Toronto Rogers Centre Renovations | ?m | ?s | Toronto Blue Jays | Populous

I've always said that removing some of the concrete exterior to open up the SkyDome to the city and the city to the SkyDome would help both the atmosphere inside the stadium by bringing in natural light and views to the city and reduce the imposing stature of the stadium to those walking on Bremner. It would also allow for views into the game without giving away free games. Rather than lose paying customers, I think it would entice people to buy tickets to go inside to watch. I get that urge whenever I get a glimpse of the grass and fans through the store windows.

They should also replace some or all of the ticketing booths with space for restaurants with patios on Bremner. Add electronic ticketing kiosks dotted around the stadium instead. Why do we still need people selling tickets behind a glass?

The seating on the upper level should be replaced with beer gardens and unassigned amphitheatre style benches. If they are able to grow grass on the field then adding trees and lawns to the upper level should be possible.
 
The seating on the upper level should be replaced with beer gardens and unassigned amphitheatre style benches. If they are able to grow grass on the field then adding trees and lawns to the upper level should be possible.

Interesting idea - but there's no way in hell that will happen
 
Happens way more than you'd expect. They are both companies that rely heavily on red for branding. It's easy to confuse the two. I remember Olivia Chow being late to a meeting once because she went to the wrong place, after being told it was at the Rogers Centre.

I just doubt that's the case. One anecdote about Olivia Chow is not very convincing. We'll have to agree to disagree. To the extent anyone is confused (a small number I presume), it would have more to do with the fact that the two buildings are the two main sports facilities in Toronto, both located downtown close to one another south of Front Street, not because they both have the word "Centre" in their otherwise dissimilar names. Otherwise, we should consider renaming City Hall and/or St. Lawrence Hall, because presumably the use of the word "hall" in both causes confusion and Olivia might go to the wrong place again.

Just looking at Twitter metrics for one comparison, Rogers Centre has been used 216 times since August 24th vs. Skydome which has been used 682 times. Clearly Skydome is still the preferred name. That's 3 times as many people calling it by its old name than the new name, and those tweets have had nearly 3 million impressions vs. under 800,000 impressions for Rogers Centre.

Twitter? With the 140-character limit, people will naturally prefer the 7-letter SkyDome to the 13-character Rogers Centre. That's proof that SkyDome has almost half as many characters as Rogers Centre, not that "SkyDome is still the preferred name". To see media usage, try Google News, where SkyDome + Toronto (I added "Toronto" to the search because the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green has a facility called Skydome that is reopening this week) got less than one tenth of the hits as "Rogers Centre" + Toronto (4340 vs. 39,100). In other words, people are reading, hearing and seeing the Rogers name all the time in the media, which is what Rogers wants. Even a regular web search with Google has Rogers Centre on top (659,000 to 415,000). When you add "Blue Jays" to the mix instead of Toronto, it's 514,000 to 160,000. I hate that Rogers has succeeded with the rename, but as I said before they've succeeded in getting most people to say and write the name Rogers, regardless of whether people like you or I continue to call it SkyDome.

Scotiabank Saddledome has been mentioned 200 times on twitter during the same time period, whereas Saddledome on its own (removing all tweets with Scotiabank included) has only been mentioned 123 times.

I notice the references to "Scotiabank Saddledome" are almost entirely ticket resellers, whose tweets may very well be bots, versus the references to Saddledome on its own appear to be tweets from the rest of the world.

Keeping SkyDome in the name, or even simply dome would have likely lead to way more people using their handle than the old name.

There is no evidence of that. Naming rights for large sports facilities in big cities go for millions of dollars. When big money is involved, names are not chosen on a whim, but only after study and examination of precedents. If keeping old names versus soulless "centre" and "place" monikers clearly worked as well, the marketing people would choose the old names. They don't.

Even the media refers to it as 'the dome' quite often.

A noted above, not that often. Again, Rogers won that bet because their name is in the media way more. That's why it's called Rogers Centre, as much as it galls me.

