Canad Inns Stadium
Encyclopedia
Canad Inns Stadium is a Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

 stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 located north of Polo Park
Polo Park
Polo Park is Winnipeg's largest retail and entertainment district. It is the largest mall out of the eight malls in the city. Situated on the former Polo Park Racetrack, the Polo Park Mall was built in 1959. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Winnipeg when a roof was added in 1963...

 Shopping Centre in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

. The Stadium, named for hotel chain Canad Inns
Canad Inns
Canad Inns is a chain of hotels headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The company operates nine hotel properties in the province of Manitoba and one in the U.S. state of North Dakota. In 2000, Canad Inns was named one of "Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies". In 2010 Canad Inns was named one...

, and originally completed in 1953, seats 29,533 for football. It was the home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded...

 of the CFL
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....

 from 1953-2011 and the Winnipeg Rifles
Winnipeg Rifles
Winnipeg Rifles are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They began playing in the Canadian Junior Football League in 2002. They play at Canad Inns Stadium, home of the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers.-History:...

 of the Prairie Football Conference and has also been home to various incarnations of the Winnipeg Goldeyes
Winnipeg Goldeyes
The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a professional baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. From 1994 to 2010, the team was a member of the Northern League.The...

 and Winnipeg Whips
Winnipeg/Peninsula Whips
The Winnipeg Whips and the Peninsula Whips were names of a minor league baseball franchise that played in the International League from June 11, 1970, through the end of the 1973 baseball season....

 (AAA Montreal Expos
Montreal Expos
The Montreal Expos were a Major League Baseball team located in Montreal, Quebec from 1969 through 2004, holding the first MLB franchise awarded outside the United States. After the 2004 season, MLB moved the Expos to Washington, D.C. and renamed them the Nationals.Named after the Expo 67 World's...

 farm team) baseball teams.

History

During the Blue Bombers' early years, the team played at Osborne Stadium
Osborne Stadium
Osborne Stadium was the home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1935 until 1952 and minor league baseball team Winnipeg Reo Rods. Located in a residential neighbourhood, the stadium required removal of existing houses in the area called West Broadway...

, a much smaller venue located near the Manitoba Legislative Buildings. The fast passing-dominated play of Bombers quarterback Jack Jacobs
Jack Jacobs
"Indian" Jack Jacobs was an American and Canadian football player in the National Football League and Western Interprovincial Football Union. He was a charter member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1963....

 dramatically increased attendance at Blue Bombers game and precipitated the need for a new, larger stadium.

In the wake of several unsuccessful proposals for a new stadium, a plan for the construction of a new 15,700 seat home for the Blue Bombers in the Polo Park
Polo Park
Polo Park is Winnipeg's largest retail and entertainment district. It is the largest mall out of the eight malls in the city. Situated on the former Polo Park Racetrack, the Polo Park Mall was built in 1959. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Winnipeg when a roof was added in 1963...

 district was approved by the City of Winnipeg in 1952. The stadium was officially opened on August 14, 1953, with a fundraising gala to benefit the Winnipeg Unit of the Shriners Hospitals for Children
Shriners Hospitals for Children
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 non-profit hospitals across North America. Children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients’...

. Foster Hewitt
Foster Hewitt
Foster William Hewitt, OC was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for Hockey Night in Canada. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.-Early life and career:...

 served as the master of ceremonies as 12,000 spectators watched an array of Shriners
Shriners
The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...

, athletes, politicians, and Hollywood actress Corinne Calvet
Corinne Calvet
Corinne Calvet was a French actress who appeared mostly in American films.Born Corinne Dibos in Paris, Calvet studied criminal law at the Sorbonne and made her debut in French radio, stage plays and cinema in the 1940s before being brought to Hollywood in the 1940s by producer Hal B. Wallis...

 inaugurate the stadium. The following night, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers played the first football game at the new facility against the Ottawa Rough Riders
Ottawa Rough Riders
The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a...

. The stadium became known as "the house that Jack built" in recognition of the contributions of Jack Jacobs.

The on-field success of the Blue Bombers and their growing fan base led to numerous expansions of the facility beginning in 1954, when capacity was raised to 17,995. Of those seats, only 10,166 were on permanent concrete grandstands, with the remainder being temporary seating in the stadium corners. Further additions included the construction of new north end-zone seating in 1966 and expansion of the west side grandstands, including a new upper deck, in 1972. In 1978, the east side grandstands were expanded, with a new upper deck, raising capacity to 32,946. Seats were also added in 1987 when the Stadium was configured to accommodate baseball, at which point its capacity peaked at 33,675. Astroturf
AstroTurf
AstroTurf is a brand of artificial turf. Although the term is a registered trademark, it is sometimes used as a generic description of any kind of artificial turf. The original AstroTurf product was a short pile synthetic turf while the current products incorporate modern features such as...

 was installed in time for the 1988 season which the team welcomed with a Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...

 victory that year in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 at Lansdowne Park
Lansdowne Park
Lansdowne Park is a historic sports, exhibition and entertainment facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by the City of Ottawa. It is located along Bank Street and is adjacent to the Rideau Canal, in central Ottawa...

 with Sean Salisbury
Sean Salisbury
Richard Sean Salisbury is an American football analyst, former NFL and CFL quarterback, and actor.-Early life:Salisbury attended Orange Glen High School in Escondido, California...

 at quarterback. The Stadium's seating capacity remained at that level until 1999, when lower deck benches were replaced by theatre-style seats, the press boxes were enlarged and a club lounge added. Following renovations, seating capacity was reduced to 29,533, the figure at which it stands today.

