Interesting. This doesn’t initially seem to make a ton of sense on the surface, given that Rogers Centre has a very similar concert capacity, and that Livenation has plans to upgrade Budweiser Stage into a larger venue.
However, here’s some food for thought - in wake of the Rogers purchase of Bell’s MLSE shares, and with Rogers on track to own the entirety of MLSE in 2026, the media has been suggesting that Edward Rogers is very interested in owning an NFL team (something Rogers has been working toward over the past decade) and suggested that this could be the next step after a likely spinoff and IPO of MLSE.
Obviously, the construction of an NFL-sized stadium is a huge investment to make up-front. You would want to get a good idea of whether or not you can make use of that stadium outside of the 8 or 9 NFL home games each season, and there’s obviously a bit of uncertainty given the presence of so many other venues in Toronto. Building a temporary 50,000-seat concert venue and seeing how many events you can fill it with for 5 years seems like an excellent way to test the waters for a slightly larger permanent stadium down the road. Downsview would also be the ideal location for such a thing. Rogers’ involvement in this makes me suspicious. Northcrest also includes “culture and entertainment” as part of the vision for the YZD development which makes me more suspicious.
We will obviously have to see how this plays out, but there is definitely something bigger going on here.
www.thestar.com
