Toronto BMO Field Renovations (FIFA26) | MLSE | Gensler

[RS1]

Any updates to the concourse, concessions and bathrooms? Last time I was there, they were pretty rough (being kind here). Also, the lineups for the washrooms were already horrendous at half time for the original capacity without adding these extra 15,000 seats. Please tell me that the under the bleachers high school arena experience is being cleaned up and that they built more washrooms, not just adding porta potties for the World Cup.

For the north stands, they'll incorporate access to the Food Building's washrooms.

Expect porta potties in the south.

 

[txlseries4]

Here's a Twitter thread of people complaining about the concourses.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2038027438106534081

Not to diminish this guy’s opinion, since wow he’s “Associate Producer - Sportsnet,
@RedPatchBoys
President (2020-2023), Avid Sports Card Collector” but why should people put stock into his take here? It’s so easy to confidently form an opinion and be completely wrong. Unless he follows up down thread, this doesn’t give any rationale or explanation…

 

[kotsy]

Not to diminish this guy’s opinion, since wow he’s “Associate Producer - Sportsnet,
@RedPatchBoys
President (2020-2023), Avid Sports Card Collector” but why should people put stock into his take here? It’s so easy to confidently form an opinion and be completely wrong. Unless he follows up down thread, this doesn’t give any rationale or explanation…

It's such a dumb thing to write given there are still 2.5 months until the world cup games.

 

[narduch]

Not to diminish this guy’s opinion, since wow he’s “Associate Producer - Sportsnet,
@RedPatchBoys
President (2020-2023), Avid Sports Card Collector” but why should people put stock into his take here? It’s so easy to confidently form an opinion and be completely wrong. Unless he follows up down thread, this doesn’t give any rationale or explanation…

I posted it because there are other people complaining in the thread. And I've seen complaints on reddit too.

 

[nightstreak]

It's such a dumb thing to write given there are still 2.5 months until the world cup games.

To be fair, he’s answering the post he’s quoting:

Is Toronto ready for the World Cup — right now? Given the videos I’ve seen of dangerously crowded concourses and insufficient washrooms for 25,000 people let alone nearly double that, I would say “No”.

Will it be in 2.5 months? I’m sure the organizers have a plan but 10 weeks seems like very little time to fix the circulation problems and add food and washroom options to prevent the crush capacity in the concourses that were seen this week.

The fix here might be to enclose a paid area perimeter around the stadium with food trucks and washroom trailers so that people could exit the current bounds of the stadium during half time to use the washrooms and get food.

 

[guavadelic]

Could they not have found a way to hide the exposed scaffolding? Looks pretty bushleague/ugly from the outside.

It will be interesting to see, though I've also heard from a few sources that demand for tickets from people outside the regions of the games has actually been unexpectedly low.
There's a CBC news story about FIFA having recently released a hold on over 10,000 hotel rooms in Vancouver seeing they were getting few takers for the trip and ticket packages.
It could be because long-distance travel costs have risen so much, and much of the world economy in chaos, people from far off places are questioning whether to go or use the cash for something else more practical.

I wonder if FIFA's overpriced ticket prices have lowered demand from fans intially interested in attending. There's several campaigns online from various fan groups to encourage boycotting the world cup due to the prices.

 

[narduch]

Could they not have found a way to hide the exposed scaffolding? Looks pretty bushleague/ugly from the outside.

View attachment 725270


I wonder if FIFA's overpriced ticket prices have lowered demand from fans intially interested in attending. There's several campaigns online from various fan groups to encourage boycotting the world cup due to the prices.

I believe the plan is to cover the scaffolding. They just haven't done it yet.

They still have work to do.

 

[ash_iwn95]

Could they not have found a way to hide the exposed scaffolding? Looks pretty bushleague/ugly from the outside.

View attachment 725270


I wonder if FIFA's overpriced ticket prices have lowered demand from fans intially interested in attending. There's several campaigns online from various fan groups to encourage boycotting the world cup due to the prices.

The renders have coverings for the scaffolding.

 

[simplmind02]

To be fair, he’s answering the post he’s quoting:View attachment 725161

Is Toronto ready for the World Cup — right now? Given the videos I’ve seen of dangerously crowded concourses and insufficient washrooms for 25,000 people let alone nearly double that, I would say “No”.

Will it be in 2.5 months? I’m sure the organizers have a plan but 10 weeks seems like very little time to fix the circulation problems and add food and washroom options to prevent the crush capacity in the concourses that were seen this week.

The fix here might be to enclose a paid area perimeter around the stadium with food trucks and washroom trailers so that people could exit the current bounds of the stadium during half time to use the washrooms and get food.

Im going to the May 2nd TFC game...hoping things are better by then not looking forward to what you are saying.

 

[christiesplits]

The new lower seats are being used in the north today.

View attachment 725001View attachment 725002

I wish they had continued the red coloured seating for the temporary section. Obviously would have incurred a cost, but even an accent of red seating, like what Tim Hortons' Field does with yellow, would have been nice.

Source

 

[narduch]

I wish they had continued the red coloured seating for the temporary section. Obviously would have incurred a cost, but even an accent of red seating, like what Tim Hortons' Field does with yellow, would have been nice.

View attachment 725339
Source

Agreed.

I think they want to recycle or resell the seats afterwards and it's probably easier to do with a generic grey

 

[nightstreak]

I wish they had continued the red coloured seating for the temporary section. Obviously would have incurred a cost, but even an accent of red seating, like what Tim Hortons' Field does with yellow, would have been nice.

View attachment 725339
Source

Agreed.

I think they want to recycle or resell the seats afterwards and it's probably easier to do with a generic grey

These very same seats are going to be used in the LA Olympics. They're not only temporary in the sense that they're going to be removed, they're rented and will be used by another client somewhere else in North America.

The colour of the seats is the least worrying aspect of Toronto's low effort preparation to host the World Cup. The seats will be filled with people so their colour will be irrelevant during games. They'll be gone by the time the CNE is in town.

 

[RS1]

The fix here might be to enclose a paid area perimeter around the stadium with food trucks and washroom trailers so that people could exit the current bounds of the stadium during half time to use the washrooms and get food.

That's what they're doing.

Every World Cup does this.

 

[Jonny5]

Well we are seeing a preview of what could happen right now. I am attending the Marlies game, but on the way in at 7:20 p.m., 40 minutes late because of the incredibly backlogged traffic, there was a lightning storm coming in. I dodged it at the last second, but there must be thousands out there in the thick of it right now.

 

[nightstreak]

Well we are seeing a preview of what could happen right now. I am attending the Marlies game, but on the way in at 7:20 p.m., 40 minutes late because of the incredibly backlogged traffic, there was a lightning storm coming in. I dodged it at the last second, but there must be thousands out there in the thick of it right now.

The Jays are drawing crowds again too. Not since the 90s has Toronto had a SkyDome full of people funnelling through downtown towards Front and Blue Jays Way in the regular season.

I've overlaid World Cup games in Toronto with the Blue Jays schedule in June. Suffice to say, it's going to be complete anarchy on June 12, 23 and 26.

And if the Raptors make it to the NBA finals which are in June...