CALGARY — Visitors to this year’s Calgary Stampede will have noticed the half finished shell of the new Agrium Western Events Centre looming over the grounds.
Signs posted along the construction fences spelled out the plans for the building as a centre for year-round agricultural activity in the city.
Robert Wise, the Stampede’s western competitions manager, said the building is still on track to open next spring.
The facility is starting to take shape, and unlike many other buildings throughout the park, Wise said it was spared flood damage.
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“We had substantial effects (from the floods) here on the park, but we are lucky enough that the state of the construction of where the project was at, that it had very minimal impact on the building.”
The structural work on the facility was still being completed at the time of the flooding in late June, and although water ran through the building, none remained inside after it receded.
Wise said people attending next year’s Stampede will be some of the first to see the facility up and running.
The events centre will contain two large arenas: the primary one being 250 by 125 feet and the secondary one measuring 200 by 100 feet. The building will be capable of seating 2,500 people.
Wise said many Stampede events occur off the grounds, and he hoped the new building will help bring some of them back.
