The Calgary Stampede is one of the world’s most iconic annual events, drawing over 1.3 million visitors each July for ten days of rodeo, chuckwagon racing, concerts, exhibitions, and western culture. Known as “The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth,” the event set an all-time attendance record with nearly 1.5 million visitors across the ten-day run — with single-day attendance exceeding 200,000 guests. Beyond the annual Stampede, the grounds host over 2.5 million attendees annually across more than 1,000 events.
With 150,000+ visitors on-site on any given Stampede day, the wireless demands rival those of a small city — with tens of thousands of guests simultaneously streaming, sharing, and transacting on their devices. For a major Canadian carrier, ensuring network capacity and signal quality at the Calgary Stampede is a high-profile, mission-critical infrastructure challenge.
The Calgary Stampede Grandstand presents one of themost logistically demanding wireless upgradeenvironments in Western Canada. With over 150,000 visitors on-site on peak Stampede days, the venue places extraordinary demand on wireless networks — and the carrier required a significant capacity expansion to be fully operational before the event’s opening day. That deadline was absolute: the Stampede opens on a fixed date each year, with no flexibility.
The Grandstand’s active, high-profile status meant on-site construction time had to be minimized. Extended rooftop access was not feasible across a normal construction timeline, and the complexity of the installation — new antennas, 35 RRUs, diplexers, fibre and DC trunks, fuse panels, patch panels, and CDUs, alongside full legacy removal and roofing coordination —demanded a solution that could compress on-site exposure without compromising quality or carrier acceptance standards.
The carrier engaged Pillar Telecom to deliver the build, with the approach calling for the antenna structure to be fabricated off-site and craned to the Grandstand rooftop in a single coordinated lift — compressing on-site exposure and protecting the firm in-service deadline.
The carrier engaged Pillar Telecom to execute the full on-site build scope at the Calgary Stampede Grandstand. The scope of work included:
Structural Assessment — Full structural assessment of the Grandstand rooftop to confirm load capacity and mount design for the new antenna assembly.
Pre-Fabrication — Fabrication and assembly of the antenna structure at Pillar’s Calgary shop, enabling a single coordinated crane lift to rooftop and dramatically reducing on-site exposure at the active venue.
Antenna & RRU Installation — Installation of three Galtronics GP7136-08031 Remote Electrical Tilt (RET) Multibeam Antennas — high-capacity, patented 4×4 MIMO stadium antennas purpose-built for dense venue environments — alongside 35 new RRUs with diplexers.
Fibre & DC Infrastructure — Supply and installation of new fibre and DC trunks, fuse panels, fibre patch panels, and CDU equipment to support the expanded network capacity.
Legacy Removal & Site Works — Full removal of legacy equipment and mounts from the northwest wall, roofing coordination, craning, and grounding to carrier standards.
Testing & Commissioning — Comprehensive antenna and fibre optic testing across all new installations, with full close-out documentation completed upon handover.
Pillar managed the full on-site build — from initial mobilization through to final commissioning — coordinating crane logistics, rooftop access, and multi-trade execution to meet the carrier’s in-service deadline, delivering the complete scope on time and on budget with the network fully operational before the gates opened on the 2023 Stampede.
