Medicine Hat Stampede proposing $20 million grandstand & event centre expansion

“It’s a night we’ve been waiting for a long time,” said Edwards. “We’ve been on it for 10 months so far and the committee is excited. It’s a need in the community, it’s a need for us on our exhibition grounds. The north grandstand is getting a little tired as it’s a wooden structure and we think we can incorporate an events centre with all of this.”

The proposed plans would expand the grandstand area to roughly 5,000 seats, an upgrade from the 4,200 seats that are currently available.

According to the Stampede, the biggest issue with the grandstands built in 1966 and 1979 respectively is that they’ve outlived their usefulness at this point.

“It’s a night we’ve been waiting for a long time,” said Edwards. “We’ve been on it for 10 months so far and the committee is excited. It’s a need in the community, it’s a need for us on our exhibition grounds. The north grandstand is getting a little tired as it’s a wooden structure and we think we can incorporate an events centre with all of this.”

As for the convention centre, it would feature a banquet room, two patios connected to the grandstand and several breakout rooms for smaller meetings.

“We’d have a full convention kitchen that we could do banquets for weddings, conventions, anything that we deem that we need to have 350 to 400 people in,” said Edwards.

Mayor Ted Clugston was among the dignitaries taking in the presentation on Tuesday and was impressed with the plan that was presented.

“I think they’ve knocked it out of the park,” said Clugston. “Now the next step as we all know is funding. Lethbridge received a very large grant from the province, I’m going out on a limb and say around $27 million. So, the next step will be for them to try to get some funding from the province and the feds, and then talk to the next city council to see what they can do.”

Neither Clugston nor the provincial or federal governments have yet been approached about what funding would be necessary for the proposed $20 million price tag.

The Stampede committee is expecting much of the funding to come from the UCP provincial government, but will be chipping in a portion if money is approved at the other levels.

“Let’s face it, the project is going to be mostly funded hopefully through the province,” said Edwards. “We still need to talk to them about this. But, we do have a fundraising committee that’s going to try to raise $1.5 million within the community.”

If approved, the work on the event centre and grandstand upgrades wouldn’t begin until late July or early August 2022 following next year’s Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede event.

That plan will give organizers just under a year to speak to their government counterparts to see if there’s a deal to be made.

“It will take a year to fundraise and put the money together,” said Edwards. “So, we’re hoping to have that done by next summer. We would want to be shovel-ready, in the ground right after fair time. It would take a minimum of a year to a year and a half, but we could have the facilities in place for the next summer fair in 2023.”

Clugston is in favour of the project and said he’d be in favour of taxpayer dollars going towards the project if he’s re-elected.

“In the last four years we haven’t really built anything in the City of Medicine Hat, we’ve been on austerity measures,” said Clugston. “I think it is time that we start reinvesting in some of our recreational facilities. I recognize this is the Stampede, but it is a recreational facility.”

According to the Medicine Hat Exhibition & Stampede, the annual economic spinoff to the city through their events is in the range of $14.7 million.

by Scott Roblin

Medicine Hat Stampede proposing $20 million grandstand & event centre expansion

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