Tag: Shell Place

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Entertainment Ft Mac Sports

Shell Place Will Welcome WMBL Franchise in 2016

Shell Place, WMBL

Fort McMurray residents will have one more form of entertainment to look forward to in the area when Shell Place welcomes a WMBL franchise in 2016. According to the announcement that was made the league is expected to begin playing in Wood Buffalo around May of 2016. Annette Antoniak, the CEO of Regional Recreation Corporation, stated “We had a few interactions with different leagues and this seemed to be the right fit for us and the right fit for them.” During the press conference announcement the franchise name was not given but posters which were used for a fundraiser that will take place on November 17 uses the name Fort McMurray Giants. According to Antoniak a 5 year lease has been signed, with 2 additional 5 year term options based on mutual considerations. The fact that the franchise will be locally owned at least in part is a favorable factor for many residents.

The WMBL franchise which will play at Shell Place has an ownership group which is headed by High Plains Baseball and Dutche Iannetti. When discussing the move Dutche Iannetti stated “I believe that we will gain the same support down here. It’s all about putting the right product on the field also for the entertainment. We’re very confident that we will get the support that we need to run the WMBL team in Fort McMurray.” According to Steve Avila, who helped spearhead securing the franchise, Iannetti being involved was very important. “That made everybody comfortable in the WMBL because it was local ownership.” Mayor Melissa Blake showed her support and said “This is just another opportunity for our community to see a real transition from going from the minors in youth sport right into becoming somebody of a significant player on our very own field.”

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Entertainment Ft Mac

First Sold Out Crowd at Shell Place for Monster X Show

Shell Place, Monster X show

Friday night Shell Place saw the very first sold out crowd since the venue opened earlier this year when the Monster X show took place. The crowd was excited and the stunt drivers who operated the monster trucks and the dirt bikes during the show gave everyone something to be excited about. Thousands attended the show, and there were fans of all ages on hand to watch junker cars be demolished and huge machines take over the arena. The organizers for Shell Place took the time to bring in dozens of junker cars for the event, and tonnes of sandy earth was trucked in for the show. The Saturday matinee show did not do as well in ticket shows as the main event on Friday evening, but even the Saturday ticket sales were good.

Since Shell Place opened earlier this year there have been several events at the venue, but none did quite as well as the Monster X show did Friday night. The Monster Truck X tour is a competition among drivers who are competing for $50,000 in prize money, and Shell Place was just one stop of many on the tour. Straght Up Racing owner Bill Payne said “The experience doesn’t quite matter as much as just the guy who’s going to go out there and do something crazy. At the end of the night, people just want to see the guy who does something crazy, and is going to do backflips and cartwheel.” Rock Star, a monster truck operated by a husband and wife who have teamed up, won the first half of the event by receiving the most applause from the audience.

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Economic Entertainment Ft Mac

Shell Place Has Budget Deficit in Spite of Summer Filled With Events

Shell Place, budget deficit

In spite of a summer that was filled with high profile events Shell Place has ended the fiscal year with a budget deficit that is approximately $387,000. The original prediction by the Regional Recreation Corporation was that there would be a deficit of almost $6 million, so $400,000 seems like a big improvement. $3.7 million of the deficit that was expected was eliminated when the company laid off 8 employees. Six of the employees were part time custodial staff, one employee was a full time building operator, and one employee was a full time handyman and maintenance staff. Shell Place suffered losses on three big events planned to attract crowds to the new venue. The Aerosmith concert and the Northern Kickoff games caused losses of $2.9 million, and there were events budgeted for July and September 2015 that had unrealized revenue as well which added $1.5 million to the deficit.

According to RRC CEO Annette Antoniak “There was the expectation with the opening of Shell Place in a robust economy that we would achieve those numbers and that didn’t happen.” Antoniak stated that she will try to pitch a budget for 2016 that is more conservative while still being sufficient to book top name acts and performers who can draw in large crowds. The CEO told the media that “You will see a budget done on numbers we know we can achieve given the current economic situation.” Councilor Tyran Ault said “You just had to look at how many empty seats there were at the events to come to this conclusion. We didn’t know the numbers until today, we learned about them at the same time as everybody else, but this wasn’t a surprise.”

