The Calgary Stampeders’ first game at McMahon Stadium was on August 15, 1960, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and since then the team has played more than 550 games in the aging facility.
I have many memories of McMahon, including attending five Grey Cup games and numerous other events.
The first Grey Cup game was in 1975, made memorable when a woman named Nadia danced naked on the field during the opening coin toss, despite it being minus 20 degrees.
In 1978, the Eagles played at McMahon when their hit album Hotel California was #1, and I shared the stage with them.
‘Shared the stage’ may be overstating it, but I was seated backstage, five feet behind the band during the concert.
Before that was Festival Express, in 1970, featuring Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band, and others, where I learned grass didn’t necessarily have anything to do with lawns.
Alice Cooper, Supertramp, the Beach Boys, the Doobie Brothers, and others played at McMahon.
As promotions director at CKXL Radio, our ‘Fun Bus’ served as the ‘green room’ for bands including Chicago and Little River Band.
Later, as promotions/marketing director at QR77 Radio, I negotiated the play-by-play contract with the Stampeders, a contract still in force. During that time, I put together some in-stadium promotions, including QR staff tossing Butterfinger chocolate bars into the crowd when there was a fumble or a pass that should have been caught.
A major memory is attending the incredible opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics at McMahon.
Just some memories from the good old days.
McMahon’s days are numbered; it’s a large number of days, but the end is in sight, with news from the University of Calgary, City of Calgary, and the Calgary Stampede and Exhibition Board and Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC).
The university, which owns the stadium, has raised funds to build a new stadium for its field sports teams, and the City of Calgary is exploring building a stadium on Stampede Park.
“We have a desperate need for facilities, and McMahon Stadium is way beyond its best-before date,” said Steve Allan of the McMahon Stadium Society, which oversees the building’s operations and upgrades.
The stadium will host its sixth Grey Cup game on November 15 and required a lot of work to get ready, said Allan.
“We spent close to one million dollars fixing the sewage and water problem because that would have put the building at risk of failure, potentially, before the Grey Cup,” he said.
The Calgary Stampede and CMLC are evaluating bids on a contract to study whether GMC Stadium on Stampede Park could be multi-purposed.
"What we're really asking our consultants (is) to focus on field sports," said Jim Laurendeau, the Stampede's Executive Vice-President of Park Development and Operations. "That could be CFL football, it could be soccer."
The City of Calgary, which raises money by increasing Calgarians’ property taxes, has issued tender requests for an $875,000 feasibility study to assess options for a stadium project.
“As we see the need for supporting local arts, culture, but also sports like the CFL, (we) would strongly support a replacement for that facility,” said Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas.
The contract’s description includes a study looking into market, financial, and operational feasibility to help city officials “make informed decisions regarding the future of McMahon Stadium,” as well as broader stadium-related infrastructure.
Coincidentally, Calgary’s other major sports facility, the Saddledome, is entering its last year, to be replaced next year by the new events centre on Stampede Park.
Ten years ago, a proposal was made to move the homes of the Stampeders and the Calgary Flames to Calgary’s West Village, between Bow Tr. and 9th Ave. SW, just west of 14th St., a project I supported if only because of the access and egress at the location, avoiding traffic jams at McMahon and Stampede Park before and after games.
The proposal was turned down by the city, citing massive public funding costs and creosote contamination on the site, but it no doubt was turned down because the city and Calgary Stampede and Exhibition Board did not want to lose the revenues generated by the Calgary Flames.
There can be little doubt that politics and profits will determine that the new home of the Calgary Stampeders will be on or near Stampede Park, a decision that should not cost a massive $875,000 of public funding.
