The arena has flaws that cannot realistically be dealt with given the small footprint it resides upon - that is why there will likely be calls to replace it in the 2030s...assuming the Jets are doing reasonably well financially for the next decade or so. The process of negotiating financing and determining a suitable location for an arena can be a 10+ year process so a new arena would likely be built in the mid-2040s.
Those flaws include:
-small lower bowl seating 8000. Outside of maybe a couple arenas, all the others seat 9,000 - 10,000 in the lower bowl. More lower bowl seats means more revenue.
- all the club seats are located behind the net and there are only 1000 club seats. Who the hell wants to pay $300 a game for a club seat and your only choice is behind the net? All the other arenas either have a) a separate club level extending around the arena between the lower deck and upper deck and/or b) club sections between the blue lines/face off circles on both sides of the ice ie) newer arenas like Rogers Place, Prudential Centre and Pittsburgh arenas are like this. The club areas for people to congregate are behind the seating areas. Given the narrowness of the building, you simply cannot do this a Canada Life Centre. Also, the number of club seats is the lowest in the league. You would need to have at least 1500 club seats, but probably more like 2000. This goes hand-in-hand with having a larger lower bowl seating capacity.
- the seats are too cramped. Almost all the seats at Canada Life Centre are 17 inches wide. The only exception are the club seats and seats in the suites at 19 inches. Who wants to spend several hundred dollars per ticket to be squished in a seat for 3 hours? All the other arenas with the exception of a few have 19 inch general seats and 21 inch club seats and 22 inch suite seats. If you were to increase the seating size of Canada Life Centre to these dimensions you would lose around 1500 seats so it isn't an option.
- The square footage of the building is less than 450,000. The only arena of a similar size is the Saddledome and it will be replaced in a few years. Smaller square footage means fewer places for concessions/points of sale which means fewer sales which means less revenues. Smaller square footage means less bathroom fixtures meaning longer lines leaving less time to go to the concessions afterwards. Again lost sales and less revenues. A substantial increase in the square footage would alleviate these problems (as well as traffic-flow). It doesn't have to 800 - 900,000 square foot monster like several of the arenas in the league. Something like 650,000 square feet would be a great improvement and alleviate these problems. Obviously this can't be accomplished at the present site given the arena is approx. 300 feet wide and 400- 450 in length. An ideal site would allow for an arena 400 feet wide and 500 feet in length
- Not enough loges and location is problematic. Around 8 years ago they shoehorned in 250 loge seats in the upper deck causing obstruction problems for people sitting in the upper deck. People who buy loges would ideally have their own separate gathering area, kinda like a club area given the premium they are paying for their seats. This is obviously not possible given their location. Loge seats should be either located on their own level as they are in Edmonton or in the lower bowl (top of the lower bowl or in specific sections ie Barclays arena or Pittsburgh's arena. As with the club seats, you would also need more of this particular premium option - probably around 400- 500 seats. Best of all, they would not obstruct the views of other patrons.
The number of suites, 55 I think, is more than enough. We don't need anymore. Some of the newer arenas have a similar amount and this is in larger cities. But we do need quite a few more premium seating options as the city grows. More growth means more small and medium-sized (and hopefully some large) businesses in the city who could be potential clients of the Jets. Of course, I would expect a slightly larger capacity as well...something in the range of 16,500 - 17000 (maybe 16,500 official capacity with 500 standing room seats to bring it to 17,000).
Possible sites could include the National Research Council of Canada on Ellice and Colony, Blue Cross Park or the old Bomber Stadium site. The latter is not downtown, but it's not that far and is in a pretty central location.
