Calgary Stampede shares a look at the future Stampede Park including the potential for a new home for the Stampeders. A bold new vision for Stampede Park was unveiled Wednesday featuring a new live event zone and a potential plan to move the Calgary Stampeders from McMahon Stadium to Stampede Park. Following the BMO Centre expansion and work being completed on the new Scotia Place, the land where the Saddledome sits will become prime real estate. The vision for this area is to make it a bustling music, food and event hub that is open year-round. Stamps at the Stampede? Plans also see GMC Stadium become the potential new home for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders in the future. “We have to find a solution for McMahon (Stadium) one way or another, and I would rather that happens sooner than later,” said Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas. That solution could sit on Stampede Park. “Engineers will have to prove to me it won’t work. And of course, it will need to be priced,” said Joel Cowley, Calgary Stampede CEO. Robert Hayes, CEO with Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp. says he is ready to move on from McMahon Stadium. “The reality is that we only play there 10 games a year. And so, it has to be a stadium that is going to be, in my opinion, anyway, city-led,” Hayes said. Mayor Farkas has been critical of the public funds being used in the Scotia Place arena deal. “I think we need to strike a better balance than what we’ve seen in previous deals,” Farkas said. “But, you know, I’m open to public investment if there’s a public benefit and a public return on that investment.” More visitors Tourism Calgary says the new plan could entice even more people to the city, that saw 10.4 million visitors in 2025. “This is a big step forward in the right direction for the growth of the visitor economy,” said Alisha Reynolds of Tourism Calgary. While GMC Stadium, the current home of the rodeo and chuckwagon races, is occupied for 10 days every July, there are scenarios where different stakeholders say that it could also function as the Stampeders’ new downtown home. “A field comes over the top so that you’re preserving the track, you’re preserving the rodeo arena. That’s the approach that would need to be taken,” Cowley said. Timeline When Scotia Place opens its doors, the city has two years to demolish the Saddledome and return that land to the Stampede. That area will become the future home of the Coke Stage, watch parties for Flames games, and a new live events space that will be open year-round. But the Stampede say that remains several years away, with demolition expected to be complete sometime in 2029 or 2030. “There’s no reason Calgary can’t be the Nashville of the North, where people are coming here for live entertainment, for great restaurants,” Cowley added. A demolition of the Big Four Building and its replacement is also in the plans, along with an upgraded agricultural building. However, Moshe Lander, an economist at Concordia University, says while these plans are grand, getting them all built could prove difficult. “When I go to a Flames game a couple times a year, what strikes me, of course, is that it’s completely desolate, and it’s going to continue to remain so,” Lander said. “If you want to create these fake (entertainment) districts that cities seem obsessed with these days, you actually have to have people living there.” The Stampede says so far there have been no costs associated with its master plan and potential replacement projects.
