It was, with a parade of excitement, that the Victoria Park/Stampede LRT Station and 17 Avenue SE extension were officially opened with the completion of major work on Oct. 10.

The milestone also marked the first time in decades that Stampede Park has been open to vehicle traffic, and ground level pedestrian access from 17 Avenue SE in decades—not since the original LRT line was placed along Macleod Trail in 1980.

Speaking at the opening, Calgary Stampede CEO Joel Cowley said that the transformation had re-opened the historic front door to the Stampede.

“For nearly 100 years, 17th Avenue was the front door of the Calgary Stampede. That all changed when the light rail came came through and halted that traffic, and that basically relegated us to two side doors: one to the north, one to the south,” he said.

“Let’s face it, a park doesn’t feel very park like unless it’s accessible and welcoming, and with the 17th Avenue extension now opened up and the Calgary Stampede getting its front door back, we become much more welcoming and accessible.”

He said that the beautiful new station was one step towards increasing vibrancy on the west side of Stampede Park, but also providing ease of exit from the grounds after a major event.

“If you look at an aerial of Stampede Park, we are surrounded by rivers and rails, and there are only a certain number of ways that you can get across a river or a rail. So, anytime you open up a new artery, it’s greatly going to enhance flow, mobility, and guest experience,” Cowley said.

“We’re really excited to open this up, because that flow is incredibly important to the guest experience.”

Victoria Park/Stampede Station heavily used, even before completion

Calgarians, some 13,000 daily, have been using the Victoria Park/Stampede LRT since the permanent platforms were opened to the public last December.

Since then, CMLC, along with its construction partners, have been putting the final touches on the platform design, along with considerable infrastructure work to realign rail tracks and prepare roadways to connect Stampede Trail at 17 Avenue SE.

Kate Thompson, CEO of CMLC, said that the construction through a period of the pandemic and then through a constrained market, along with scope changes from its initial announcement in 2019, made it a complex project to complete.

The initial budget of $60 million grew to $128 million by the completion, owing to those complexities.

“We look at a vertical building, it looks really complicated because it’s big. But size isn’t necessarily the complexity that applies to all of these projects. It’s moving parts, trains, ability to adjust for scope and schedule, of which on a project like infrastructure, you don’t have many levers to pull,” Thompson said.

“There are two tracks. There are trains that need to come in, and safety is paramount. So, though a big project looks impressive as it stands on the ground, an infrastructure project has a really heavy weight to pull in terms of its complexity.”

Some of the factors that went into the completion of the Victoria Park/Stampede LRT Station was a change from an initial more utilitarian concrete design, to one that better reflected the design of the BMO Centre and of plans in the Culture and Entertainment District, alongside more functionality for users of the station.

The complexity of connecting 17 Avenue SE, at grade, to Stampede Park also meant the removal of the long-standing but much derided spiral staircases that led to a pedestrian bridge over Macleod Trail.

“It’s about helping Calgarians move about the city and enjoy great facilities like this [BMO Centre]. Looking behind us and reflecting on what the old station looked like and our old spiral staircase, the contrast is stark,” said Doug Morgan, General Manager of Operational Services at the City of Calgary.

Morgan said that Calgary Transit’s Red Line serves more than 150,000 Calgarians per day. Statistics provided by the Calgary Transit showed that the line was at 103 per cent of usage from prior to the pandemic.

“Victoria Park / Stampede Station is critical, not just for special events, but for regular riders whether you’re going to work or school. The upgrades were essential to address the limitations of the station. It was pretty tight trying to get the Stampede on a busy night with the original station, and it opens it up to the blue sky that is our city.”

Thompson said that the station and the roadway extension provides a gateway for current users of the west side of Stampede Park, but that it also lays the groundwork for future development in the Culture and Entertainment District.

“As city builders, we can’t just build the magnets and the anchor projects. We really have to build the infrastructure in and around, and in between to let pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles, everyone, come in and out. It’s how a city works. And so this becomes paramount to enabling the city to grow and build, and this district to flourish,” she said.

Speaking directly to Kevin Costner’s 1989 sport film Field of Dreams, Cowley said that the completion of the LRT station and the opening of 17 Avenue into the park meant that the Stampede was building, and people would come.

“Largely the Stampede Park right now is events driven. People usually only come here if there’s an event. We envision in the future… people are just going to want to come here and really celebrate what it means to both visit Calgary and be a Calgarian as well,” he said.

“We also look forward to the vibrancy of 17th Avenue coming right up here to Macleod Trail and spilling over onto Flores LaDue Parade.”

17 Avenue extension in Stampede Park to be renamed Flores LaDue Parade

The Calgary Stampede honoured world champion trick roper Flores LaDue, who in 1912, helped her husband Guy Weadick to found the annual 10-day exhibition, with a renaming of the park portion of the 17 Avenue SE extension.

Cowley said that it was important for the Stampede to recognize its own history, and the history of the people who made the Stampede possible.

“I’m a firm believer that you can’t possibly know where you’re going unless you know where you came from and how you got here. And so recognizing Flores LaDue in this manner is really important to the Calgary Stampede.”

He said that LaDue’s history extended to ensuring that Indigenous peoples had a place at the Calgary Stampede—including walking in the first ever Stampede Parade in downtown Calgary, something that was illegal in Canada at the time.

“Weadick and LaDue lobbied the federal government to allow that, and that spirit continues on today, both in our parade and with our Elbow River Camp. And so Flores LaDue had an incredible impact upon Calgary,” Cowley said.

He said that in picking the name of the roadway, calling it a parade, made the only sense.

Come the 10 days of the Calgary Stampede in 2025, said Cowley, the newly opened Flores LaDue Parade would be greatly enhancing the way that Calgarians would be accessing Stampede Park. Although the roadway would be closed to vehicle traffic during that period.

“For those who are coming from the west and maybe enjoying 17th Avenue, or maybe they want to enjoy 17th Avenue after they leave Stampede Park, it’s very easy for them to do that,” he said.

Photos of the opening day parade