games, it's been with at least 45,000 other people, which is pretty good).

I think the Winter Olympics and Rugby World Cup would have something to say about the track and field championships being the "3rd biggest sporting event in the world".

WOW…

this guy must have been robbed or raped or something devastating… in order for him to feel so bad about this city!

SURE, I hate the Esks and the Oilers. but I give credit where credit is due.

The Stadium is fine… yea it does feel quite large and open, and yes the Parking sucks! but the atmosphere for the most part is great! I love going to games at Commonwealth…

this guy has no clue :roll:

As a non Edmonton fan who visited Commonwealth in past years, I didn’t mind it at all. The number of timeouts remaining is a non issue for me. (BC Place doesn’t have it.)
I sat both times in the lower section and found the sight lines good.

The train in and out is also good.

Roughy, if you ever make it to BC they have a sky train that goes from the suburbs to both BC Place & GM Place. The parking is a total rip-off at the stadium ($20.00 last year)