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

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The whole reason Skydome was built was because fans wanted a covered stadium due the washed out Rain Bowl Grey Cup in Nov. 1982. Now the Argos are reverting back to the same open air stadium with its potential weather issues rather than stay at the Rogers Centre. How are you going to get fans to come out and freeze their butts off or get soaked when you couldn't get them to come in a heated, covered stadium. Sounds like a giant step backwards to me or is it their way of saying we need another stadium designated to football. BMO field is a joke.
 
TOareaFan said:
So a league is going to play its showcase/championship game on field that is not fully compliant with their standards? That might be a first...no?
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Technically the last time it was in Edmonton – as they have the corners of the endzone cut off
 
Up&Away said:
The whole reason Skydome was built was because fans wanted a covered stadium due the washed out Rain Bowl Grey Cup in Nov. 1982. Now the Argos are reverting back to the same open air stadium with its potential weather issues rather than stay at the Rogers Centre. How are you going to get fans to come out and freeze their butts off or get soaked when you couldn't get them to come in a heated, covered stadium. Sounds like a giant step backwards to me or is it their way of saying we need another stadium designated to football. BMO field is a joke.
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Because fans at just about every other stadium come out and freeze their butts off.

Plus, it only gets cold for the last 2-3 games of the regular season and playoffs
 
T-Bor said:
Because fans at just about every other stadium come out and freeze their butts off.
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That has always been the case though....and there is very little evidence that this is the case in Toronto. Even the well supported TFC see a very noticable drop off in crowds when it is cold and/or wet.

Not sure the rationale for moving Toronto games outside is "well they do it in Regina"....I think there sporting fans are different...not sure why, but I think they are.
 
TOareaFan said:
That has always been the case though....and there is very little evidence that this is the case in Toronto. Even the well supported TFC see a very noticable drop off in crowds when it is cold and/or wet.

Not sure the rationale for moving Toronto games outside is "well they do it in Regina"....I think there sporting fans are different...not sure why, but I think they are.
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I guess we'll find out, but I think the bigger thing keeping people from coming out to games isn't the weather, it's the fact the Dome is a terrible place for football.

Fans in Montreal didn't come out when the Als played at the Big O, but suddenly with 22K fans packed into McGill stadium, the team became a hit again.
 
T-Bor said:
I guess we'll find out, but I think the bigger thing keeping people from coming out to games isn't the weather, it's the fact the Dome is a terrible place for football.

Fans in Montreal didn't come out when the Als played at the Big O, but suddenly with 22K fans packed into McGill stadium, the team became a hit again.
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This... Don't forget the climate in the 70's and 80's when the skydome/rogers centre was conceived was to build giant multi purpose indoor stadiums. Since the Skydome/Rogers Centre opened a number of teams have moved out of the multipurpose-nobody is happy stadiums to outdoor sport specific stadiums.

A few examples:
  • The Steelers move from Three rivers stadium to Heinz Field, not domed but cookie cutter multi purpose design
  • The Bengals move from Riverfront stadium to Paul Brown field, also not domed but also cookie cutter multi purpose design
  • The Vikings will be moving from the Metrodome to US Bank Stadium, which despite being domed will have a glass roof to allow light it and will be Football specific
  • The Colts moved from the RCA Dome to Lucas oil Field
  • The Eagles move from veterans stadium to Lincoln financial field, again not domed but cookie cutter multi purpose design
  • The lions move from the silverdome to Ford Field
  • The Seahawks move out of the kingdome to Century field.
So a number of franchises are moving out of indoor artificial environments and back into outdoor or semi outdoor more naturaly environments. Now that doesn't mean that BMO won't be a strained compromise. The sacrifices made to fit the dimensions of the two very different fields will affect seating, and thus enjoyment of the event.
 
Do we know the capacity of BMO for CFL games yet? I want to say 25K but maybe someone knows if that's correct
 
I believe the figure of 28,000 was mentioned in the media yesterday
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
So a number of franchises are moving out of indoor artificial environments and back into outdoor or semi outdoor more naturaly environments. Now that doesn't mean that BMO won't be a strained compromise. The sacrifices made to fit the dimensions of the two very different fields will affect seating, and thus enjoyment of the event.
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Exactly. It's not like BMO field will be the ideal field for the Argos, but it is at least significantly better than the dome ever was.

Anyhow, in other news: I think the TFC might have just made the playoffs (?), which means they won't vacate the field for a bit longer. It's very likely construction will be delayed until the field can vacate. Hopefully there won't be any unforeseen delays, since the argos want to move in for the upcoming season, and that probably doesn't leave much room for error.
 
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corys said:
Exactly. It's not like BMO field will be the ideal field for the Argos, but it is at least significantly better than the dome ever was.

Anyhow, in other news: I think the TFC might have just made the playoffs (?), which means they won't vacate the field for a bit longer. It's very likely construction will be delayed until the field can vacate. Hopefully there won't be any unforeseen delays, since the argos want to move in for the upcoming season, and that probably doesn't leave much room for error.
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Construction is already underway....they have changed a bunch of the routes in and out of the stadium to allow for the work to start on adding the roof over the seats.

TFC has not quite yet made the playoffs....currently in 5th....sitting in a spot that a) would be hard to miss the playoffs but b) does not guarantee that any matches would take place at BMO
 
TOareaFan said:
Construction is already underway....they have changed a bunch of the routes in and out of the stadium to allow for the work to start on adding the roof over the seats.
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I am fully aware that construction has already started, but a bunch of the tasks can't start until vacancy. From what I've heard from people working on the project, falsework needs to be set up on the field in order to install the roofing, which definitely cannot begin until they're done playing. And the roof will apparently take a significant amount of time.
 
The SkyDome (aka Rogers Centre) opened for business on June 3, 1989, making it over 26 years old. BMO Field opened on April 26, 2007, making it 8 years old. I'm getting old if I still think the SkyDome is still "new" for me.
 
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