Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

Alternatively, they’re likely to consider relocation. Playing a significant chunk of the season in the cavern that is Olympic Stadium is going to kill the crowds and game day atmosphere just like it has to every other team that has played there regularly.

I think a big reason why Olympic stadium has sucked so much for professional sports is the multi-use stadium set up. It's bad for baseball, and it's bad for football and soccer.



If they got rid of the ghastly scoreboard wall and completely reconfigured the lower bowl of the stadium for rectangular sports, I think it would be a night and day difference in terms of the atmosphere.

No way an MLS team or CFL team in Montreal is going to fill up a 56,000 person stadium unless it's the Championship game or Lionel Messi is in town.

However, they could certainly reconfigure the lower bowl to make the place look a lot less empty for CFL games and MLS matches against less popular sides.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

However, they could certainly reconfigure the lower bowl to make the place look a lot less empty for CFL games and MLS matches against less popular sides.

Got an extra $500 million hanging around?

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by elly63

Got an extra $500 million hanging around?

I don't, but the entire province of Quebec must?

It could be a seriously nice stadium with a proper reconfiguration.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I don't, but the entire province of Quebec must? It could be a seriously nice stadium with a proper reconfiguration.

I agree, but getting another $500 million after $800 million is a pretty big ask

[northernlights99]

I believe Olympic Stadium should leave the central roof covering off for a year or two to allow :

Taylor Swift concert

Baseball games

Outdoor hockey game

The reinforced technical ring and existing concrete roof will not held up by the central covering. 70 % of the weight of the central covering will be supported by guy cables hanging from the Incline tower.

Montreal FC states that "select" MLS matches will be played inside Olympic Stadium. Which means some games will still have to be played in winter conditions or on the road.

https://canadiansoccerdaily.com/2025...rters%20Friday.

In the meantime in Vancouver there are serious concerns about the turf at BC Place.

https://canadiansoccerdaily.com/2025...aps-oust-lafc/

[Djeffery]

I guess there must be breaking news that Taylor is touring next year or 2027. And what baseball games?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Djeffery

I guess there must be breaking news that Taylor is touring next year or 2027. And what baseball games?

A couple of these folks create their own "news"

[northernlights99]

What was the Original seating capacity of Olympic Stadium when it was semi completed in 1976 ?

I recall that seats were removed when the Expos moved in.

It looks like the seats on the upper deck behind the scoreboard were removed too.

[northernlights99]

this was the roof deflation on BC Place Stadium in 2007, this is what happens when you don't turn on the heating system to melt snow buildup on a teflon roof.

ice slid down one of the panels and sliced a hole causing air to violently rush out.

the last image shows the roof completely deflated :

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by northernlights99

What was the Original seating capacity of Olympic Stadium when it was semi completed in 1976 ?

I recall that seats were removed when the Expos moved in.

It looks like the seats on the upper deck behind the scoreboard were removed too.

Capacity was 73K from when it opened to 1992.

[MolsonExport]

The Montreal Expos moved to Olympic Stadium in 1977, and the stadium's seating capacity for baseball was approximately 56,000, and the total seating capacity for baseball was later reduced to 46,000. As for football, capacity was reduced from its Olympic capacity of 72,000 to 58,500, but leapt to 66,308 when the natural grass was replaced with AstroTurf ahead of the 1977 season.

The Expos were stolen by David Samson and Jeffrey Loria.

[elly63]

That number 73k always struck me as weird. It's the number Wikipedia says and was around the number that was originally in the stadium at the time of the Olympics.

The Opening Ceremony had 73,286 there but there must have been some obstructed seats or something because the soccer final had 71,617 which I think is the record for a sporting event at the Big O. The 1977 Grey Cup had 68,318 and it had to have been a sellout.

As part of various renovations made in 1991 to improve the stadium's suitability as a baseball venue, 12,000 seats were eliminated, most of them in distant portions of the outfield

I recall when they actually added seats

Als add extra seats for Grey Cup
CBC News May 24, 2001

Overwhelming demand for tickets has prompted the Montreal Alouettes to add 9,255 extra seats to Olympic Stadium for the Nov. 25 Grey Cup game.

