October 18th, 2010

BC Place projected to cost $835 M “all-in”

A joint report in Saturday’s editions of The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca and The Vancouver Sun revealed that the new BC Place stadium is projected to cost $835 million in 2010 dollars by the time the retractable roof and renovation project is completed within the next year.

Vancouver-based sport business commentator Tom Mayenknecht, host of The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca Saturday mornings from 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT, is an advocate of the retractable roof option but believes it will be difficult to assess the long-term capacity of the stadium without fully understanding the bells and whistles to be rolled out next year - especially at that steep a price tag.

“(The) renovation and retractable roof over the heads of the CFL’s B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer is expected to carry a surprisingly high price tag of $563 million on the books at BC Pavilion Corp, the provincial government agency that owns and operates BC Place,” Mayenknecht wrote Saturday in The Vancouver Sun.

Mayenknecht points out that by the time it opens in 2011, the new BC Place is projected to have cost a total of $835 million all-in when the current renovation is added to the 1983 construction costs of $126 million (which converts to approximately $272 million in today’s dollars).

“It will continue a Canadian tradition of doing up stadiums big and doing them up expensively,” wrote Mayenknecht. “Of the approximately 12,000 sports stadiums on the planet, our own BC Place will be the 13th most costly venue in the world and the eighth priciest in North America.”

Mayenknecht notes that retractable roofs are certainly the flavour of the day in stadium development, especially in Europe and North America. In that regard, he believes it’s good news that the new BC Place features a retractable roof modeled after a similar structure at Commerzbank Arena, the home of Frankfurt’s entry in the German Bundesliga of professional soccer.

The recent wave of retractable roof stadiums was launched by renovations and upgrades to several of the stadiums featured in the 2006 FIFA World Cup hosted by Germany, including Commerzbank Arena (along with Veltins Arena and Esprit Arena). In North America, Reliant Stadium in Houston, University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and last year’s debut of the new Cowboys Stadium in Dallas have impacted stadium development here in North America over the past decade.

Our new toy will not be as expensive as the all-in costs of the Rogers Centre ($930 million) and not in the same league as the world’s six $1-billion stadiums, which includes the $1.47 billion Olympic Stadium in Montreal. It will be about half the price tag of the Meadowlands Stadium ($1.6 billion), the new Yankee Stadium ($1.5 billion) and the new Cowboys Stadium ($1.4 billion) and a good half-billion less than Wembley Stadium in London ($1.35 billion).

It will be, however, more expensive than Qwest Field ($526 M) and Safeco Field ($681 M) two hours down the I-5, pricier than at least two of the NFL’s most dynamic retractable roof entries (the $739 M Lucas Oil Stadium and the $499 M University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona) and more expensive than Emirates Stadium, the $770 M home of Arsenal of the Barclays English Premier League.

For Mayenknecht’s video commentary on the projected costs of the new BC Place stadium, click here

For the full story and related features in Saturday’s edition of The Vancouver Sun, click here: