dowlingm
Senior Member
Of course, if they make major alterations the question of making it CFL compatible might arise again...
Toronto BMO Field Renovations | ?m | ?s | MLSE | Gensler
- Thread starter unimaginative2
- Start date
adma
Superstar
Ironically, BMO Field's made the FOOD sign into a more vivid urban landmark than it's ever been, thanx to its being the northern backdrop to the stands...
Dan416
Senior Member
The TFC game yesterday was kinda blah though. No goals 
egotrippin
Senior Member
Whoops I wasn't paying attention. Ignore my comments.
jn_12
Senior Member
Let's just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't happen.
UrbanAffair
Senior Member
I think that would be great for it, and they are already talking about having the argo's move there. It will likely happen in a year or two, once the stadium is 30000 + It would be perfect for both football and futbal! lol
dowlingm
Senior Member
I suspect Ted Rogers might be happy if it meant he could turf the Argos in the baseball off-season so he could find ways to shoehorn a few more way over priced seats in for the Bills games.
UrbanAffair
Senior Member
lol yeah true that sounds like rogers all right
gei
Active Member
Rogers WANTS the argos to play in the rogers centre. At least they did before. Not sure if the NFL coming here will change anything.
Actually I doubt it will, being only 2 games a year.
billonlogan
Active Member
Teams like FC and Argos are better suited for smaller venues like BMO Field. I've been to Argos games at Rogers Centre and honestly the atmosphere sucks with half to two thirds of seats sitting empty. Even the most successful Argos teams could not consistently put 30,000 fans in those seats. An expanded BMO Field would greatly help our pitch for FIFA World Cup group play in either 2014 or 2018.
jn_12
Senior Member
BMO is a soccer stadium. It would be ruined if it had to cater to both the Argos and TFC since the field dimensions are different. If the Argos moved in then there goes the soccer atmosphere that has made it the top soccer stadium in North America
As for the World Cup ever coming to Canada....
Well 2014 is in Brazil, so we won't be hosting anything for that one. 2018 and 2022 are still up for grabs but England is probably the favourite for one of them.
Canada will never host a World Cup (at least not in my lifetime). Maybe a joint bid with the US would be the closest thing we could get, but I don't know why they would want any part of us considering the CSA is in shambles and we don't have the infrastructure they do. They'd make far more money keeping the tournament in the US. In 94, they used football stadiums to host games, with RFK Stadium being the smallest at 57,000. We have 4 stadiums in this country that are 50k+ and one is the dilapidated Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and there are 5 others that can be expanded to RFK's size (roughly).
However, just because they have the seating requirements doesn't make them ideal for hosting an event like this. When you compare the quality, Canada cannot compete with just about any country that wants to make a serious bid without having to build a couple brand new state of the art stadiums (at least 70k each) and then spending billions on upgrades on most of the already existing stadiums. These would be temporary improvements since the CFL can't fill stadiums of this size. So essentially you're building 2 new stadiums, and upgrading 6 others so they can each host 5 or 6 games. Where would this money come from? The CSA can barely afford to survive, never mind invest in world class stadiums.
Let's say we did bid and won. What happens when 40,000 fans converge on Regina? do they have the infrastructure to cope? no, they don't. How will fans follow their teams from city to city? By then we have no clue what the airline industry will look like in this country, and you can forget about trains. Even if the airlines are healthy, they can't cope with the sheer volume of numbers that need to be transported.
Of course, one could look at 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil as examples that show anyone can get a world cup, but both countries only got it because FIFA wanted a continental rotation. Brazil didn't even compete against another country in bidding. Now that the rotation is complete and FIFA has gone back to allowing bids from anywhere at anytime, its more likely that Europe will host every other Cup (thereby limiting our chances once again) and a Canadian bid would have some stiff competition, and I just don't see how a committee could look past all of the above.
As for the World Cup ever coming to Canada....
Well 2014 is in Brazil, so we won't be hosting anything for that one. 2018 and 2022 are still up for grabs but England is probably the favourite for one of them.
Canada will never host a World Cup (at least not in my lifetime). Maybe a joint bid with the US would be the closest thing we could get, but I don't know why they would want any part of us considering the CSA is in shambles and we don't have the infrastructure they do. They'd make far more money keeping the tournament in the US. In 94, they used football stadiums to host games, with RFK Stadium being the smallest at 57,000. We have 4 stadiums in this country that are 50k+ and one is the dilapidated Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and there are 5 others that can be expanded to RFK's size (roughly).
However, just because they have the seating requirements doesn't make them ideal for hosting an event like this. When you compare the quality, Canada cannot compete with just about any country that wants to make a serious bid without having to build a couple brand new state of the art stadiums (at least 70k each) and then spending billions on upgrades on most of the already existing stadiums. These would be temporary improvements since the CFL can't fill stadiums of this size. So essentially you're building 2 new stadiums, and upgrading 6 others so they can each host 5 or 6 games. Where would this money come from? The CSA can barely afford to survive, never mind invest in world class stadiums.
Let's say we did bid and won. What happens when 40,000 fans converge on Regina? do they have the infrastructure to cope? no, they don't. How will fans follow their teams from city to city? By then we have no clue what the airline industry will look like in this country, and you can forget about trains. Even if the airlines are healthy, they can't cope with the sheer volume of numbers that need to be transported.
Of course, one could look at 2010 in South Africa and 2014 in Brazil as examples that show anyone can get a world cup, but both countries only got it because FIFA wanted a continental rotation. Brazil didn't even compete against another country in bidding. Now that the rotation is complete and FIFA has gone back to allowing bids from anywhere at anytime, its more likely that Europe will host every other Cup (thereby limiting our chances once again) and a Canadian bid would have some stiff competition, and I just don't see how a committee could look past all of the above.
ladyscraper
man alive
I agree with this totally. The funny thing is that they assume that the Argos atmosphere would improve by being in a smaller stadium- but I have to wonder if it's more of a case of the fact that people like Soccer better than Canadian Football.
Jarrek
Active Member
Pretty much bang on.
I guess atmosphere at Argo games can improve to the level that it is in Montreal, but let's not be fools here, Argo fans don't come close to the amount of passion, loyalty & visual displays that Toronto FC fans show.
I guess atmosphere at Argo games can improve to the level that it is in Montreal, but let's not be fools here, Argo fans don't come close to the amount of passion, loyalty & visual displays that Toronto FC fans show.
wyliepoon
Senior Member
Here's a fantasy expansion of BMO Field that I created on Sketchup. In this design, the east and south stands remain as they are now, but the west stands are extended to the north side of the stadium, and a third deck of seating is added.
There is also a "cookie cutter" roof, slanted downwards towards the SE direction to provide shade to most of the stands, but at the same time preserves the view from the west stands towards downtown. It also makes the stadium look a bit more European and more attractive.
I have no estimate on what the capacity of BMO Field is in this design. Anybody care to guess?
There is also a "cookie cutter" roof, slanted downwards towards the SE direction to provide shade to most of the stands, but at the same time preserves the view from the west stands towards downtown. It also makes the stadium look a bit more European and more attractive.
I have no estimate on what the capacity of BMO Field is in this design. Anybody care to guess?
Jayomatic
Active Member
That's amazing. Love the roof.