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Exhibition Place

generalcanada said:
My point was that the parking lots arent used for anything other than the CNE, indy is just seating id bet they could find a way to put seating not on the parking lots.
Royal winter fair? inside the horse palace or whatever it's called, marlies play inside.

We dont NEED those parking lots, but since Ontario place is so segregated, we have to deal with it

Im agreeing with you, would be nice to have like a huge park there, but it cant happen at least until OL opens with that rumored people mover.
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Here's the thing. Eliminating those parking lots would take away alot of space used for hosting events.

The trucks associated with the Royal Winter Fair, One of a kind show, etc are all parked there. In some cases we are talking cube vans, in others full on trailers. Those things cannot fit underground or in the loading dock for the enercare centre (due to space).

Furthermore, as for the Indy seating you can't really put it anywhere other than the parking lots. The track is literally on the roads through Exhibition Place and I doubt anyone wants to watch the race from inside a building via CCTV.
 
sixrings said:
... The new blue jays exhibition stadium.
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Would there be enough room there now for a new baseball stadium without demolishing existing buildings? BMO Field is already on top of part of the footprint of the old CNE Stadium, and the proposed new 7,200-seat theatre and second hotel would also take up a significant area.
Richard White said:
Here's the thing. Eliminating those parking lots would take away alot of space used for hosting events.

The trucks associated with the Royal Winter Fair, One of a kind show, etc are all parked there. In some cases we are talking cube vans, in others full on trailers. Those things cannot fit underground or in the loading dock for the enercare centre (due to space).

Furthermore, as for the Indy seating you can't really put it anywhere other than the parking lots. The track is literally on the roads through Exhibition Place and I doubt anyone wants to watch the race from inside a building via CCTV.
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The large open parking lot, along with being used for the midway during the CNE and some other events, is also entirely occupied during the IndyCar race weekend with paddock area for some of the race cars and their large transport trucks (some go inside the trade centre), sponsor displays and hospitality areas, vendors, food trucks, trackside suites, and grandstands (the largest, #11 on the map, looking like it would also be eliminated by the new hotel).
https://hondaindy.com/festival/festivalmap
Much as with the midway, these are things that require open space as opposed to an underground parking garage. I've seen some suggestions of having the CNE midway be in the parking lots now across the road at Ontario Place, but I don't know how well that would work to have it that far away from the buildings.
W. K. Lis said:
... I miss the Grandstand shows during the CNE at Exhibition Stadium. Both afternoon matinee and evening shows.

three-stooges-canadian-national_1_ce2f68b0f1805c3a5fdd14e586a4a0e0.jpg
From link.
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The CNE still has the bandshell and various other stages for those kind of entertainment things,
https://theex.com/main/entertainment/music/
https://theex.com/main/entertainment/animals-and-more/superdogs
https://theex.com/main/entertainment/stage,-talent-and-stunt-shows/stage,-stunt-and-talent-shows
but I doubt The Three Stooges
stooges_eye_poke.gif
are returning.
 
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SubHuman said:
Would there be enough room there now for a new baseball stadium without demolishing existing buildings? BMO Field is already on top of part of the footprint of the old CNE Stadium, and the proposed new 7,200-seat theatre and second hotel would also take up a significant area.

The large open parking lot, along with being used for the midway during the CNE, is also entirely occupied during the IndyCar race weekend with paddock area for some of the race cars and their large transport trucks (some go inside the trade centre), sponsor displays and hospitality areas, vendors, food trucks, trackside suites, and grandstands (the largest, #11 on the map, looking like it would also be eliminated by the new hotel).
https://hondaindy.com/festival/festivalmap
Much as with the midway, these are things that require open space as opposed to an underground parking garage. I've seen some suggestions of having the CNE midway be in the parking lots now across the road at Ontario Place, but I don't know how well that would work to have it that far away from the buildings.
Click to expand...
Im probly going to get flak for this, but do we REALLY need the indy and the CNE? like is it more important than having thousands of units of housing? are those 3 weeks out of the year more important than developing the entire exhibition place into something more than a parking lot for the rest of the year?
 
generalcanada said:
Im probly going to get flak for this, but do we REALLY need the indy and the CNE? like is it more important than having thousands of units of housing? are those 3 weeks out of the year more important than developing the entire exhibition place into something more than a parking lot for the rest of the year?
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Over my dead body.

Nobody will be putting any sort of housing, affordable or otherwise at Exhibition Place.

Do you not realise how much tourist revenue these events bring in?
 
generalcanada said:
Im probly going to get flak for this, but do we REALLY need the indy and the CNE?
Click to expand...

