Toronto Rogers Centre Renovations | ?m | ?s | Toronto Blue Jays | Populous

C-mac said:
Did anybody even notice the turf? The way it resembles natural grass by having it striped like that.
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Yup, that's the turf that was installed before the 2021 season. Photo from last October:
20211002_150933.jpg
 
ahhhh...I wasn't the one that actually noticed it. A friend did and mentioned it to me so that's why I thought it was new. I knew I was have noticed it if was new this year.
 
It's the same turf installed in Arizona for the Diamondbacks and later the new dome in Arlington for the Rangers- both venues that similarly have problems maintaining natural grass.

I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the lower bowl- I imagine this will keep the Jays at the dome until the late 2030's.
 
C-mac said:
ahhhh...I wasn't the one that actually noticed it. A friend did and mentioned it to me so that's why I thought it was new. I knew I was have noticed it if was new this year.
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it was new turf as of last season.
 
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C-mac said:
Not to mention, the middle part doesn't look any bigger or different then the old jumbotron. Waste of money.
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I don't think they were trying to replace the old jumbotron. They've just widened it for when they're doing video presentations. When you're watching the game, only the center will be showing the play on the field, the sides will be for scoreboard, players stats, and scores from around the league. I imagine the top screens won't be illuminated during the game, only when acting as a single screen when combined with the other screens.
 
I used to really yearn for natural grass at the dome, but honestly the quality of fake turf has improved so much in the last 10 years (never mind since the early 90s) that I really don't think it's an issue anymore. You can really barely tell it's not real grass at this point. The new larger dirt infield helps a lot aesthetically too imo.
 
JMSRead said:
I used to really yearn for natural grass at the dome, but honestly the quality of fake turf has improved so much in the last 10 years (never mind since the early 90s) that I really don't think it's an issue anymore. You can really barely tell it's not real grass at this point. The new larger dirt infield helps a lot aesthetically too imo.
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Was the issue truly ever with the fans opinion though? Wasn't the primary complaint the increase in injuries for players due to the rougher and harder surface?
 
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daptive said:
Was the issue truly ever with the fans opinion though? Wasn't the primary complaint the increase in injuries for players due to the rougher and harder surface?
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You would hear that from time to time, especially when the turf was really bad. But I really think it's been more of an aesthetic complaint overall. At least that's my impression.
 
C-mac said:
ahhhh...I wasn't the one that actually noticed it. A friend did and mentioned it to me so that's why I thought it was new. I knew I was have noticed it if was new this year.
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In fairness, most of us haven't been in the stadium since...2019, I guess?

Anyway, it's clear the fake turf looks a lot better than the old astrotruf and it seems to be better for playing on. That said, we're still one of only 2 stadiums that use it (and The Trop is an all-time dumpster fire of a facility) and clearly players prefer grass so as better as it is, it's not grass.

As for the new jumbotron, it kinda feels like they just updated it? The image posted by Hazel Mae does look kinda wonky but it makes more sense when you look at the turf image above and realize it's really just replacing those pixel boards on either side. As long as they're using it that way, and not showing a single image (the way it is in that first image) I'm sure it'll be a nice enough improvement.
 
daptive said:
Was the issue truly ever with the fans opinion though? Wasn't the primary complaint the increase in injuries for players due to the rougher and harder surface?
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The original turf looked pretty bad. It really looked like they were playing on a carpet.

MikeMacNcheese said:
Is this transparent roof worth getting excited about yet?

Reddit chatter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Torontobluejays/comments/tw62t6

Source article: https://dailyhive.com/toronto/blue-jays-renovations-rogers-centre-roof
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The story has been updated to confirm that they aren't considering a memberane change. Which makes sense, because the fabric was recently replaced and has a very different structure vs ETFE panels.

Now what would be interesting is an LED lighting system on the roof that could project different lighting and weather effects.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
Anyway, it's clear the fake turf looks a lot better than the old astrotruf and it seems to be better for playing on. That said, we're still one of only 2 stadiums that use it (and The Trop is an all-time dumpster fire of a facility) and clearly players prefer grass so as better as it is, it's not grass.
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That's no longer true. There are now five MLB stadiums with artificial turf. Three added in the last couple of years and the Jays fully upgraded thier turf last year.

17% of MLB now has artificial turf.

  • Texas Rangers
  • Miami Marlins
  • Arizona Diamondbacks
  • Toronto Blue Jays
  • Tampa Bay Rays
 
I'm sure it will look better in game because they will partition off different areas of the screen to displayer different graphics, information etc. So it won't end up being 1 image stretched over that very awkward shape.

But even still, it's clear they bastardized the screen, probably due to a pre-existing contract with Mariott. It might have looked better if they just didn't extend the horizontal wing pieces.

The middle portion is still bigger, they extended it down ~10'-15' to cover the old corporate boxes that existed below the screen.

1649102353414.png
 
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