Vancouver Canucks arena revovation

[mikecubs]

Canucks fans should get room to roam once new Rogers Arena tower arrives

First of three residential/office buildings will be completed about a year from now


When what is now called Rogers Arena was squeezed between the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in the mid-1990s, it created something of a double-edged sword for the Vancouver Canucks and their ticket-holders.

The arena’s relatively tiny footprint forced rather steep viewing angles that are among the best in the National Hockey League. Even from the top rows of the upper bowl, spectators are not that far from the ice.

But the flip side is a main concourse area that, to put it politely, is rather snug. It’s a very crowded area pre- and post-game and during intermissions, with fans forced to rub shoulders as they try to weave their way through what is a very narrow space.

“The concourse is very, very tight pretty well throughout the arena,” acknowledges Victor de Bonis, chief operating officer of Canucks Sports & Entertainment.

But that should change for the better in about a year’s time when completion of the first of three residential/office towers planned by the team’s ownership will allow the Canucks to expand their concourse areas at the southwest end of the arena.

That tower, now tentatively called the West Tower, is under construction and its first five floors will connect with Rogers Arena.

The first and third floors of the tower will open up to the main and upper bowl concourses at Rogers Arena. It will provide the Canucks with more concession opportunities and give their fans more room to move.

De Bonis, who started with the Canucks nearly 20 years ago when the arena was just a hole in the ground, thinks the many changes the team is making to coincide with the tower will create a much better environment for fans.

“We have been to some arenas where the concourses are too big and there isn’t an intimacy to the experience and we don’t want that,” de Bonis said in an interview Thursday. “I kind of use the analogy like when you are at a cocktail party and you want to have that feel. You don’t want to feel like you’re at a frat party.

“We like the intimacy, but you can’t move ... We have been doing the best we can and now thanks to ownership for pursuing this project we can finally try and improve it.”

The tower will also allow the Canucks to address another pressing problem with Rogers Arena: a lack of washrooms.

The second floor of the new tower will connect with Level 2 of Rogers Arena and current washroom capacity will be expanded by about 25 per cent.

“I am not sure that is going to solve the problem, but it is a good-faith start to try and address the issue,” de Bonis said.

Those new washrooms will be accessible via staircases from the upper and lower concourse areas.

De Bonis is particularly excited about plans for the fourth floor of the arena and tower, which call for what he describes as a “cutting edge sports bar concept.”

That concept has three parts to it. The first will be a large sports bar, where fans without tickets will be able to hang out before, during and after games. It will also likely be open year-round on non game-days.

“You can come and experience the game,” de Bonis said. “You won’t be able to see the game, but you will be in the arena.”

There will be two other “pay” components to that bar area, including Loge Boxes that seat four to six people and a larger area similar to the present Best Buy Club.

“It’s actually a three-part club that would have those different amenities to service everybody,” de Bonis said. “It would feel like one club. It will be like some of these clubs in Las Vegas where they have got these different sections and different services in each area. It creates an unbelievable atmosphere and that is what we will try and do there.”

The fifth floor will allow creation of a party suite that will accommodate large groups.

The goal is have all these changes made in just over a year.

“We are very much hoping to be ready to go for the 2014-15 season,” de Bonis said. “It is a complicated project because you can’t get the occupancy until you get up to a certain level (of the tower). You can’t just get up to five floors and then operate.”

About half of the 26-storey West Tower will likely have to be completed before the Canucks can begin using the first five floors. The next five or six floors are slated to be commercial/office space — the Canucks will move their corporate offices into the building -- and the remainder of the tower will house residential rental units.

The Canucks’ owners, the Aquilini family, plan two other towers adjacent to Rogers Arena.

“I don’t know the timing of the other towers,” de Bonis said. “But I believe there is a possibility they would start before this one is completed.”

The possible removal by the City of Vancouver of both the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts complicates matters. The West Tower is scheduled to connect to the Georgia viaduct, but de Bonis said there is a contingency plan if the viaduct is removed. The Aqulinis are on record as supporting removal of both of the viaducts.

www.vancouversun.com/business/commercial-real-estate/Vancouver+Canucks+fans+should+room+roam/8709193/story.html

[grumpy]

Who knew? Everyone thought only Winnipeg enjoyed such problems...

Excellent example of maximizing space on a small footprint. Could True North do something similar on the west side over Hargrave?

