Toronto BMO Field Renovations | ?m | ?s | MLSE | Gensler

Exhibition Stadium and Skydome were/are baseball stadia trying to be football stadia. In the case of the Skydome, it's actually done more damage to the franchise than good.

Exhibition Stadium was a football-only venue until 1976 when extensive renovations were made to accommodate the Blue Jays.


If Toronto could get some winning teams they would have no trouble selling out NFL, MLB, NBA games.

Contrary to what many might believe about the state of basketball in this city, the Raptors have consistently remained in the top half of the NBA in terms of attendance throughout their existence. The Raptors generally attract a different fan demographic than the Leafs, but that's partly due to the corporate elitism that has shrouded the Leafs for a while now.
 
Exhibition Stadium was a football-only venue until 1976 when extensive renovations were made to accommodate the Blue Jays.




Contrary to what many might believe about the state of basketball in this city, the Raptors have consistently remained in the top half of the NBA in terms of attendance throughout their existence. The Raptors generally attract a different fan demographic than the Leafs, but that's partly due to the corporate elitism that has shrouded the Leafs for a while now.

Ibid on the Blue Jays. Their average attendance is usually in the middle part of the league. Jays attendance only looks so dismal because the SkyDome is too big for baseball. Most newer American parks seat 35-40k. PNC Park, perhaps the best of the new Stadiums seats around 36k.
 
Exhibition Stadium was a football-only venue until 1976 when extensive renovations were made to accommodate the Blue Jays.




Contrary to what many might believe about the state of basketball in this city, the Raptors have consistently remained in the top half of the NBA in terms of attendance throughout their existence. The Raptors generally attract a different fan demographic than the Leafs, but that's partly due to the corporate elitism that has shrouded the Leafs for a while now.

Raptors are currently 12th in the NBA in attendance. However, in light of their recent play I suspect they'll be inching towards top 8 by season's end.
 
If our team actually played well ... it wouldn't surprise me if we could sellout a 50K stadium ... seriously ... the demand for a good soccer product in this city is much higher then football (CFL or NFL!), baseball, or basketball !
It also has something to do with the number of games and cost of tickets. It's easier to get 20k fans out to 17 TFC home games at a cost of $40 than it is to get 20k fans out to 41 Raptor home games at a cost of $80 a ticket.

Soccer does have that in its favor, and football even more so. Baseball is the toughest with the longest season by far.

Are they still talking about reducing the MLS season to 28 games?
 
Considering they are adding teams - I don't see them reducing the number of games
 
Considering they are adding teams - I don't see them reducing the number of games
The thinking is that by adding teams, they would simplify the schedule to play all conference teams twice, the others once = 28 games. This allows a little more flexibility for the non-league games to mixed into the schedule.
 
With the player moves they are making and the costs they are taking on, perhaps MLSE actually believe a good, competitive, talented, entertaining TFC could fill more seats than are currently available at BMO Field.
 
A quick mockup of BMO Field with the CFL playing surface overlaid

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If the CFL is to be accomodated it will likely be with the south end of BMO replaced by a retractable set of stands that push back to allow the longer CFL endzone and push back in to give the current level of closeness/intimacy that TFC supporters currently have. That and adding a second deck on the east side and you probably are pretty close to a 30k stadium that meets the needs of both sets of supporters.
 
Why don't the Argos go back to their original plan and re-develop Lamport Stadium?

It is very questionable if there is any room to expand Lamport to a usable CFL stadium. Its current capacity is 10k so it would have to more than double....in addition its current 10k is on bench seating...if they converted to actual seats it's current size would hold between 8 and 9 k....so maybe it actually has to triple......also the footprint of the stadium is too small for the CFL field (any football played on it has been on a 100 yard field with smaller than CFL end zones ).

Besides, events at BMO Field already "electrify" Liberty Village.
 
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