In 2001, the name of the facility changed from Winnipeg Stadium to Canad Inns Stadium following the purchase of naming rights by Winnipeg-based hotel chain Canad Inns
Canad Inns
Canad Inns is a chain of hotels headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The company operates nine hotel properties in the province of Manitoba and one in the U.S. state of North Dakota. In 2000, Canad Inns was named one of "Canada's 50 Best Managed Companies". In 2010 Canad Inns was named one...

.

Baseball

The original baseball grandstands, built at a cost of $184,000 in 1954 and situated in the southwest corner of the complex, were demolished in the early 1980s to make way for the Blue and Gold Room. The stadium once again became a multi-sport facility in the late 1980s, in an effort to attract a AAA baseball
Minor league baseball
Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...

 club to Winnipeg. To that end, artificial turf, retractable seats on the east side stands, and new seating behind the home plate area (the northwest corner of the field, in the football end zone area) were installed. Although AAA baseball never returned to the city, the independent Northern League granted Winnipeg an expansion team for the 1994 season, adopting the Goldeyes
Winnipeg Goldeyes
The Winnipeg Goldeyes are a professional baseball team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, in Canada. The Goldeyes play in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. From 1994 to 2010, the team was a member of the Northern League.The...

 name. After five years at the Stadium, the Goldeyes moved to a new baseball-only facility, CanWest Global Park
CanWest Global Park
Shaw Park, formerly Canwest Park, is a baseball stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is home to the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association....

, in 1999.

Major events

Canad Inns Stadium hosted the opening ceremonies of both the 1967 and 1999 Pan-American Games. The 1967 Games saw the construction of new north end zone seating. The 1999 Games saw several improvements in preparation for the event, including new seats to replace old benches, additional media and club seating facilities, improved lighting and sound, and a new Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 JumboTron
Jumbotron
A JumboTron is a large-screen television using technology developed by Sony, typically used in sports stadiums and concert venues to show close-up shots of the event. Although JumboTron is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, the word jumbotron is often used by the public as a...

 scoreboard. The stadium's artificial turf was replaced in 2003, and a new AstroPlay surface was installed.

The CFL Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...

 championship game was held at Canad Inns Stadium in 1991
79th Grey Cup
The 79th Grey Cup was the 1991 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders at Winnipeg Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Argonauts defeated the Stampeders 36-21 in an entertaining game....

, 1998
86th Grey Cup
The 86th Grey Cup was held in 1998 in Winnipeg. The Calgary Stampeders won the game over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats with a score of 26-24.-Game summary:...

, and 2006
94th Grey Cup
The 94th Grey Cup game took place on November 19, 2006, at Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba before 44,786 fans. Ticket prices ranged from $141 and $275.The game decided the championship of the 2006 Canadian Football League season...

. In each instance, temporary seating was used to increase the stadium's capacity. The stadium's attendance record was set on November 24, 1991, when 51,985 fans watched the Toronto Argonauts
Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...

 defeat the Calgary Stampeders
Calgary Stampeders
The Calgary Stampeders are a Canadian Football League team based in Calgary, Alberta and named in reference to the Calgary Stampede. The Stampeders play their home games at McMahon Stadium...

 for the Grey Cup. For the 2006 Grey Cup
Grey Cup
The Grey Cup is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 3 to 4 million individuals...

, temporary seats were erected at the south end of the football field, raising the Stadium's capacity to 44,784.

While the stadium is best known as a professional sports venue, it has been used to host numerous amateur sports events and other entertainment events, including the Rock on the Range
Rock on the Range
Rock on the Range is an annual rock festival featuring mostly mainstream rock bands, with a classic band usually headlining the show. The festival is held at two venues; Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio and Canad Inns Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba...

 music festival, since 2009. The stadium was also used for many years by the Red River Exhibition
Red River Exhibition
The Red River Exhibition is a mobile amusement fair hosted every summer, usually in late June, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, at the Assiniboia Downs race tracks...

 and for hosting concerts.

Future plans

Work is currently underway to build a replacement for Canad Inns Stadium with a new 33,000 seat football facility
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium is an approved football stadium planned for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.The stadium is being built on the grounds of the University of Manitoba campus at the intersection of Chancellor Matheson Road and University Crescent next to the existing University Stadium...

 to be constructed on the Fort Garry campus of the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

. Groundbreaking for the new stadium took place on May 20, 2010, with the Blue Bombers expected to move in for the 2012 CFL season.

See also


External links

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