[jetsorbust]

Wow, having been in this arena several times for the Olympics I have to say they already have WAY more washrooms than the MTS Centre and noticeably bigger concourses. At least in comparison to our upper deck concessions/washrooms anyways.


It is true about their seating though in the upper deck. I guess it was only done because they didn't have the room to make it any less steep, but I actually quite liked it. The bars keep people from leaning forward, and we all know that's a problem in the MTS Centre.


I'm not one of the ones that complain about the MTS Centre but it is what it is - the Rogers Centre already has more washrooms/concession space and they're planning a huge expansion!

[grumpy]

The question is are there way more washrooms per capita?

I wonder if True North will expand MTS centre after 18 years in the NHL like Vancouver is doing.

[jetsorbust]

Jul 31, 2013 11:37:01 GMT -6 grumpy said:

The question is are there way more washrooms per capita?

I wonder if True North will expand MTS centre after 18 years in the NHL like Vancouver is doing.

Definitely more per capita, it wasn't even close from what I recall.


I could see True North expanding the MTS Centre (concessions, not seats), there has to be opportunities to do something very similiar to what Vancouver is now doing. But probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Just rip out at least half the toilet stalls and put in urinals that take up less space and I would be largely happy!

[mikecubs]

Vancouver Canucks revamp arena with gourmet food, beer bar

Sawdust floats in the air. Workers in hard hats hurry about only 4 1/2 weeks from a crucial deadline – the start of the hockey season. Behind the bar, local cocktail impresario Jay Jones mixes drinks.

The Vancouver Canucks, and parts of Rogers Arena, are under construction.

After an awful season that ended in April with the Canucks near the bottom of the National Hockey League standings, the team president and then coach fired, the slow steps of rebuilding are under way – a push to keep seats and suites in the arena full.

And despite the difficulties on the ice, as a new slate of executives and coaches led by icon Trevor Linden try to stay competitive and build a longer-term winner, the off-ice product at Rogers Arena is suddenly going to be a lot better – or at least tastier.

The food and drink, from the building’s 1995 inception, was mediocre at best, typical of sporting venues for decades. But a new trend has taken hold in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Seattle: higher-quality food and local ingredients, alongside craft beer and cocktails.

The Canucks have hired the likes of Jay Jones, named bartender of the year several times by various outlets, and brought in other food executives. Gourmet hotdogs, lobster salad sandwiches and pastries are part of the new menu.

Mr. Jones, wearing a dark suit and blue-checked shirt, and sporting a distinctive handle-bar mustache, promises a long list of beers on tap and “a cocktail of integrity, at nightclub speed, with a bartender smiling at you.”

A lifelong fan – “I feel like I was born in a Canucks jersey” – Mr. Jones knows the history of this team involves a lot of losing. But an expensive night at the arena should still be fun.

“Creating a good mood” is the mission, says Mr. Jones, who previously worked at a long list of Vancouver bars, restaurants and hotels, including Pourhouse, West and the Shangri-La.

The Canucks’ new offering benefits from one recent loosening of British Columbia’s liquor laws – liquor can now be sold in arenas. The Aquilini family is among the largest donors to the provincial Liberal government, contributing $226,285 in 2013, according to online records from the province.

The new facilities at Rogers Arena, which include various bars and food outlets, comes alongside the near-completion of a 26-storey office and residential tower at the tight corner on the west side of the arena. Much of the planning was under way well before the Canucks tanked under since fired coach John Tortorella.

Still, the investment of $10-million in the arena – on top of $50-million in the previous decade – comes at a moment the team needs a boost. Once dominant in the local conversation, when the Stanley Cup was so near, the Canucks became an afterthought last winter. Hundreds of seats, even if paid for, went empty every game.

For all the changes of the past several months, revival will take time. The recent era of contending for a Stanley Cup is gone. Making the playoffs – after finishing sixth-last in the NHL last season – is the new definition of success.

“Just getting in the playoffs is a big deal,” said team owner Francesco Aquilini in a rare interview on Wednesday morning on Canucks radio broadcaster Team 1040.

The hiring of Mr. Linden as the new team president in April, along with many subsequent moves, has helped drum up interest in a product many in the city were willing to abandon.

“I can tell you it was culture shock for the Canucks this spring,” said Tom Mayenknecht, a marketing executive at Emblematica Brand Builders, of empty seats and dissolving interest.

“The personality of the franchise shifted.”

