Stadiums & Arenas of Canada, Part 3

[905er]

wasn't there talk about demolishing the Roger's centre and the Jays playing in a new ballpark? I swear I heard that not very long ago.. so now, spend $300million on a Reno which will obviously run over budget to just eventually tear it down anyway?.. seems like a poor use of money to me.

....as for the crowd at Commonwealth for the Pope.. I would have preferred to have seen the entire stadium empty. the hypocrisy and self righteousness of the Catholic Church just irks me. such a weakness in humanity that so many still are religious... humanity will never learn.

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by 905er

wasn't there talk about demolishing the Roger's centre and the Jays playing in a new ballpark? I swear I heard that not very long ago.. so now, spend $300million on a Reno which will obviously run over budget to just eventually tear it down anyway?.. seems like a poor use of money to me.

....as for the crowd at Commonwealth for the Pope.. I would have preferred to have seen the entire stadium empty. the hypocrisy and self righteousness of the Catholic Church just irks me. such a weakness in humanity that so many still are religious... humanity will never learn.

Part of me questions whether they really would raze the Skydome. Moving it out to the suburbs (or wherever) doesn't make much sense to me, but I don't know how they consider these decisions in the long-term.

This is a better approach, although the whole "fan-deck" thing looks silly to me.

[WhipperSnapper]

Rogers would gladly replace Skydome. They have no interest in footing the bill. Rogers land lease and Skydome have no resale value.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by suburbanite

Great changes. The biggest improvement which is hard to see given all the pictures are facing the outfield is the change to the 100's level baseline seats. Carving out that section and rotating the seating so that you're actually facing home plate when you drop $60-$100 on a seat is nice improvement

More social/standing areas in the outfield and much lower 100 level seats in the outfield are also nice changes.

The changes to the lower bowl seating aren't part of this phase, they come later on in the multi-year off season process. What they released today is this winter's project.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by JHikka

The new video board has already been installed and replaces a lot of what used to be the outfield restaurant.

You know, it wasn't until just this minute reading your post that I realized that Sightlines is gone lol. Ever since they took Windows out and replaced it with the outdoor patio, Sightlines kind of blended in and when they unveiled the new scoreboard this year, I didn't even realize that the expanded scoreboard covered over where Sightlines was lol.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by 905er

wasn't there talk about demolishing the Roger's centre and the Jays playing in a new ballpark? I swear I heard that not very long ago.. so now, spend $300million on a Reno which will obviously run over budget to just eventually tear it down anyway?.. seems like a poor use of money to me.

....as for the crowd at Commonwealth for the Pope.. I would have preferred to have seen the entire stadium empty. the hypocrisy and self righteousness of the Catholic Church just irks me. such a weakness in humanity that so many still are religious... humanity will never learn.

I'm pretty sure they do still plan to replace the Skydome, it's just that the place needs work now and this will buy them a few more years. I still think they will be in a new building in the next 15-20 years tops. I did see in the press that Mark Shapiro called this a medium-term solution, so not sure what they have in their minds for a timeline for replacement.

[Denscity]

Is it a third of a billion dollars simply because of the stadium's size?

[WhipperSnapper]

Indeed. It adds up. One stadium seat is in the hundreds of dollars. 40,000 is in the millions. There's a lot of square footage involved in the renovation plan and price per square foot is going to be ridiculously high.

Skydome is finally going to look like a baseball stadium; more than I could have imagined.

[thurmas]

I don't really see the need for a new ballpark though after these renovations as skydome location is great it has tons of suites and after the renovations will have seating capacity reduced a bit which helps and rogers bought the stadium for a song.

[Base]

A few exterior renos eventually wouldn't hurt. Surely the roof will need some work before too long. After that it's really just missing the natural turf.

[many]

Reading the last comments apparently none of u have been at the Rogers Centre or have been to other mlb stadiums for comparisons, Rogers is a dumb easily, in the to 5 worst stadiums, top 3 my opinion and two other worst stadium or Oakland and Tampa who both are looking for new stadium. I say again Rogers Centre is garbage

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by many

Reading the last comments apparently none of u have been at the Rogers Centre or have been to other mlb stadiums for comparisons, Rogers is a dumb easily, in the to 5 worst stadiums, top 3 my opinion and two other worst stadium or Oakland and Tampa who both are looking for new stadium. I say again Rogers Centre is garbage

even when it was new i could not compare to some of the MLB stadiums I was at. Cincinnati, Seattle, San Fran. The Big O was just as bad during the Expo years.

[JHikka]

I think most here would agree that SkyDome isn't a very good baseball stadium. They'll do what they can with the renos but it will always be a giant concrete brick. It's in arguably the best possible location it could be.

[many]

Originally Posted by JHikka

I think most here would agree that SkyDome isn't a very good baseball stadium. They'll do what they can with the renos but it will always be a giant concrete brick. It's in arguably the best possible location it could be.

