Scotia Place Just Passed Two Years of Construction. The Saddledome Has One Season Left.

We walked the block in late July. Steel now wraps the whole bowl at Scotia Place, the Saddledome opens its farewell season October 1, and the same contractor is behind both buildings.

Stampede Park — From the top of Scotsman’s Hill you can get both buildings in one frame. The Saddledome sits on the left, the same silhouette it has had since 1983. Scotia Place is the steel and green-wrapped block on the right, and it is getting harder to miss.

Construction passed the two-year mark on July 22. The City marked it with a project newsletter the same day, which is a fair moment to take stock, because the building has changed shape fast this year. Precast seating tiers started going in back in January. The first roof truss went up in March. By June the structural steel had gone all the way around the main bowl, and this month crews poured more than a thousand cubic metres of concrete to start the main club level.

Scotia Place is scheduled to open in the fall of 2027, before the 2027-28 season. It will hold 18,400 for hockey and expand to about 20,000 for concerts. The Saddledome currently seats 19,289, so the new building is slightly smaller for a hockey game and rather better set up for everything else. Its roof is rigged to carry roughly four times the stage and lighting load the Saddledome can handle.

Here is the detail that stopped us. The general contractor on Scotia Place is CANA, working with Mortenson. CANA also built the original Saddledome in 1983, handled the 1995 renovations, and ran the 69-day restoration after the 2013 flood. The same Calgary firm that put the old barn up is putting up the one that replaces it, more than forty years later.

The hoarding along the Scotia Place fence line, CANA's name on every barrier. Photo: Mark Johnson / Flames Scout Wire

The Flames have branded 2026-27 as the Saddledome’s farewell season. It opens at home October 1 against Seattle, and the last regular season home game on the schedule is April 10 against Vancouver. That is 42 home dates in the building under the new 84-game format. Whether April 10 is actually the final night depends on where the team finishes.

After that the City has said it will demolish the Saddledome once Scotia Place opens, with the land going back to the Calgary Stampede for a year-round events zone. Stampede officials have talked about the site being ready closer to 2029 or 2030, so there is some daylight between when the building comes down and when anything replaces it. A “Save Our Saddledome” campaign is still pushing to repurpose it instead. Alberta has already funded the teardown.

We spent an afternoon walking the fence line and the hill with a camera, and we will keep going back through the summer as the exterior closes in. Starting in October, Riley Quinn picks it up properly: how the thing got built, what happened inside it, and what Calgary loses when it goes. The first page lands October 15, forty-three years to the day after the doors opened.

Independent commentary. Not affiliated with the Calgary Flames or the NHL.