Chief operating officer Victor de Bonis credits the long-time team captain and the new boss for a change in culture: “Trevor’s been great.”

The Canucks have claimed sellouts of Rogers Arena going back to 2002, the longest such run in hockey, bolstered by season tickets and packages that account for 17,000 of 18,910 seats each game. The Canucks lost several thousand buyers and are scrapping to get back to 17,000. They are at 16,000 currently, with a new advertising campaign planned for next week, ahead of opening night on Oct. 11.

Mr. De Bonis said the empty seats late last season jarred the team, sparking the push to overhaul the hockey roster and the experience at the arena.

“We have to fix this,” said Mr. De Bonis.

m.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-canucks-revamp-rogers-arena-with-gourmet-food-craft-beer-bar/article20342733/?service=mobile

[mikecubs]

This article is from May.

Aquilini completes first downtown rental tower
Modernist digs light years removed from Vancouver’s typical old apartment buildings

Young tenants fed up with the half-century old, amenity-challenged apartments that make up 85% of Vancouver’s rental universe are expected to help Aquilini Development and Construction fill the first new rental apartment towers built in Vancouver in decades.

When the gleaming new Aquilini Centre tower opens beside Rogers Arena in June, it will offer condo-quality rental apartments, said senior vice-president Kevin Hoffman.

The tower, the city’s largest rental housing project in 40 years, offers suites and amenities that are light years from the old wood frame apartments that dominate Vancouver’s 106,000 rentals.

Each Aquilini Centre suite features granite countertops, 9.5-foot high ceilings and a full appliance package including Bosch large-capacity washer and dryer, GE refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave. The tower also boasts a modern fitness facility, secure bike storage, underground parking, a games lounge and even a rooftop terrace with barbecue.

So far, rentals have been slow for the 197-unit tower, the first of three rental towers Aquilini plans to build around the arena, but Hoffman is confident the towers will fill with millennials as marketing ramps up.

Rents start at $1,550 for one-bedroom suites of around 450 square feet, $1,625 for one-bedroom and den, and $2,450 for two-bedrooms and den units, These are higher rents than the Vancouver average for apartment buildings, but in line with condominium rentals.

Incentives from the City of Vancouver made the rental towers possible, Hoffman said. “We couldn’t have made it work without the incentives.”

Hoffman did not provide specifics on the city’s help. Under the city’s rental incentive programs, negotiations can involve concessions on community amenity contributions, development cost levies, parking and density.

Vancouver’s rules against the demolition of older apartment buildings is also a factor, since there is little pressure on landlords to spend money on upgrading old rentals in a city with a near-zero vacancy rate.

“Notwithstanding the state of the building or the state of repair, we still get top market rent,” Hanni Lammam, executive vice-president of landlord Cressey Development Corp., told a rental panel at the recent Vancouver Real Estate Forum.

www.biv.com/article/2015/5/aquilini-completes-first-downtown-rental-tower/

[mikecubs]

Here is what this will look like when the other 2 buildings are done. The one that is done is the West building.

[mikecubs]

What it looks like in real life







South tower construction

[mikecubs]

Rogers Arena still rockin’ 20 years later

Rink brought the Canucks and global celebrities to the downtown core

Rogers Arena loses its teenage status next month when it becomes a reasonably mature 20-year-old sports and entertainment venue.

The downtown Vancouver arena so carefully wedged between the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts has handled more than 27 million visitors at 3,000-plus events since hometown rocker Bryan Adams opened it with a sold-out concert on Sept. 19, 1995.

The building formerly known as General Motors Place has hosted a who’s who of global celebrity culture the past two decades — including The Rolling Stones, Madonna, U2, Lady Gaga, Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II and the Dalai Lama.

It’s best known for being the Vancouver Canucks’ home base and for hosting the NBA’s Vancouver Grizzlies before the team bolted for Memphis in 2001. The Vancouver Ravens National Lacrosse League team (2002-2004) and Vancouver Voodoo roller hockey squad (1996) also had brief stints in the facility that was the brainchild of former Canucks owner Arthur Griffiths.

The Canucks played in the Pacific Coliseum in East Vancouver for 27 years before heading to the bright lights of the downtown core.

Griffiths said the Canucks invested in many Coliseum improvements over the years — including new luxury suites, a restaurant and office upgrades — but it was clear to him by the late 1980s that the most successful National Hockey League clubs were those that owned and operated their own downtown arenas.

