Calgary’s McMahon Stadium has until 2033, operators say

The group that runs Calgary’s McMahon Stadium says the city needs a new football stadium ready for the start of the 2033 season, when the turf installed last year reaches the end of its eight-year life, as the 66-year-old building prepares to host what may be its last Grey Cup on Sunday.

“We don’t want to put turf down in this building again, so we need a building for the start of the 2033 season,” McMahon Stadium Society chair Steve Allan told The Canadian Press. “McMahon Stadium is pretty tired, I’m afraid.” Replacement parts for the seats are no longer made, he said, and salvaging seats from the Saddledome before it is demolished could be a stopgap.

That leaves about seven seasons to plan, pay for and build a replacement. Three separate efforts are now underway, and none is a commitment to build.

The City of Calgary is running a feasibility study on major sports and event infrastructure, which it called “early-stage due diligence” that “does not represent a decision or commitment to build a new facility.” The city said it is working with the University of Calgary and the stadium society to keep McMahon operating safely.

The Calgary Stampede has hired a firm to study whether GMC Stadium, which seats 17,000 in its grandstand south of the new Scotia Place arena, could be adapted for football and soccer. Jim Laurendeau, the Stampede’s executive vice-president of park development, said he hopes to have an answer by the summer of 2027.

The University of Calgary, which owns the land under McMahon, has raised about $23 million toward a 5,000-seat stadium on campus for its own teams and community use. Kinesiology dean Nick Holt said McMahon remains safe and operational but is “an aging asset approaching the end of its life.”

Stampeders president Jay McNeil said the team’s “life here at McMahon has to change and it has to change quickly,” adding that this will “likely be the last Grey Cup ever played at McMahon.” Robert Hayes, president of Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corp., said “we need a new facility” for the Stampeders. Allan said who pays for it is a question for later, noting that McMahon sits on valuable land. CBC News also carried the report.

McMahon opened in 1960, hosted the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics and is the second-oldest pro football stadium in Canada after Montreal’s Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. The Edmonton Elks and Montreal Alouettes meet there Sunday; see our Grey Cup guide and how the Elks and Alouettes got there.

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