Absolutely. We're going to end up with a far less interesting city if we deem housing (retail, institutional) the only suitable uses of land. Places to recreate, unwind, and be entertained are an integral part of any city. And btw, Indy racing and the CNE aren't the only way in which that land is being used.
 
W. K. Lis said:
From link....
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It was before my time, but it looks like a bunch of street names within the CNE Grounds must have been changed at some point in the 1960s or early '70s, with the old names like Dundonald, Aberdeen, Grey, Baden-Powell, Byng, Strathcona, Hutton, Beresford, Lorne, Connaught, and Dominion disappearing to be replaced by the names of the provinces and territories.

I was looking for the auto race circuit maps proposed in 1968 and 1977, and the earlier one had the old street names. The Toronto Star was still using a map with the old names during the 1972 CNE, and had the new names in 1973. Those first two proposals for an auto race never made it to reality, and it was the third attempt that finally succeeded in 1986. There had already been oval track auto racing at the grandstand most of time since 1900, including weekly (and twice weekly at one point) in the 1950s and up to 1966.
BTW -- Jackie Stewart at the CNE Fountain in 1977 -- There's a name most people would have recognized at the time, but would probably result in shrugs if mentioned today to anyone under 40.
 
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W. K. Lis said:
This is the safari most visitors have to face to get from the Exhibition streetcar loop (and future Ontario Line's Exhibition Station) to reach Ontario Place.
View attachment 388879 ...
There should be a shady, tree-lined promenade...
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Edit (May 13): The last part of it does have some trees on both sides just before it gets to the foot bridge.
Ont_Plc_walkway.JPG

I saw this mention of a new seasonal TTC bus route (174) between the Exhibition Loop and the entrance to Ontario Place.
 
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Why is The Bandshell not used from May through October? Why only 18 days during the CNE?
We haven’t had success in negotiating an agreement with Exhibition Place. We were informed that there’s a moratorium on booking music at the Bandshell outside of the CNE because it’s to be used as a picnic area ...
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I thought I recalled seeing something there several years ago earlier in the summer, weeks before the CNE opened. This shows acts have also appeared there in recent years during the beer festival, so that might have been it, and maybe that's considered a 'picnic' event?
Edit (07 Sep 2022): On a related note --
New CNE agreement needed ahead of next year's event
... “We need to negotiate a new agreement that governs our rights to use these facilities,” said CNE CEO Darrell Brown ...
The five-year master agreement with the City of Toronto expired back in March 2022 and work begins on negotiating a new one this month...
The CNE is a tenant of Exhibition Place and as such has to pay a licensing fee to use the 192 acre site. Brown says that fee alone is $4 million with additional costs pushing the total figure upwards of between $9 million to $10 million.
Click to expand...
 
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DSC said:
Final (?) update on Garden of the Greek Gods relocation. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2023/ep/bgrd/backgroundfile-230210.pdf
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Huh. All done. From the report:

The tender call for the relocation contract was issued on May 24, 2022 and awarded to Colonial Building Restoration on June 20, 2022. Construction in the east Rose Garden area commenced the following week. After several delays due to archaeological findings and mitigation, and the restrictions posed by events, construction was substantially completed on October 28, 2022.​
​
To celebrate the relocation, Exhibition Place hosted an event on the morning of November 1, 2022, for approximately 100 invited guests including members of the Board of Governors, family and supporters of E.B. Cox, members of the Toronto arts and Greek communities, local community members, contractors, members of the media and Exhibition Place staff. Sharleen Ahmed and Peter Leon from the Board, along with CEO Don Boyle were on hand to cut the ribbon to officially unveil the Garden.​
​
This website's been set up to explain it all: https://digitalamphitheatre.com/

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kotsy said:
They've started demolishing the multi-unit building at the very north/west corner of the site (Centennial Park) that normally houses kids activities at the CNE.

View attachment 447315
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It was worse when the Gardiner Expressway was bulldozed through the houses of South Parkdale and the strip of Exhibition Place (then Exhibition Park).
O2wS_xApYmEmf1zTKCOuDnNKLIMiXfRvSejjbieaAYg.jpg



The old Dufferin Gates was torn down for the Gardiner Expressway...
9bb0-20120119-Dufferin20Gate-193720Bridge.jpg

From link.

20140206dufferingate.jpg

From link. Construction of the new Dufferin Gate, 1959.

While Fort York was saved, the CNE’s Dufferin Gate wasn’t. Fair goers passed under the old landmark for the last time in 1957. Two years later, construction was well-underway for its replacement.
 
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