The extra seats will bring stadium capacity for the game to 65,255.

Already, 55,519 tickets have been sold.

The co-presidents of the Grey Cup committee, Als president Larry Smith and former Montreal Canadiens general manager Serge Savard, said the new seating will be in temporary bleachers built close to the field in the top ticket range of $115 to $145.

"Football is very popular in Quebec and the Grey Cup is a big part of it," said Rene Morency, general manager of the Olympic Installations Board, which runs the stadium.

If the game sells out, it would be the second-largest crowd ever for the CFL championship game.

The record is 68,318 for the 1977 game between Montreal and Edmonton at Olympic Stadium, which had some of its permanent seats removed in a reconfiguration in the 1980s.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by northernlights99

this was the roof deflation on BC Place Stadium in 2007, this is what happens when you don't turn on the heating system to melt snow buildup on a teflon roof...

While it might have helped, there was more to that event than just the heating system:

BC Place roof deflation preventable: report
Union blames management and lack of training for roof collapse
CBC News · Posted: Jan 03, 2008 7:00 PM PST | Last Updated: January 3, 2008

An engineer's report on the collapse of the roof at Vancouver's BC Place says the Jan. 5, 2007, incident could have been prevented if proper procedure had been followed to promptly react to snow accumulation.

The report released Thursday attributed the deflation of the air-supported fabric roof on the stadium to a combination of factors, including pre-existing damage, human error and bad weather.

Staff didn't follow procedures to clear snow from the roof, so snow and slush built up and flattened the centre panels, according to the report by Geiger Engineers.

An attempt to re-inflate the dome caused the heavy load to shift onto a degraded section of the roof, creating a tear in the fabric that led to the deflation, the report said.

http://cbc.ca/news/canada/british-co...eport-1.770629

[Denscity]

Nice to see 54000 people in BC Place for the Whitecaps playoff game.

[Airboy]

Smaller Venue but Canadas News Velodrome and North Americas only Year round indoor Triathlon Facility. UCI Type A facility as well.

This is incorporated into the Hemingway Pool facility that is just completing a 3 year renovation. The 250meter riding track and a 333 meter running track and a lot of playing surfaces
[IMG]Coronation Velo.1 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]AV5.2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]AV6.1 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]AV1 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]AV4 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]
[IMG]AV3 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/[/url], on Flickr[/IMG]

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by northernlights99

What was the Original seating capacity of Olympic Stadium when it was semi completed in 1976 ?

I recall that seats were removed when the Expos moved in.

It looks like the seats on the upper deck behind the scoreboard were removed too.

The Expos first ever game at Olympic Stadium in April 1977 drew 57,592. All that black empty void in the outfield was the location of temporary seats for the 1976 Olympics. This video provides a close up of those seats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2zurZig4L8

[northernlights99]

If Whitecaps can get past San Diego and New York can beat Messi and Miami then the MLS Cup will be at BC Place !

Caps finished higher than New York so if New York and Vancouver advance then Home field for the Cup game will go to Vancouver.

That would mark first time Vancouver Whitecaps ever played in a Soccer Championship game in Vancouver.

Soccer Bowl '83 was at BC Place on Oct 1, 1983 played between Tulsa and Toronto.

League folded shortly thereafter.

But now I do recall when the Olympic Stadium had 72,000 seats for the Olympics.

To this day, Olympic Stadium is still Canada's largest Stadium in seating capacity both permanent and temporary.

BC Place never exceeded 60,342 for the first Whitecaps game in 1983.

Olympic Stadium drew 78,000 in 1977 for Pink Floyd ! To this date the Largest ever stadium crowd for any event in Canada. Wow 78,000 !

A Riot ensued after when Roger Waters apparently spat on a fan. That incident inspired the album name The Wall.

I did find this old photo from that show, we can see the temporary seats in the end zone not used of course for this event cause its a concert End configuration.

So I guess there were never any seats on the upper deck above that old scoreboard.

I am musing that because of the construction strike and the delays that ensued, did they not have time to finish the lower bowl ? Possibly they installed those temporary seats cause the construction was lagging and they didn't have time to finish building the entire lower bowl for seating.

