City of Calgary parks its Flaming C for all to see

The City of Calgary has parked its support for the Calgary Flames right out on the front porch during the team's trip to the NHL playoffs.

It's a large metal sculpture of the Flames logo, and it's hard to miss. 

"It's eight feet tall and 800 pounds ... so, pretty big," said Jilian Henderson, an executive advisor with the city's facility management group.

The sculpture has some Stanley Cup history of its own. 

It was made by workers at the city's welding and fabrication shop in 1989.

The sculpture was suspended by a crane during the Flames' Stanley Cup celebration that year, and played a key role in the victory parade — the famous trophy was placed inside the Flaming C.

Not fully accurate

The close observer of the sculpture could be forgiven for thinking it's not quite an accurate portrayal of the team's logo.

Henderson said it's a case of function over form.

"Actually the middle, where the bottom of the C is, was made to hold the Stanley Cup. So it was made to represent the Flames logo but also for a purpose, of having the Stanley Cup in there," she said.

Since the 1989 Cup celebration, the sculpture has sat in storage in a warehouse at the city's Manchester yard.

It was put on public display there for the team's march to the Stanley Cup final in 2004.

But in 2015, the sculpture was loaded onto a truck and taken to city hall.

"Employees hatched the idea of moving the Flaming C to the municipal plaza so all Calgarians could kind of see it and get into the playoff run again," said Henderson. 

"So since then, every time the Flames have been in the playoffs, we move it from Manchester over to the municipal plaza and allow everybody to get into the spirit, to support the Flames."

She said the bright red work of art will remain on display until either the Flames bring home the Cup or are eliminated from the playoffs.