“My instincts told me that (staying in the Coliseum) wouldn’t work for a number of reasons,” he said in an interview. “It was in the wrong location for our customers — not near rapid transit and not in the downtown entertainment district where people who literally write our cheques like to go.

“So we had to step up to the plate and find a new creative solution.”

Griffiths said the Canucks considered three potential downtown arena sites before settling on the 2.1-hectare property they bought from Concord Pacific for $12 million in 1993.

Ironically, the undeveloped property was used to display the world’s largest hockey stick during Expo 86.

The club also considered industrial property behind the train station at Main and Terminal and the City of Vancouver’s Larwill Park site bounded by Cambie, Dunsmuir, Beatty and Georgia streets.

The industrial property had contamination issues and Larwill Park might have involved a lease arrangement with the city, rather than outright ownership, so the Concord site was chosen — viaduct restrictions and all.

Then the Canucks had to convince the City of Vancouver — a PNE stakeholder — that moving the team away from the PNE-located Coliseum was a smart move for everybody.

“We assured the city that it wasn’t going to be obligated financially and that this would be a great new downtown asset to revitalize Vancouver,” Griffiths said.

The viaducts clearly constrained the size of the arena and the width of the concourse.

“That’s a very tight site,” Griffiths said. “We kept going back to the architects, asking: ‘Guys, is this going to fit in here?’”

It did fit, and Griffiths feels the physical building constraints created a more intimate environment with superior acoustics.

“You could hear Michael Bublé without a microphone in there,” he said

The new venue became known as General Motors Place after GM paid the Canucks $20 million for a 20-year naming-rights deal but the facility could just as easily have become Air Canada Place if the airline hadn’t missed a contract proposal deadline by 30 minutes.

Griffiths said GM and Air Canada both agreed to the 20-year, $20-million deal but GM responded before the deadline while Air Canada was half an hour late.

“So we were legally and morally bound to accept the first response,” he said.

General Motors nearly went bankrupt during the 2008 global financial crisis and was happy to end the naming-rights contract five years early in 2010, when Canucks broadcaster Rogers Telecommunications stepped in and paid a rumoured $60 million for the right to call the facility Rogers Arena for 10 years.

Canucks Sports & Entertainment chief operating officer Victor de Bonis wouldn’t confirm the naming rights value shot up from $1 million a year to $6 million a year but said those kinds of deals are much different now than they were 20 years ago.

“It’s about how you build your relationships with partners and how they see value in what we can do together,” he said. “We have tremendous partners who really believe in us and Rogers is our most significant partner, by far, based on the sponsorship and broadcast side.”

Ultimately, the debt load created by the $160 million capital cost of the arena, combined with the $125 million US franchise fee to bring the NBA Grizzlies to Vancouver, forced Griffiths to bring in Seattle billionaire John McCaw as a minority partner in 1994 and McCaw bought out Griffiths and his sister, Emily, in 1997.

Griffiths said a weak Canadian dollar at the time made it even more costly to pay Canucks and Grizzlies players’ US-dollar salaries.

“It’s sad it ended the way it did but at the end of the day, I was a millionaire in a business that was becoming a billionaire’s game,” he said.

But Griffiths remains “immensely proud” of the downtown arena he helped create.

“I’m proud that I stuck it out and proud of the people who worked there with me,” he said.

Vancouver sport marketing consultant Tom Mayenknecht said Griffiths deserves credit for building the arena downtown next to BC Place Stadium, the home of the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps.

“Yaletown was already moving toward renewal but the presence of the Canucks and those 45 game nights a year, in addition to the Lions and the Whitecaps, has made it the real fulcrum for sports and entertainment in Vancouver,” he said.

Mayenknecht said the $160-million cost to build the arena — about $230 million in 2015 dollars when accounting for inflation — represents excellent value when you consider the skyrocketing cost of Vancouver real estate.

“It would probably be in the neighbourhood of $500 million or $600 million to build that arena from scratch today,” he said.

Langara School of Management instructor Aziz Rajwani said Griffiths also deserves kudos for building the arena with private money, noting it’s common now for public money to foot much of the bill for similar projects.

“Governments were committed to fiscal restraint back in 1993 and public sentiment was very much against giving money to businesses whose players were making millions of dollars,” he said.

Rajwani said the subsequent loss of Canadian NHL franchises in Winnipeg and Quebec City changed that feeling and public funds have since been used to help build new facilities such as the new Rogers Place in Edmonton and the Videotron Centre in Quebec.

