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

We're circling around through these arguments again?
  1. Even if it's the 3rd-worst stadium, it's still far superior to Oakland and Tampa, not just in terms of the quality of its facilities but in terms of its atmosphere.
  2. Camden Yards may be a gold standard if we're talking simply about the BUILDING. I'd probably enjoy taking in the sites at a game attendeed by 5,000 people in Baltimore more han a game attended by 5,000 people in Toronto but:
    1. Toronto hardly ever gets that few people, even at their worst.
    2. When SkyDome is full, the fact that the architecture at Camden Yards is nicer ends up mattering a lot less. I bet it's more profitable than Camden Yards too.
  3. No one disputes that in the fullness of time, we will need a new stadium. But as annoying as its multipurpose design has been, the renos will go a long way to fixing the issues as much as they can fixed, and the stadium just isn't enough of a mess to justify demolishing right now.
  4. The fact that Texas builds stupid, over-priced stadiums that no one likes every 5 years (likely funded by taxpayers, like the current Camden Yards renos and unlike the current Rogers Centre renos) is not exactly an argument in their favour, folks. We don't even have to get into "climate change" and the carbon issues with tearing down perfectly good buildings just because of money. We just have to use common sense.
  5. We all know the stadium isn't perfect. It will be better. But all this masochism about how terrible and outdated it is etc. has become so boooooring. Go watch an A's game, wtih 5,000 people sitting in a football stadium, or a Tampa game, with 3,500 people sitting in a joke building with catwalks and a ray pool and chafing dishes beside the on-field bullpens, and try to tell me with a straight face that those are the stadiums that the SkyDome should be grouped with.
    Yes, it's outdated and one day it will be replaced. Right now it's getting major, much-needed upgrades that will be a big help. The least you could do is wait to see the results of the 100-level renos in a year or two before ruling on how little difference they made. In the meantime, take a break from saying the same stuff you've been whining about for 20 years while the work is ongoing.
    End of story. Let's move on to talk about other things, OK?
The pictures look cool!
 
I'm fine with the team staying at the Rogers Centre for the foreseeable future, and I'm looking forward to the renovations. But it's telling that of the options that were apparently on the table, they went with the least expensive one. In Shapiro's words

“The current set of upgrades are probably for the next 10 to 15 [years], but we'll still have a stadium issue,” Shapiro said. “It just gives us good runway to deal with a very complex issue on a stadium.”

This begs the question, what major upgrades could Rogers do the stadium to really transform it for the future? The biggest thing I can think of would be to make the roof transparent. That would drastically improve the experience for times the roof is closed.
 
I'm fine with the team staying at the Rogers Centre for the foreseeable future, and I'm looking forward to the renovations. But it's telling that of the options that were apparently on the table, they went with the least expensive one. In Shapiro's words



This begs the question, what major upgrades could Rogers do the stadium to really transform it for the future? The biggest thing I can think of would be to make the roof transparent. That would drastically improve the experience for times the roof is closed.

As long as they do not do something like BC place where the roof would deflate.. we should be good. They had a hole poked in it there and the whole roof caved in on itself.
 
Apparently there's going to be a bit of a change to the exterior.

I love everything about this. It's completely over-the-top, ridiculous, and absolutely a ton of fun. Yes I'd like to see more done with the exterior (particularly at street-level) but this is a great start. And it's nice to see an exterior improvement that isn't the dreaded "we're covering it in grey spandrel!" announcement.
 
A pretty thorough summary of the renovation work via PCL Construction (don't anybody go taking photos of the PCL logo):


According to this release from November, the new 500 level seats will be delivered in January.

The Blue Jays also posted some additional renovation renderings for the 200 level:



Looks like the Flight Deck will get some more table areas and the new 200 level bar in RF will offer a pretty good vantage point of the field.
 
A pretty thorough summary of the renovation work via PCL Construction (don't anybody go taking photos of the PCL logo):


According to this release from November, the new 500 level seats will be delivered in January.

The Blue Jays also posted some additional renovation renderings for the 200 level:



Love the renderings.... not too thrilled about the price increase. That being said I may catch a game next year.

Personally, I am more excited for the King's Plate.
 
I don't think we've seen that home plate perspective before? I don't know why PCL has it so small but I blew it up, anyway.
(And the roof lighting upgrades are nice and easy to do; and a nice surprise. I used to debate with people if the standard lighting was purple [as it kind of appeared] or blue [because of, like, the BLUE Jays...])
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