jcam
Active Member
Here's what it would look like if you just added glazing...still a lot of structure in there.
Toronto Rogers Centre Renovations | ?m | ?s | Toronto Blue Jays | Populous
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animatronic
Senior Member
Rotating the diamond would allow for an asymmetric look despite the stadium's round exterior. The preferred park orientation is ENE, which would put the hotel in left field and open up some opportunities to vary the foul lines.
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/stadium/ballpark_NSEW_AL.shtml (note that the SkyDome diagram is wrong - it's aligned with the street grid which is NNW, not N.
Woodbridge_Heights
Senior Member
That would require digging new cutouts for the mound and dirt infield. Nothing wrong with the current setup. You can vary the walls in the current config as well.
Momin
Senior Member
animatronic
Senior Member
That'll be nothing compared to what's going to change. I wouldn't be surprised if they decide to lower the field a few feet in order to improve sight lines. Surely a lower bowl replacement is in the cards, as they need to fix the seat angles in a fixed config. They've budgeted $100-200M for renos over the next few years so lots wil lchange.
And yes can vary the lines now if they wanted to, but moving the hotel off centre opens up lots of neat opportunities in the outfield like stacked bullpens, "patio" sections etc... that would be clunky under current arrangement.
Indeed. A lower bowl replacement would be the easiest major structural change to make, since the vast majority of it is on tracks anyway. I'd like to see the more traditional L-shape for the lower level. Since the concourse itself would still be basically round, midway between home plate and the foul poles in both LF and RF you'd wind up with a 'plaza-like' area at the top of the lower bowl. Those would be great as two premium versions of the CF Flight Deck (a beer garden, basically).
The 500s would be difficult to modify, as it's part of the permanent structure. Unless some interesting engineering solutions are proposed.
As for the hotel, my preference would be to convert the field-facing rooms into suites. Not much better, but at least they'd be open to the stadium instead of behind a window. You can either keep the 400 level suites or wall that whole section off and extend the 500 level downwards in front of it. If you shaped that in the same L pattern, you'd have another plaza area at the bottom of today's 500 level.
animatronic
Senior Member
You gotta figure the 500 level is a non-starter reno-wise. At most they could reduce the seat count and install wider seats, or permanently remove some sections next to the hotel.
The problem with suites is that they have too many right now - and the current ones are too small / not enough luxury options. Look for them to cut the number in half by doubling the size, and adding more "premium" suites. Under the current config it would be impractical to turn the 300s or 400s into club seats so they are pretty much stuck with the current arrangement. Maybe convert some to restaurants? Can't see them wanting to convert the hotel to suites when they are already suite-heavy.
JohnnyRaylander
New Member
Does anyone know if the new upgrades increase the minimum temperature at which they can operate the dome? It may be apocryphal, but I was always of the understanding they couldn't (wouldn't?) open or close the dome at <10C. There are definitely many days where it was nice enough out that the dome should have been open but wasn't.
animatronic
Senior Member
Not apocryphal. The concern was low temps could result in warping and getting the roof stuck open for the winter. New opening mechanism should improve tolerances.
http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/tor/ballpark/roof_operation_guidelines/
Yeah, they do seem to have a lot of suites. My suggestion was basically to swap where they were located. Take the 400s and convert them into additional seating (maybe some restaurants), and convert the hotel suites into actual suites.
G.L.17
Senior Member
Roof testing today!
Given how there was just snow and near freezing weather the other day, safe to say the new roof system works.
It opened twice during my encounters. First time was only the two central panels, and the second included the circular south panel. Still took about 20 minutes to open, but given how this was the first test of the year, that's not too surprising.
Still won't hold my breath for the roof to be open for Monday's game, even if it is 20 degrees and sunny.
Given how there was just snow and near freezing weather the other day, safe to say the new roof system works.
It opened twice during my encounters. First time was only the two central panels, and the second included the circular south panel. Still took about 20 minutes to open, but given how this was the first test of the year, that's not too surprising.
Still won't hold my breath for the roof to be open for Monday's game, even if it is 20 degrees and sunny.
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EastYorkTTCFan
Senior Member
I believe they always open it manually the first couple of times so they can make sure it's working well. Typically they like to wait until May when the evening temperatures are warmer to have the roof open as people will complain about being cold up top.
georgevicbell
Active Member
The discussion around opening up the hotel to light is interesting, as is the idea of putting transparent roof on...unfortunately the best way to do that would have been to remove the existing roof entirely, and come up with a new design that can retract 100%, or 50% with a hole in the centre - which would give cover to the crowd during afternoon games in august when the crowd just bakes...
Unfortunately the current design is essentially in the wrong place with respect to the sun, and with the direction of play...everyone is looking to the outfield, (most of the seats are in the infield, looking to the outfield) where the screen is...and your entire view is not the hotel, but the roof...if it was gone the stadium would feel much more open...
Likewise they need to make all the windows around the entire stadium open up completely when the roof is open, this would improve air-flow, and get a breeze moving around the building...when it's hot, you can close them and turn on the AC...
In the off season they need to program the spaces outside the dome better...and program the use of the space inside better...
Unfortunately the current design is essentially in the wrong place with respect to the sun, and with the direction of play...everyone is looking to the outfield, (most of the seats are in the infield, looking to the outfield) where the screen is...and your entire view is not the hotel, but the roof...if it was gone the stadium would feel much more open...
Likewise they need to make all the windows around the entire stadium open up completely when the roof is open, this would improve air-flow, and get a breeze moving around the building...when it's hot, you can close them and turn on the AC...
In the off season they need to program the spaces outside the dome better...and program the use of the space inside better...
georgevicbell
Active Member
Another idea - once the rail deck park is in place, they could create a multi-level event space there (climbing walls, rapelling, waterslide, ropes course) and build a vertical path to the top of the stadium - with an entrance on the top of the hotel that goes through the roof into the building...and maybe have a way to walk to the top of the roof...or do like a slide thing down to the dugouts...essentially a gondola where you could watch the game from above...
