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Post by garydare on Jan 26, 2006 2:55:14 GMT -5
Wouldn't another bar, more washrooms, wider concourses, a third deck, and most importantly more room in the seating area (to improve the "actual event watching experience" have added to the quality of the MTS? The footprint of the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon isn't large compared to, say, the United Center in Chicago but seats as many. Like MTS Centre, offices and other non-event-related facilities are elsewhere (or underground). A building of that size would require two blocks where the MTS Centre occupies one (the old Eaton's store). But it is apparent that the Rose Garden is overbuilt for a city the size of Ottawa, rarely filled and with a third of its skyboxes unsold (and back in good times, 20% remained unsold). The MTS Centre can host a NHL team for at least five years, maybe ten but by then, the franchise will have proven that it is thriving and the MTS Centre will have become more valuable as a downtown retail centre. Winnipeg will be a city of 1 million and enough hockey fans to fill a Rose Garden-style facility.
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