The Aud

[Canard]

It's always gonna be the Skydome, the people of Ontario paid 550 million for it so we'll call whatever we want

This.

[Chris]

I think the city missed a chance to build a downtown arena when the Epson site was an option. Not that it needed to move but it would have been a great downtown location.

But with all the recent renovations to the current building I think it can serve the community for many more years before a new one is needed.

[BuildingScout]

I think the city missed a chance to build a downtown arena when the Epson site was an option. Not that it needed to move but it would have been a great downtown location.

I'm not a big fan of downtown arenas. They take a lot of space and sit most of the time unoccupied. It's also funny people talking about the Skydome being downtown, which it definitely wasn't when it first opened. I remember walking in John and Blue Jays way as late as 1990 and there being nothing but factories all around that area. The bars came later.

[GtwoK]

There's always the schneiders site!

This is only partly a joke.

[Viewfromthe42]

There's always the schneiders site!

This is only partly a joke.

Schneider's and the Aud are approximately the same distance from the core on opposite sides, no advantage to be had in such a proposal, certainly not worth the expense and opportunity cost.

[clasher]

There's always the schneiders site!

This is only partly a joke.

Schneider's and the Aud are approximately the same distance from the core on opposite sides, no advantage to be had in such a proposal, certainly not worth the expense and opportunity cost.

This idea was floated when Schneiders first closed... it has far worse highway access than the current Aud.

[KevinL]

Schneider's has the sole advantage of being closer to LRT.

[Viewfromthe42]

Schneider's has the sole advantage of being closer to LRT.

I'd say there's just about as much of a walk from the Schneider's site to either Borden or Mill as there is from the Aud to Borden, about 750m in all cases. It "feels" closer, perhaps, but isn't.

[KevinL]

Schneider's has the sole advantage of being closer to LRT.

I'd say there's just about as much of a walk from the Schneider's site to either Borden or Mill as there is from the Aud to Borden, about 750m in all cases. It "feels" closer, perhaps, but isn't.

The southern part of the Schneiders property is closer to Mill than the Aud is to Borden. But by less than I thought, you're right on that.

[zanate]

So as a little bit of an aside, I talked to my wife saying "Hey did you know that the Aud is going to be just slightly further from the Borden LRT stop as our house is from GRH? That'll be handy going to the Aud, I always thought of it as kind of cut off."

And she pointed out to me that the last time we went to the Aud I was highly resistant to the idea of taking the 8 which goes even closer, so instead we drove. And I had to think for a little while about why I felt that way.

And it was this: Getting to the Aud by bus? No problem. Leaving the Aud to catch a half-hourly (or worse) bus at the same time a few other thousand people are leaving? Nope, nope nope nope. Because you don't know if you'll be trying to get on a single bus with 10 or 100 other people.

That equation plays out a lot differently with LRT, doesn't it? Ability to absorb local spikes (at least up to a couple hundred) is just part of the same equation that transit frequency and reliability play into: the idea that transit will be there when I need it and I won't be stranded.

Just hadn't thought about that aspect before.

[MidTowner]

That is kind of a neat illustration. GRT should be putting five or six extra runs of the 8 passing by every five minutes on Weber just after a Rangers game. But potential transit users still might not feel secure in the expectation of sufficient capacity. When you’ve seen the size of an Ion train multiple times every day, you can feel assured that the crowds after a game won’t overwhelm the system and you won’t experience too much discomfort.

[jamincan]

I don't think it would be appropriate in Ion's case, but a lot of transit operators design stations near stadiums with pocket tracks to allow an extra train to immediately go into service after game.

[tomh009]

I don't think it would be appropriate in Ion's case, but a lot of transit operators design stations near stadiums with pocket tracks to allow an extra train to immediately go into service after game.

That would make sense for a larger stadium, whether NHL/NBA stadium size (~20K seats) or football stadium size (Barcelona holds 100K -- as do several US college football stadiums, but those are very car-centric).

[DHLawrence]

Which makes you wonder why GO doesn't do it for games at Skydome, BMO Field, or the Air Canada Centre. (Maybe they will for the Blue Jays now that people are going again!)

[jamincan]

I thought GO occasionally did just that?