Scotiabank Saddledome Set for Calgary Flames After Flood

Back in June, with water creeping up into the first bowl in the stands, you never would have thought the Scotiabank Saddledome would be ready in time for the Calgary Flames’ preseason. That’s where you’d be wrong.

The June 21 flood which caused more than 100,000 evacuations in Alberta, threatened to force the Flames into other options for their first preseason game on Sept. 14. On Thursday, team CEO Ken King announced Brian Burke had joined the club as President of Hockey Operations, and also said that the Saddledome was set to receive its occupancy permit on Friday.

“Seventy-five days ago we would have been standing under nine feet of water,” Robert Blanchard, the Saddledome’s director of building operations told reporters. “In that time, it’s probably been about 650,000 man hours put into the building to get it back to where it is. That’s about a six-month project we compressed into two months.”

The stadium will get its first test Sept. 11 when the rock band the Eagles come to town. Just three days later, the rival Edmonton Oilers are scheduled to open preseason play in Calgary. Due to time concerns, fans won’t notice much different about the Saddledome. Instead of spending more time to make improvements following the flood, the crew’s focus was to try to restore the Saddledome.

“You’ll see new seats, you’ll see new glass,” King said. “There’s things that still have the wrapper on it, that kind of thing. Every piece of equipment below decks here is brand new. Every piece of cutlery, every kitchen. We haven’t turned a stove on. We haven’t cooked a hamburger or made a piece of toast, but everything is in place to go. We anticipate it will go off really well.”

The team declined to release how much the repairs cost. The Calgary Flames are listed at +10,000 to win the 2013-14 Stanley Cup.