jks
Continuous Lurker
Wow, I always mix up this and the MLS thread.
By far Maple Leaf Gardens was the most Grand of the arenas followed by the Chicago Stadiium And Boston Garden.
I guess it is in the eye of the beholder....exterior-wise I always ranked them:
1. Chicago
2. Boston
3. Toronto
4. Montreal
5. Detroit
6. NY
Interior....I was only ever in 3 of them so I would rank them:
1. Chicago
2. Montreal
3. Toronto
But it really depends on whose eyes you are looking at them with!
Also just learned that the loblaws site at Dundas and Bloor have no plans for at least 2 years to sell to developers. (to bad what a waist of under used parking lot)
This September there will be a reality show production made at the Gardens. The theme from what I understand are figure skaters being trained as hockey players and vise versa. (How boring is this), Thats all the info I have at the moment.
http://www.tv-eh.com/2009/06/23/first-competitors-announced-for-battle-of-the-blades/
CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron MacLean and four-time World Figure Skating Champion Kurt Browning to host national pairs competition CBC Television announced today the first competitors to sign on to participate in CBC Television’s BATTLE OF THE BLADES. NHL Hall of Famer and fan favourite Lanny McDonald, NHL Hall of Famer and six-time Stanley Cup-winner Glenn Anderson, legendary enforcers Tie Domi and Bob Probert, two-time Stanley Cup-winner and HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA analyst Craig Simpson, and two-time Stanley Cup-winner Stéphane Richer will go head-to-head in this fierce competition. These hockey heavyweights will be paired with some of Canada’s top female figure skaters in a competitive and thrilling pairs showdown beginning this October.
I agree, it would be great to see a nice development on that site , but then again they are probably hoping that this economy improves and they can p/up a couple of extra mil.
Is this CBC's Battle of the Blades?
Like i said before, restore MLG and throw a couple condo towers overtop.
There's nothing to restore inside, it's essentially featureless. The outside of the building was cleaned and sandblasted about 15 years ago, it still looks pretty good. As has been noted earlier in this thread the building won't support condos or anything above. The seating areas support the four walls and roof, remove the seating and down comes the building. The only option is to disassemble the entire structure, start from scratch and then rebuild the exterior facades - or simply demolish the building. The expense of dismantling and rebuilding MLG to suit future uses would surely be cost prohibitive.
Like i said before, restore MLG and throw a couple condo towers overtop.
I thought it was also a Heritage building which now comes with it's own set of rules. http://www.friendsofmapleleafgardens.ca/history.cfm . Even with this production going on I'm sure some one will be there citing the does and don'ts of this building.
There were a few applications to do that a few years ago... I may have one of the context plans around somewhere....