Or maybe the plan was to leave one end zone empty of permanent seating and then only add temporary seating for big events. Just not sure.

Even the incline tower was only partly finished when the Olympics started.

And that is one Ugly stage ! Yikes ! Compare this pathetic stage to Taylor Swift's.

and spitting on a fan is completely inappropriate. Taylor Swift would not approve.

Originally Posted by Denscity

Nice to see 54000 people in BC Place for the Whitecaps playoff game.

[northernlights99]

Interesting articles below about Olympic Stadium however it leaves me more confused than ever about the seating capacity, is and was.

We go from 73,000 to 56,000, over the years the numbers fluctuate.

Where are the missing seats ? That empty end zone alone couldn't hold 17,000 .

When they speak of Permanent seating I assume that is the concrete shell part of stadium, the seats that are Not removable. There are some bleacher stands that can be moved around to bring fans closer to the sidelines for soccer games. They have done this for some soccer games which brought seating up to 60,000 plus.

The football seating capacity is listed as 66,308 so that must be with all the temporary seating brought in.

One thing I am sure of is how Loud Olympic Stadium is when Full or even near full. I've been to several playoff games with 50,000 plus and that place Rocks. That Concrete roof really reverberates the sound, much louder than BC Place even with the old teflon roof.

The closest comparable stadium I can think of in Loudness level was the Kingdome in Seattle which was Entirely Concrete, building and Roof. The Noise from the fans was a definite advantage for the Seahawks back then (the Steve Largent era) assuming they were playing another team not too much better than them lol.

The Kingdome held over 64,000. The decibel level reached 130 when Ken Griffey Jr hit his walkoff home run and Mariners won a playoff series.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/olympic-stadium-montreal/

in this below article you can move your mouse over the right column to see the different seating configurations over the years.

It was 404 feet from home plate to deep center field. Also note the original 1976 Olympics configuration with All seats installed around the track oval which I assume was a 400 meter track ? :

http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/OlympicStadium.html

Compare the 1976 Olympic configuration to the post 1992 baseball, football and soccer configuration with the end zone sections completely removed.

Note how the footprint of the stadium is dictated by the track oval and the oblong CFL field at 160 yards x 65 yards by 1976 rules. A typical NFL football specific stadium today Without the track oval would cover a much smaller footprint.

Case in point, look at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, with the track oval dictating the shape of the stadium, the seats are set farther back from the sidelines especially in the end zones which are Really far back.

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by northernlights99

Interesting article about Olympic Stadium however it leaves me more confused than ever about the seating capacity, is and was.

We go from 73,000 to 56,000, over the years the numbers fluctuate.

Where are the missing seats ? That empty end zone alone couldn't hold 17,000 .

When they speak of Permanent seating I assume that is the concrete shell part of stadium, the seats that are Not removable. There are some bleacher stands that can be moved around to bring fans closer to the sidelines for soccer games. They have done this for some soccer games which brought seating up to 60,000 plus.

The football seating capacity is listed as 66,308 so that must be with all the temporary seating brought in.

One thing I am sure of is how Loud Olympic Stadium is when Full or even near full. I've been to several playoff games with 50,000 plus and that place Rocks. That Concrete roof really reverberates the sound, much louder than BC Place even with the old teflon roof.

The closest comparable stadium I can think of in Loudness level was the Kingdome in Seattle which was Entirely Concrete, building and Roof. The Noise from the fans was a definite advantage for the Seahawks back then (the Steve Largent era) assuming they were playing another team not too much better than them lol.

The Kingdome held over 64,000. The decibel level reached 130 when Ken Griffey Jr hit his walkoff home run and Mariners won a playoff series.

https://sabr.org/bioproj/park/olympic-stadium-montreal/

Good question. Probably quite a few seats lost due to stricter safety guideline and wider seats?


I'd really like to find if they're planning to keep the multi use configuration for baseball including that giant ghastly scoreboard. I really hope not.

I think the only proper way to renovate the big O, is to go all in on rectangular sports, and hope there's eventually an economically viable way to grow natural turf in a domed stadium, so it could host major soccer matches like a Copa America final, or the MLS final.

[FactaNV]

Will Saskatoon's proposed new arena be AHL sized?