[MUSIC] >> Yo, it's Bat and Sports fans, Aaron and Stefan in the summer time. Stefan, how's it going? >> Going good. >> It's going very good. >> Yeah. >> Been hanging out in the sun. I don't know, it doesn't look like it, but it's quite hot over here. I don't know what it's like in Calgary, but. >> Yeah. >> It's like 30 or 31 here, which for Vancouver is very, very, very hot. >> My phone gave me a extreme heat warning, and I think it was for temperatures above 28 Celsius, which is kind of funny when you think about how people suffer down in the southern United States and stuff. >> It's crazy. I think people think like, you guys can't handle the heat up there. And it is true, but also something to keep in mind is that most places in Vancouver, and I assume it's the same in Calgary, do not have air conditioning. >> For houses, no, we don't. >> Yeah, so 30 degree heat, which is like, let me see what that is in Fahrenheit. >> High 80s, low 90s, I believe? >> Yeah, so 30 degrees 86 Fahrenheit. Imagine that with zero air conditioning, and it's like hotter inside because you're in an apartment or in a house or whatever. We have air conditioning here luckily, and it's like, it's been like a godsend. >> Yeah, I'm in the basement, right? So it stays cooler, which is like one of the things that I used to cope with that I've just lived in the same basement suite forever. It's my basement suite, but it is cooler, we don't get as much sun in here, which sometimes sucks, especially in the winter. It's kind of depressing, but in the summer of nice and cool, I don't like go upstairs to do something and it is hotter than fuck up there and so I'm really grateful for it then. >> Yeah, it's calorie stampede now. >> Oh, that's right. Yeah, it's going on despite the, I mean, the water is fixed now. >> Yeah, they brought the water back. I think there's still outdoor restrictions, but it's not like I'm doing outdoor water stuff anyways, but yeah, allowed to flush the toilet more frequently now, allowed to shower for over three minutes. >> That's good. >> Okay. >> Fast shower guy, but don't feel guilty about like doing laundry, so that's all pretty nice. >> Yeah. >> There you go. >> Here's how you can kind of tie it into the Canucks here. The schedule was released this week. >> Yes. >> And I wanted to propose something to you or just get your feels. The Canucks play the flames at the saddle dome on New Year's Eve. >> Oh, are you thinking what I'm thinking? Yeah, you should come out. Maybe bring John. >> That would be good. >> Maybe bring the misses. >> That would be good. That would be good. That could be fun. Yeah. >> And then the other time that they play the flames is, I think it's like a Wednesday in like March or April or some shit. Let's see. In Calgary, that is, if you didn't want to come and get the saddle dome experience. >> That could be good. I would enjoy that. That could be fun. >> Yeah. >> I would like to go to the saddle dome before they tear it down. >> Exactly. Yeah. The other one. >> When is that due? When is the new stadium supposed to come in? Like the next like three or four years or something like that? >> I think they're supposed to put shovels to the ground this year. >> Okay. >> Apparently. >> And then it's going to take like three years to build. I think they want it open for the 26, 27 or the 27, 28 season. >> Okay. >> Forget exactly. >> Yeah. >> Vancouver is getting to the point where they're going to need to, like I don't know what they do because it's like the stadium feels older now. They're putting the new seats in this year apparently in non-season. But only for, is it only for the lower, but it's only for part of it I think that they're doing this. >> Really? I thought they were all getting new seats. Like I think with Roger's arena, just like it's in the ideal location, but there's like the aqueducts that prevents it from expanding outward, right? >> I think they're getting rid of the viaduct. I believe they're tearing it down. >> I think I did hear about that actually now that you mention it. But anyways, like you kind of need, you don't want to move locations because it's already in the ideal location and it like real estate, you're not finding more real estate that's centrally located by transit of Vancouver. >> Yeah, at least not for cheap. So I think like the idea would just be you have to just constantly renovate it like kind of like what they did with Madison Square Garden. So it like just feels newer and newer. >> The concourses are so narrow though, like that's the big thing is like I don't even care about like it says they are, I think replacing the seats. I think they're putting the black seats in this year for at least the lower bowl, which is going to be great. >> Yeah, I think if they get rid of the viaducts, which I believe they are, I don't know how much space that opens up still. The number one thing for me is just you have to expand. I don't know how you do it. You fucking have to expand those concourses. They're so it's so bad. It's brutal. >> Especially if you're trying to like take a piss on the second level. >> Oh my, it's impossible. Like it that's going to be your entire intermission, if not longer. Like if you leave legit and I'm not joking for people who haven't been to a Canucks game, if it's like sold out and you are going to the bathroom during the intermission. If you leave like right as the period ends, it will most likely take you the entire intermission to go take a piss. >> Yeah. >> It's fucking crazy. There's just not enough bathrooms and actually that's not true because the bathrooms themselves are pretty big. It's just there's always a bottleneck to get inside, right? Because