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Economic Ft Mac

Cost Overruns at Shell Place Given Council Approval

Shell Place, cost overruns

The Shell Place construction included cost overruns, but these added expenses were recently approved by the council. Just days before the facility was set to open to the public the project budget had a $4.3 million deficit due to cost overruns. Last Tuesday the RMWB council voted on a capital budget amendment which would increase the Shell Place project grant by the deficit amount. The amendment passed, and the reason for the deficit was cited as multiple cost overruns, but according to the RRC the main reason for the extra costs was increasing the LEED sustainable building certification from the Silver level to the Gold level. According to RRC capital projects and procurement director Rachel Orser “The RRC is confident that we would not be here tonight with this budgetary amendment had we remained in the original scope of building to LEED Silver.”

Some council members were upset that the Shell Place cost overruns were not addressed sooner. The work was already completed before the capital budget amendment was submitted, and some members felt that there was little choice at that point. Coun. Tyran Ault stated “My frustration is that we were saying ‘on time, on budget’ … and now we’re three days away from the ribbon cutting and we’re asking for money. I guess we have to approve it now … we have no choice in what we do here.” According to Michael Cachia, board chair for RRC, “We were trying to find alternate sources of funding before we came back to council to ask for it. We did remind council again and again that we still had an outstanding liability that someone would have to take on.”

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Entertainment Ft Mac

The Inaugural Shell Place Concert on July 19 Will Feature Aerosmith

Shell Place, Aerosmith

When the Inaugural Shell Place concert takes place on July 19 Fort MacMurray and Wood Buffalo residents will have the opportunity to see Aerosmith play. So far the opening act for the event has not been determined or announced, but Steven Tyler and his group will be the headlining act when the Shell Place concert takes place to open the venue to the public after the lengthy construction. According to Kelsey Stefanizyn, the events manager for Regional Recreation Corporation, a lot of time, thought, and effort were put into the decision about the headliner for the inaugural concert. The crowd at the event is expected to be around 20,000, and that meant finding a group that had a wide fan base and a broad appeal.

When asked about Aerosmith and the Shell Place inaugural concert Stefanizyn responded “We talked to a lot of different community members and stakeholders about who they wanted to see and music they wanted to hear. We had a list of a couple we went through and Aerosmith was really the one that stuck out. Aerosmith is one of the bands that is really timeless and gets a lot of great feedback. You can be young or you can be old and you still recognize a lot of their songs, whether it was your parents playing them or you’re listening to them in your car.” The opening act for the main band will be announced once a final decision is made. Tickets for the concert will be sold online starting on February 27, and they can also be purchased at the Suncor Community Leisure Centre guest services office. Ticket prices will range from $89 up to $199.

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Entertainment Ft Mac

Construction of Shell Place on Track to Meet Deadline for Opening

Shell Place, construction

Construction on Shell Place is expected to be finished in plenty of time for the opening deadline, and the project is in the home stretch and should be finished by Spring when a soft opening is expected to be held. The project looks almost completely user ready, a big difference from September 2011 when Shell Place was first announced and the project was initially started. The site already has the structure, and now it also has heat, paint, and flooring. According to a handout that was provided the team from Regional Recreation Corporation are already squabbling over the office assignments and starting on furniture and design layouts for their new spaces. The handout also details the fact that the Shell
Place construction project should come in on time and in budget, something few construction projects can boast about.

The last update on the Shell Place construction was released last October, and that update gave details about the SMS Equipment Stadium turf installation. Now the project also has a completed outdoor stage canopy, badminton centre flooring, field house flooring, and flooring in sectors A through C. In addition there are touch ups that are being added everywhere. The estimated cost of the Shell Place project is $127 million, and in 2014 the cost of construction was actually $6 million below the cost estimate projected. On June 13 the facility will be open for the Northern Kickoff exhibition game, which will include the teams Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos, and this is a game that many will come to watch.