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

Ummm, 315/325 Front are the site of the 'Union Park proposal by Oxford. Neither are owned by Rogers.


Fine. Put the towers there but the remove the north facade of the stadium and leave it open to the park.

The advantage with this approach is that that hotel segment was built using traditional construction methods and is mostly hollow. It’s not a concrete bunker like the other 3 facades which were built to support the weight of the stands. It can be demolished like any other building.

The view can be taken into consideration in Oxford’s proposal but I suspect we’d be looking at glass towers in any arrangement. Maybe make them mirrored so they reflect the sky and perhaps even the lake further away.
 
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I expect to be flamed here but frankly on non-game days, the area around Rogers Centre is a urban wasteland like all large event spaces are. On game days, it's a sea of the great unwashed. Only 21,638 attendance per game in 2019 for 81 home games. Over 3/4 of the year, the building is just sitting there. I understand why baseball fans would want a downtown stadium. But why would the majority?
 
I lived close by for a bunch of years. In the winter, yes it was barren. But come spring, even on non game days, there were plenty of tourists around, visiting the Jays store, taking tours, taking selfies, visiting the Roundhouse and the CN Tower, etc. It was actually rather pleasant to walk by there on the quiet days.
 
Ummm, 315/325 Front are the site of the 'Union Park proposal by Oxford. Neither are owned by Rogers.
Boo! What purpose do your facts serve here?

JK I thought that the Oxford proposal was just east of here (above the convention centre) but didn't look it up because that would have exposed the major flaw in my scheme.

That plan has now backfired.
 
Because bars, restaurants and stores benefit from having a stadium in close proximity? Because a stadium could draw new visitors to spend money and help support our economy?

That was what caused businesses to suffer after the Gardens closed. The local pubs and restaurants all had a tough go without the stadium near by.

Anytime there is an event at the Rogers Centre, Kellys Landing and Jack Astors are slammed.
 
None of the "shoebox" style stadiums will ever fit on this site, and as somebody posted, even Miller Park doesn't fit. I honestly think if they want a new stadium to stay in the same location, it would need to be open air. Or some type of unique custom retractable roof stadium nobody has ever seen before.
 
I look at it as the sea of the partly washed myself...
 
...BMO Field has held precisely one concert - Genesis - since it was built. And that was the year it opened in 2007.
It was a logistical nightmare there is no backstage area so they used the area behind the stadium against the food building and made it so no one could pass through it except for staff from the band.
BMO Field also had artificial turf then during its first 2 or 3 years, and now there would be a concern about damaging the grass hybrid field. Much like hockey arenas, football stadiums don't make very good concert venues because of their seating configurations. But a January 2014 Globe And Mail article gave another reason -- "Thanks to several union contracts between the city and everyone from the electrical and sound staff to concessions workers and the ushers, it costs about $100,000 every time Toronto FC plays at BMO Field. That is why there are few concerts at either BMO or Ricoh Coliseum, which is governed by the same deals. Since the facility is owned by the city, there is no cutting a sweetheart deal just to land a new tenant."
I guess the grand new scheme for Exhibition/Ontario Place if it eventually happens could involve a large indoor concert facility, either enclosing the current amphitheatre or replacing it with an entirely new one.

I thought the "SkyTent" configuration of SkyDome offered a better seating arrangement than an arena. I think it would probably still be possible to have something like that through the winter in the 6-month baseball off-season when Rogers Centre has gone entirely unused in recent years. Presumably there could be some way to set-up curtains and a sound system to provide acceptable acoustics. The cavities in the concrete floor (for the baseball infield, which have to be refilled every spring anyway) can be covered over with plastic or metal plating. And by the way, even when they were still looking into the concept of grass in Rogers Centre, the idea was also to put down a new field every spring with no intention to leave it there through the following winter after the baseball season ended in the fall.
And as previously mentioned, many current MLB stadiums including those with grass fields routinely have some small number of concerts each summer.

With three MLB stadiums in just the last two years switching away from grass to artificial turf (bringing the total to five), I'm not sure having a grass field for the Blue Jays is the imperative some seem to think. Having a big indoor stadium that could be used year-round and particularly through winter had always seemed like a good thing to me. Other than perhaps no event promoter has wanted to use it, I'm not sure why it sits completely empty during October to March. As long as the lower bowl seats can still move into the parallel configuration (and they can -- the cavities for the dirt infield do not prevent it, as it was done after those were put in), it could also be still be used for football and soccer during that time of year, though it may require purchasing an expensive artificial turf field (different from baseball) just for that purpose. While Toronto FC has had games at BMO Field in November, December, and February, it hasn't been an ideal situation.
... LED lighting in the rafters would be pretty cool - make it seem a little less gloomy on closed roof nights.
I recall that being a complaint 31 years ago when it opened -- 'the closed roof makes it look and feel like being inside a huge airplane hangar' -- and someone involved with running the new stadium saying something might be done about it in the next year or two. But since nothing was done, and it appears the underside of the roof in the other stadiums look similar, I assume there isn't anything practical that can be done? The outfielders need to be able to see fly balls without losing them in lights or against a background of a white ceiling.
...SoFi = $4.9bn
It's an utterly absurd amount of money to waste on this stupidity. Should be a nonstarter from the get go.
And, was a roof really necessary in Los Angeles?
 
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You were doing so well until...
I know. I was purposely petting that dog the wrong way. In an antagonistic fashion I was saying that a baseball stadium does little to elevate the urban fabric. In terms of economic side effects, I would argue that whatever replaced the Rogers Centre would do more to support local restaurants, shopping etc. I'm sure a restaurant or bar would rather be 3/4 full all year rather than be packed for 81 home games. Kelly's Landing? Jack Astors? Yum! Can these go with the Roger's Centre?
 
On game days, its a sea of the great unwashed.

This always makes me chuckle...
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I expect to be flamed here but frankly on non-game days, the area around Rogers Centre is a urban wasteland like all large event spaces are. On game days, its a sea of the great unwashed. Only 21,638 attendance per game in 2019 for 81 home games. Over 3/4 of the year, the building is just sitting there. I understand why baseball fans would want a downtown stadium. But why would the majority?

If we were talking about an NFL stadium, hosting games 8 times a year I might agree. But I feel like bringing 20,000 people 81 times a year to an area is pretty significant - especially for nearby businesses. And that's in a down season. In 2015 - 17 I think the Jays averaged around 40,000 a game. Personally, I think it makes a lot of sense for events that bring tens of thousands of people to an area 80 times a year for that area to be downtown, very walkable and well service by transit.
 
I happened upon this serendipitous angle with the Roundhouse red brick and black window mullions serving as a podium for the SkyDome. This alone would dramatically improve the appearance of the building and its integration into the neighbourhood. Add restaurants around the base with ball field and street access and you’d have a vibrant street presence, both during games and no game days.

74ACBC5E-0756-4763-A645-12392DD56EE2.jpeg
 
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