On the possible replacement of Winnipeg Stadium

I'll admit it, I'm one of those people who just can't bring himself to go to bomber games. I despise the venue. There is no real shelter from the weather, it wasn't particularly comfortable, and I just hate the old CanadInns (Winnipeg) Stadium. I've never liked it. Sure I won a free pair of jeans there once from the pepsi taste patrol, but I've always found it ugly. Especially design wise. Every year I tell myself, maybe I'll go to a bomber game, but then I remember the stadium, and sometimes I remember that the bombers have sucked the last couple years (though they were much improved this year) and I end up not going.

So I am interested in the proposals the Blue Bombers have for building a new stadium.. I'd love to go to a well designed venue to take in a football game. There has been a proposal to build a complex just outside the perimiter highway near headingly. The main problem I Have with that is the people of Headingly don't deserve such a short drive to see the bombers. They voted to secceed from Winnipeg, I just can't support that location. Plus the design looks kind of toilet bowl-ish. If it could be elongated to be more like a football that would be amusing, but yeah, unlikely. Plus if you're going to build a new stadium for the bombers, you should do it right the first time. We don't want to be back 15 years from now grumbling about the poorly built 15 year old stadium.

David Asper wants to co-own the Bombers and build a new stadium on the current site. Personally, I'm not a fan of the current site. It's in the middle of St James neat Polo Park and I just don't find the area all that appealing for attending sports games. I love canwest global park because you've got the freakin trains that go around it and the river and the forks nearby. It's got class. It's got style. It's a nice little ballpark. I like the MTS Centre for being downtown, I like that they kept a bit of the brick style from Eatons and those weird glass bricks from the powerhouse building as part of the design, I like that the colours they chose as reflecting the province's major colour themes (blue and yellow) and the northern lights banners hanging everywhere. I mean the MTS Centre isn't perfect, if you're taller than 5 foot 9 the chairs can be a bit cramped (They really should have given that more thought, as It's the MAIN reason I don't attend more moose games) and I dislike how the second floor was segregated from the main floor when I went to the Green Day concert (All I wanted was some freakin Tim Hortons, which is on the main floor, but I was stuck on the second floor for the concert.. and there was no Tim's on the second floor.. retarded) But, in all the MTS Centre is way better than the Winnipeg Arena was (it gave me freakin' vertigo and had a strange smell permeating it)

So, whatever the end result is for Winnipeg, the city needs a new stadium. Renovating the old one just wont cut it anymore. I'd like for it to be in a central location somewhere, personally. I can't stand going to the Red River Ex ever since it moved to that site near headingly. (Doesn't help that the only rides I care about are roller coasters) I hope it will be something well thought out like the goldeyes home is and the MTS centre (I REFUSE to call it the phone booth.. anyone who does, you're an idiot. Phone Booth.. freakin brilliant - not) Built right, something like this could be a great asset to the community. For those few Concerts where the MTS Centre isn't big enough, for Bomber games, for whatever else stadiums can be used for. Farm Equipment trade shows I dunno. I look forward to reading about it. Unless all the propsals suck, which would only make me angry.

Perhaps something with an air supported dome would be a bad idea, however, considering what happened to B.C place today
(Link goes to canada.com cause the Aspers own it, even though I'm pissed off at the Aspers for being too cheap to invest in HDTV OTA for Global in Winnipeg and for asking for ridiculous things from the CRTC to qualify as Canadian content -- Infomercials? c'mon ... really... WTF?)

Still, a dome would be nice. or If not a dome then something enclosed. I don't care about how much the weather is part of the game.. I hate sitting in the cold.