By Terry Jones, Edmonton Sun
EDMONTON – While there will be no lack of eye-popping sights to see in Rogers Place when it opens but there will be just as much that the average fan will unlikely ever see. The bowels of the building will be as special as the rest of the $480-million facility.
The most important feature at event level will be space.
The biggest mistake made in so many previous arenas including Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver, is not providing space at the event level.
There were those who figured a big negative was going to be that you couldn’t hold a Canadian Finals Rodeo in the new rink. Figure again.
“Absolutely we could,” said Katz Group executive vice-president Bob Black. “We designed this thing to handle all manner of dirt events, including rodeo. There’s room, with the space we have built in and with the community rink, to hold the livestock for rodeo staging. The community rink is tied into the building so that you could run livestock.”