Number of female washroom spaces at Rogers Place challenged

On the opening weekend of Rogers Place, Christina Stasia stood in line for at least 25 minutes to use the washroom duringthe Dolly Parton concert, a waitshe says could have been avoided.

"The lineup was three women deep across, then looped around the wall to get in," shesaid. "It was really chaotic. There was no attendant directing people and not enough stalls."

Long washroom lineups forwomen in arenas and concert venues arenotnew. Stasia,a gender studies scholarat the University of Alberta, hoped to seea freshsolution at Rogers Place.

She questionedwhether there aresimply enough female toilets at Rogers Place.

"Women are paying the same price per ticket as men, so to miss part of the concert to bathroom breaks and spend a half hour in line is a huge disservice."

Underthe Alberta Building Code, buildings with a capacity over 400 people are to have a 2:1 ratio of women's toilets to men's toilets and urinals.

At Rogers Place, that ratio is notclear.

The numbers provided toCBC News do not indicate how many toilets are for malesand how many are for females.

Rogers Place saidthe arena contains 25 women's washrooms, 25 men's and 18 family and gender neutral washrooms.

Together, there are 182 urinals and 315 toilet stalls.

Creative solutions needed

Tang Lee, aprofessor of architecture at the University of Calgary, said based on these numbers it's difficult to determine if they meet code.

The concert capacity of 20,734 would help determine how many washrooms spacesare needed, but not how many specifically for women, he said.

No one from RogersPlace or the City of Edmontonwas made available to respond to questions.

Stasia wonders ifthe arena plans could have been more creative.

"I keep hearing about the scoreboard being the first of its kind. Well, surely one option could be to make the washroom signs digital, so that they keep swapping them depending on who's performing and the demographics of who was attending the concert."

Lee saidthatidea could work and he would like architects to be more creative with large event venues.

"That is certainly an idea that has been tried in certain places," Lee said. "The other way is to have unisex washrooms."

@Travismcewancbc

Travis.mcewan@cbc.ca