(Another privately-funded sports stadium could be in Vancouver’s future as it’s a good bet Whitecaps owners still want to own and operate their own soccer-specific stadium with natural grass at some point.)

Vancouver music industry mogul Sam Feldman said the Pacific Coliseum still works well as a concert venue for certain acts but it was important to build a bigger facility in the downtown core. Rogers Arena can hold about 19,000 people for concerts, compared with around 15,500 at the Coliseum.

“Rogers is a much more modern building so acoustically, it’s going to be better,” Feldman said. “Most major North American cities want to create cultural gathering places in the downtown core and Rogers Arena has really fulfilled that function.”

Canucks Sports & Entertainment is building the second of three highrise apartment towers near the arena, two of which will be physically connected to the facility.

de Bonis said the new connected buildings will help alleviate concourse congestion in the arena by providing space for more food and beverage options and more washrooms.

He said the first completed tower will contain a sports bar — expected to open early next year — that will allow patrons to see inside the arena during games and other events.

de Bonis said the bar will be open every day to provide a “multimedia, mind-blowing experience.”

He said the Canucks still want to build an ice rink near Rogers Arena that would serve as a practice facility for the club and a community facility for downtown Vancouver but plans have yet to be finalized.

He also said there’s always a possibility an NBA team could return to Vancouver to play in the arena some day.

“You can never say never but our No. 1 priority right now is the Vancouver Canucks,” de Bonis said. “My experience with having two tenants here is that you can lose focus.”

So will the 20-year-old arena survive to see its 30th and 40th birthdays and beyond?

de Bonis predicts it will, noting more than $100 million has been spent on facility upgrades to ensure it remains as state-of-the-art as possible.

“It’s a cement structure so it’s not going to fall apart or decay,” he said. “If we do the right things and keep reinvesting in it, it could be around for decades to come.”

Rogers Arena Hosting Facts

• More than 3,000 events in total, attracting more than 27 million visitors

• 762 regular-season NHL games and 64 playoff games

• 246 regular-season NBA games (and no playoff games)

• 28 men’s hockey games during the 2010 Olympics when the arena was rebranded Canada Hockey Place

• NHL All-Star game in 1998

• NBA Draft in 1998 and NHL Draft in 2006

• Six We Days

Most Played Concerts: Rod Stewart (9x), Backstreet Boys (8x), Andre Rieu (8x), Coldplay (7x)

Most Events: Disney On Ice (73x), Stars on Ice (20x), Cirque du Soleil (16x)

www.vancouversun.com/sports/Rogers+Arena+still+rockin+years+later/11325281/story.html

[mikecubs]

I'm a few months late on this

Vancouver Canucks unveil Rogers Arena upgrades ahead of upcoming season

The home of the Vancouver Canucks is getting a facelift.

The club shared renderings of Phase II upgrades to Rogers Arena on Thursday, showing off a brand new scoreboard and some other new infrastructure at the rink.


The team says the new scoreboard will be nearly four times larger than the previous one — measured at 1,300 square feet per side, compared to the previous one which was just 350 square feet. The new board will also see a curved screen, “allowing viewing angles from all areas of the arena.”

This advancement brings fans closer to the heart of the action than ever before. They will be able to witness every game moment with exceptional clarity and intensity,” the team said in a news release.

In addition to the new scoreboard, there will also be a new video “ring beam” that will extend around the entire bowl of the arena, and 64 new digital screens installed near every entrance to the bowl.

At ice level, there will be new boards, glass, dashers, benches, and penalty boxes installed.

Along with the changes that every fan will see, the team says a new “exclusive event level club and restaurant” is being built at ice level between the home and visiting dressing rooms. The new club will feature behind-the-scenes views of players, as well as new food and drink options — with separate VIP parking and entrances.

These new features, which are expected to be ready for the start of the upcoming season, are built upon the first phase of upgrades that were unveiled last year. Those largely focused on renovating team and media facilities.

The next phase, which is set to begin in the summer of 2024, will include the replacement of seats in the upper and lower bowls and a redesigned North Plaza entry.

The Canucks are scheduled hit the ice of Rogers Arena on Sept. 30 for a preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers.

vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/08/24/vancouver-canucks-rogers-arena-upgrades/

[mikecubs]

They already replaced a few of the rock hard seats with black seats. This summer they will change them all.