New suites, no roof, and temporary seating plans: what Redblacks fans need to know about Lansdowne 2.0

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If you’ve been living under a rock, you might not have heard of Lansdowne 2.0. For everyone else, you know that it’s a mega project that will finally complete the development of a prime piece of city-owned land that has been in transition since 2007.

Back then, the land was nothing but a football stadium with a hockey rink under it and historical buildings — the Aberdeen Pavilion and Horticulture Building — surrounded by a sea of concrete parking lots.

By 2014, Lansdowne had taken its current form, with new South Side stands, plenty of green space and dozens of restaurants, shops and entertainment venues. But it was never truly complete, as the stadium’s North Side stands and the aging hockey rink below it were never properly addressed.

This coming October, the expectation is that Ottawa City Council will give its final stamp of approval on Lansdowne 2.0 and send the project hurtling towards the finish line.

“That opens the door to us starting work on the new event centre by the end of 2025. That will be a two-year project, which is expected to be completed by fall of 2027,” said Mark Goudie, president and CEO of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG).

In any given year, Lansdowne hosts over 180 events, with the majority occurring inside the arena, and has over four million visitors. Although major construction will be ongoing on the site for years, OSEG wants to limit disruptions to those things.

“It’s vitally important that, as much as possible, it’s business as usual during construction and that all of our teams, our tenants’ teams, along with concerts and other events that we host, carry on” stated Goudie.

“That’s why the current arena will remain in place for the next two years and come the fall of 2027, everything that currently happens there will shift over to the new event centre. As of that time, it’ll be home to the ’67’s (Ottawa’s OHL team), the Charge (Ottawa’s PWHL team), the BlackJacks (Ottawa’s professional CEBL basketball) and all other concerts, shows and events.”

Once finished, the new event centre will have a capacity of 6,500 fans, which Goudie believes is the sweet spot for the Ottawa community.

“Right now, if you want to do an event in town for up to 2,000 people, you’re probably going to use the NAC (National Arts Centre). For 2,000 to 6,500, the new event centre will be available. For 6,500 to 18,000, you’ll have the CTC (Canadian Tire Centre) and for anything that’s 18,000+, you’ll have TD Place stadium. It will all fit together beautifully.”

One thing fans will have noticed is that the event centre will be located in the east end zone of TD Place. That’s provided some unique design opportunities to enhance the atmosphere of Redblack gamedays. There will be suites that overlook the field and bars in the upper concourses of the event centre that lead to a balcony that overhangs the east end zone. There will also be bunker suites at field level to provide another perspective for fans.

“Something we definitely wanted to maintain is the ability to walk between the North and South stadium stands and to have people as close to the action as they want to be. We don’t sell standing-room tickets, but a segment of our fans love hanging out on the walkways that go from the North Side to the South in both end zones. It’s become the longest bar rail in Canada,” said Goudie. “The bridge and that concept will stay in place but with better views and be wider to allow us to provide improved service to those seat-avoiding standers.”

Although it will be business as usual for the Redblacks for the next three seasons while the event centre takes shape, as soon as that 2027 season finishes, the North Side stands as generations of fans have come to know them, will be gone.

And yes, as of right now that means the roof will be gone. Some fans will be upset and put off by that decision. On top of losing their protection from the elements, some are also worried about the potential impact on the gameday atmosphere without the roof bouncing sound back down towards field level. Goudie understands their concerns.

“I get it,” he said. “I grew up a Northsider because my dad wanted to sit under the roof, although I’ve now deep-sixed that ‘South Side sucks’ phrase from my repertoire.”

It should be noted that the original City proposal had a roof option as part of Lansdowne 2.0 but that wasn’t approved due to the overall budget.

“I expect that the City will continue to carry a North stadium roof as an option and expect that this will again be discussed at Council later this year. My hope is that even if it isn’t included in this next phase for Lansdowne, there might be the opportunity to add it down the road ” said Goudie.

“I also think that there is a little bit of recency bias as we’ve had a couple of years where you could get your rain forecast by checking if it was a Redblacks’ home gameday. But the football gods started coming around last season, so hopefully the weather gods get it together and do the same. What I’m truly hoping is that people in Ottawa — both die-hard football fans and those that come to Redblacks games because it’s an event — see this as an opportunity to grow our sport and our fanbase.  I loved my experience going down to Buffalo last year for a crazy Bills snow game. The atmosphere was electric and people were there to have a good time. Those are fun, loud, passionate folks who love their team and that’s a place with no roof, and they were proud to tell you that.”

While the new North Side stands won’t have a distinctive feature like the wooden veil that wraps around the South Side, Goudie promises it will still have a signature element to it.

“We’re going to have a grand entrance that links Lansdowne from the shops and restaurants along Exhibition Way to the stadium.  It will be a big special staircase that goes through the retail buildings and between the two residential builds and lands on the main concourse of the North Side stands.”

Upon completion, the new North Side stadiums will have a capacity of roughly 11,200, which is slightly less than it currently holds. The difference will be offset by the seating available in the event centre that overlooks the field. The overall capacity for TD Place will still be around 24,000 when it’s all said and done.

During the two-year period of construction for the new stands — the 2028 and 2029 seasons — the Redblacks will be forced to play games at a reduced capacity. While the exact number is yet to be determined, Goudie mentions that OSEG will think outside the box to make it as high as possible.

“I can state that we certainly aren’t going to be playing home games in other cities. R-Nation needs us to be in Ottawa and at Lansdowne. We’ll use the South Side as normal and then we’ll get creative. That likely means temporary bleachers in the west end zone like we did during the 2017 Grey Cup and we’ll have some new capacity attached to the arena in the east end zone. As construction plans come together we’ll also see if it is possible to have some limited sideline seating on the north side. We’ll certainly do our best to make sure that as many fans as possible can still take in Redblacks’ games.”

When asked what excites him most about Lansdowne 2.0, Goudie was quick to note that as an Ottawa native, he’s spent plenty of his life taking in events at Lansdowne.

“I grew up here. My uncle was Howard Darwin (a former owner of the 67’s) so I went to tons of hockey games here. I attended my first concert at Lansdowne. Every summer I came to the Exhibition and, of course, took in plenty of football games. As someone who has grown up at Lansdowne and who continues to spend a lot of time here, I know what makes it special and I know what could be improved,” he said.

“To me, what’s really cool about the site is the role that it once again now plays as Ottawa’s gathering place and the hub of sports and entertainment in our region. You can come here for an event, but have plenty of options for entertainment both before and after your concert or game, like we just saw with this year’s World Junior Hockey Championships. Lansdowne has a vital role in the economic development of our city and Lansdowne 2.0 is a huge opportunity for the city to fully finish redeveloping the site into something that makes it relevant for the next 50 years.”

The post New suites, no roof, and temporary seating plans: what Redblacks fans need to know about Lansdowne 2.0 appeared first on 3DownNation.

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