I feel like whenever I finally get into the bathroom, people don't know that there's like it goes further back than they think. So if you go to like the very back, there's like a whole open area where there's like a bunch of urinals and no one's using them, right? Which does make it go slower also. But yeah, it's just like I haven't been to, well here, the newest stadium I've been to I think recently was last year when our hockey pool went to a Phoenix Suns game. And that's like the nicest, it's fucking incredible. It's insane. Very clearly not designed for hockey, but it the difference between going to like a next gen, like brand new futuristic stadium and Rogers Arena is just like night and day. Like Rogers Arena is starting to feel like BC place felt like 15 years ago, you know what I mean? >> Yeah. Well, when was last I meant to BC place was for the rugby sevens in like 2016 or 2017. And I don't know, it was fun is way better than McMahon stadium in Calgary, which is oh yeah, BC place now is like, yeah, BC place now is like obviously it's still like a big hunk of concrete, but it's always had big concourses, which is nice. It's like walkable. >> Oh yeah, the concourse at BC place is great in my opinion. >> Concourse is great. It's just like so psycho like and legitimately like the concourse in Rogers Arena like feels like a fire hazard, right? Like imagine if there was some sort of fire or something like you're fucked, right? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> It's just like that bottle neck of the stairs. >> Oh my, because there's two saw on either side. There's like the really, really narrow sections, right? And it's, I don't know. It's just insane. That's one thing. I don't think they'll ever build a new stadium just because it is like, I think it is outside of Madison Square Garden. And maybe even it's the best stadium location in the NHL, I think it's, or it's tied for first at least. >> Yeah. Like, given how close it is to the downtown core and transit, how easy it is to get there, right? >> It's so easy to get there. There's so many ways to get there. It's so, so easy to get there. It's right by the water. It is a great location. It looks great at night, you know, but man, the inside of the stadium kind of sucks. I'm excited to see the new seats. >> We haven't had any discourse about lately. Is the, the goddamn training facility. >> Oh, yeah. Well, I think you, I think we've, we've been joking about it. I saw, I think there was the Patrick Alveen presser to talk about free agency or whatever. >> Yeah. >> Like, it's got to be about the practice facility. >> Yeah. Well, like, I think it was funny, like you haven't heard it come up a lot in media or in interviews just because the team was way more successful. So there's, there's more to talk about, right? >> Yeah. I'm thinking back to the whole Jake Genssel thing, right, and I mean, one, it sucks that there was no attempt by the Canucks to trade for his rights. I know a third is kind of like a high price and they don't have a ton of draft capital. But when Tampa paid that price, it was pretty much inevitable and then it, it eventually happened. But I feel like the Canucks could have paid him more to offset the tax stuff, whatever, and there is apparently interest on both sides. But, you know, Canucks didn't want to, want to get a pick to get his rights or willing to wait until, until July 1. >> Yeah. >> And I've heard some like insiders talking about how Genssel would be really amenable to going to North Florida and, you know, taking a golf cart to the rink, et cetera, et cetera. And it did make me wonder if the lack of a practice facility does inhibit the Canucks ability to attract and retain players to some degree. Like, I don't know if it's bad to deal, but like driving out to Burnaby or UBC, pain in the ass, right, compared to having like your own dedicated facility. >> Yeah. And the facilities are not like that nice is my understanding either, right? Because they're not dedicated. >> Yeah. Exactly. >> For the Canucks. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it probably is the type of thing where if it comes down to like, you know, you have two similar offers from the Canucks and another team. >> Yeah. >> And that other team has their own practice facility that's like state of the art brand new. I mean, you probably lean towards that one. >> Yeah. And I know other cities also don't have the practice facility close to the actual rink. >> But that's fine, because like people will like either live close to the practice facility and then drive out to the game or vice versa. Like I believe the Seattle ones pretty far, the Vegas ones pretty far, but they're all super nice as well. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. >> Yeah. >> Reach into those pockets, Francesco. Let's build a winner. >> I don't know where you'd build like, yeah, I mean, out in the suburbs somewhere, I guess, but having your own, that seems like a huge deal. And it's like, it's also one of those things where it reminds me of like the Mike Gillis era Canucks, where they were doing all sorts of things outside of the cap to build the best team possible. >> Totally. >> You know, and it's just one of those things where it's like, there's no cap on this. You can build the craziest facility ever. >> Yeah. >> And you should. You have the money for it, right? >> I'm sure you have, I'm sure you have the land already, you know, or you could get it. >> It is interesting too, because it does look like, at least from hockey operations, like coaching hires that they're kind of pinching pennies, like the Collington thing. >> Yeah. We're placing it with Malhotra like