I guarantee "The Rogers Dome" or "Rogers Skydome" would have given them way more exposure than the current name, and judging by Scotiabank's success with Saddledome, I wouldn't be surprised if Rogers ended up with more exposure too had they kept the original name.

Again, there is no evidence of any of that. The only evidence is that Rogers owns the stadium, renamed it after itself, and people now use the Rogers name all the time to refer to it. Rogers wins. The rest of us lose.

Not that I wouldn't love it if the place were renamed "Rogers SkyDome" (Rogers Dome isn't much better than Rogers Centre). But I'm not going to deny that Rogers made a safe and successful choice in renaming it Rogers Centre, on the basis of their narrow self-interest. And I think we do both agree that that sucks.
 
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Consider the Braves new stadium is 622 million... so 400 million it makes one wonder what they have planned. Its too bad they couldnt rotate the baseball field and partially blow out the bremner side installing a large window giving everyone a nice view of the lake and the islands.
 
In a perfect fairytale land, I would want the hotel gone, and just have open air looking out to Front St, with the necessary support structures. Have retractable glass similar to the one at Minute Maid Park in Houston or Miami's new stadium. Again, will never happen.

I have pondered the idea about the 500s being closed off permanently in some sections, but I feel Toronto is too strong of a market to do that. Yes, when the Blue Jays are bad, it's not always filled. Though right now, they are on pace to sell out 26 games, maybe more if tonight and tomorrow's game reaches 45k (currently at 40k for both).
 
I remember Olivia Chow being late to a meeting once because she went to the wrong place, after being told it was at the Rogers Centre.

Good thing she didn't become Mayor if she can confuse the Rogers Centre with the Air Canada Centre.
 
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My idea: have the spitting Robbie Alomar (complete with water feature) stand right in front of the Ted statue.

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Model on this idea...
Pee+statue_69dd0d_4068976.jpg
but with Robbie's face, of course.
 
More details from the Post:

http://news.nationalpost.com/sports...ne-of-many-upgrades-planned-for-aging-stadium
  • The entire PVC membrane over the stadium roof is worn out and must be replaced. As part of that project, the club will investigate the possibility of using material that will allow diffused sunlight to shine through and help nurture the grass.
  • The club will continue to repair and upgrade the rail system that allows the four sections of the roof to open and close. Work started two years ago and has continued through this season, Brooks said. Warped sections of the rails have been shaved. The computer system and motor systems will be significantly upgraded. When the job is done, the roof will open and close faster than it does now and will likely be able to open in cooler weather.
  • All stadium seats will be replaced. That project has also begun. Brooks said it may involve making the seats larger, which could result in the loss of 2,000 to 3,000 seats.
  • All of the stadium suites will be renovated. Brooks said the Rogers Centre has about 150 suites – most new stadiums have 50 to 60 – and the club plans to reduce the total and create more double suites to meet increasing demand from larger groups.
  • The former Hard Rock Café space above right field is due for renovation as a large group area. “Group sales space is one thing that we need more of,” Brooks said.Plans also include upgrades and new kitchens in concession areas; more space for the Blue Jays Shop, which is often packed on game days; replacement of the exterior stadium awning and the paving stones around the stadium; and renovating the plaza on the west side where Fan Fest is held.

Sounds like they are looking at the possibility of ETFE roofing to me - as an example of what the material can do - see: http://populous.com/project/forsyth-barr-stadium/

Also glad to hear that the awning and exterior landscaping is in the workplan.

AoD

 
Changing the roof material to something that let's in light is something I've been thinking would be great as well. I've also thought of cladding a lot of the ugly exterior concrete in a brick cladding would definitely brighten the exterior.
 
  • All stadium seats will be replaced. That project has also begun. Brooks said it may involve making the seats larger, which could result in the loss of 2,000 to 3,000 seats.

This will greatly improve the experience of watching a game! It's so tight in there now.
 

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