Commonwealth Stadium

rights partnershipwithThe Brick,a Canadian retailer of furniture,mattresses,appliances,and home electronics, to name the field“The BrickField at Commonwealth Stadium”during CFLevents. The stadium is also a popular venue for musical events.“We’ve had a long historyof runningmajor out- door concerts,”Fesyk says,“workingwith LiveNation, AEG,and other promoters for bringing concerts into the stadium– fromThe Rolling Stones,The Police,U2, PinkFloyd,to some of the big concert events like Lilith Fair and EdgeFest.We’ve reallyestablished ourselves inside that concert goer market; last year we did Metallica and Guns N’Roses to the tune of over 45,000 people for each of those shows.So,we do a lot of live music.Our field has also been used for a number of FIFA(Fédération Internationale de Football Associa- tion) events–men’s andwomen’s soccer.In 2015,we were one of the host sites for theWomen’sWorld Cup hosted across Canada.” “We also do a lot of community-based events,as well,”Fesyk continues.“Andwe help some of our charitable organizations.There’s a large event called ‘Feast on the Field’that we dowith the Capital Care COMMONWEALTH STADIUM fromaround theworld,and this time,Commonwealth Stadiumwas expanded significantly to accommodate just over 60,000 spectators.“That was one of themajor remodels-additional wings and seating,”says Fesyk. “Because of that,in 2002,the CFLGreyCup Champi- onship game that was played in Edmonton had an attendance of 62,531 people.That was a huge crowd for Canadian football.” Ahead of the 2001World Championships inAthlet- ics,featuring 1677participants from189 nations,the stadium received a $24-million facelift.Major invest- ments included a newfacade,an enlargement of the concourse,improved lighting,a newscoreboard,and an all-new,all-weather running track.Ahead of the 2008 season,the stadiumunderwent a reconfiguration, reducing its capacity to 59,537.Its natural grass was replacedwith artificial turf in 2010,in order to reduce the long-termcosts of annual grass substitutionwhile providing a year round,green playing surface. Starting in 2009,the stadiumunderwent a $112-million facelift,with themain investment in the FieldHouse,a 90,000.-sq.-ft.,three-story training facility which includes a 65x65 yd.artificial turf training field, a fitness andweight room,locker rooms,and a run- ning track.It is part of the Commonwealth Community Recreation Center,which also includes a 60,000-sq.-ft. aquatics center with a four-lane lap pool,water slide and a recreational pool; 30,000 sq.ft.of administrative offices; and a 30,000-sq.-ft.fitness center.The Center has Leadership in Energyand Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification.Adjacent to Commonwealth Stadium,Clarke Stadium,seating 5,000,has been used as both a training field and as the home ground of the FCEdmonton,the city’s pro soccer franchise. In 2012,the Commonwealth Stadium initiated a seating replacement programat a cost of $12million. It removed all benches and replaced all seatingwith new,wider seats,reducing the capacityof the venue to 56,302.With the addition of the seating replacement, total investment in Commonwealth Stadium,since its inception,has exceeded $200million.In 2016,the Ed- monton Eskimos announced a five-year field naming