That I agree with it is in a great location but that’s the only good thing about the Rogers Centre

[blueandgoldguy]

The renders show some considerable differences in the outfield areas. Overall, I like it considering they have to work with the existing structure.

Bringing parts of the bleachers down to the wall is great as are the raised bullpens. It also looks like there are patio or club areas in the 2nd and 3rd levels right by the right field foul pole.

I always thought they would get rid of those 2-3,000 5th level outfield seats and replace them with some sort of tiered seating similar to Mosaic Stadium or loges that are on the 3rd level of Rogers Place in Edmonton. That appears to be the case in the renders.

They are also reconstructing the outfield seats down the foul lines to face towards home plate/infield. This is long overdue and make it more palatable to spend upwards of $100 to sit there and not have to crane your neck around to view the action.

Remember these are only a portion of the renders. So that $300 million will go towards the guts of the stadium as well which we don't see here but are mentioned in the article. We also don't have renders of renovations to the seats around the infield and the club areas under the infield stands. I'm sure those are a work in progress and will be revealed at a later date.

While $300 million is a decent amount for renovations, it won't be enough to make any changes to the exterior of the stadium, at least according to the statement released by Rogers/Shapiro awhile back. For perspective, Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City received over $250 million in renovations way back in 2007 - a stadium with a smaller capacity and smaller footprint. I'm sure that would be $500 million or more today. Wrigley Field received $575 million in renovations starting in 2013 which I'm sure would be $750 million or more today.

Shapiro stated that these renovations should be satisfactory for the medium-term - 10 years. Since there isn't available land around Rogers to implement their vision of a baseball district with condos, business complexes, other entertainment options, I think they will eventually look to the suburbs for land in coming decade to implement their vision...something like the district around the new baseball stadium in Dallas and the new baseball stadium in Atlanta. Taxpayers won't fit the bill for a new stadium in a city as large as Toronto (maybe best they can hope for is discounted land or tax breaks), so a district with other revenue streams for Rogers is the only way a $1 billion stadium would provide a decent ROI.

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by many

Reading the last comments apparently none of u have been at the Rogers Centre or have been to other mlb stadiums for comparisons, Rogers is a dumb easily, in the to 5 worst stadiums, top 3 my opinion and two other worst stadium or Oakland and Tampa who both are looking for new stadium. I say again Rogers Centre is garbage

Rogers Centre is a terrible baseball stadium as it wasn't designed for baseball. These renos will finally make it a baseball stadium. I'll give it a chance.

I wasn't a big fan of the exterior when it opened. I'm still not a big fan of it. The last thing I would want is for them to modernize it by covering up the concrete

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

The renders show some considerable differences in the outfield areas. Overall, I like it considering they have to work with the existing structure.

Bringing parts of the bleachers down to the wall is great as are the raised bullpens. It also looks like there are patio or club areas in the 2nd and 3rd levels right by the right field foul pole.

I always thought they would get rid of those 2-3,000 5th level outfield seats and replace them with some sort of tiered seating similar to Mosaic Stadium or loges that are on the 3rd level of Rogers Place in Edmonton. That appears to be the case in the renders.

They are also reconstructing the outfield seats down the foul lines to face towards home plate/infield. This is long overdue and make it more palatable to spend upwards of $100 to sit there and not have to crane your neck around to view the action.

Remember these are only a portion of the renders. So that $300 million will go towards the guts of the stadium as well which we don't see here but are mentioned in the article. We also don't have renders of renovations to the seats around the infield and the club areas under the infield stands. I'm sure those are a work in progress and will be revealed at a later date.

While $300 million is a decent amount for renovations, it won't be enough to make any changes to the exterior of the stadium, at least according to the statement released by Rogers/Shapiro awhile back. For perspective, Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City received over $250 million in renovations way back in 2007 - a stadium with a smaller capacity and smaller footprint. I'm sure that would be $500 million or more today. Wrigley Field received $575 million in renovations starting in 2013 which I'm sure would be $750 million or more today.

Shapiro stated that these renovations should be satisfactory for the medium-term - 10 years. Since there isn't available land around Rogers to implement their vision of a baseball district with condos, business complexes, other entertainment options, I think they will eventually look to the suburbs for land in coming decade to implement their vision...something like the district around the new baseball stadium in Dallas and the new baseball stadium in Atlanta. Taxpayers won't fit the bill for a new stadium in a city as large as Toronto (maybe best they can hope for is discounted land or tax breaks), so a district with other revenue streams for Rogers is the only way a $1 billion stadium would provide a decent ROI.

Kaufman spent most of the money developing things to do in the surrounding parking lots. A new stadium is going to cost waaay more than a billion dollars . Finding enough land to build a new stadium and a new Cityplace is going to cost at least $500 million unless they go way out which will lose most of their audience.

The Blue Jays will stay where they are for many more years whether that involves full redevelop or partial redevelopment of the Rogers Centre.

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by WhipperSnapper

Rogers Centre is a terrible baseball stadium as it wasn't designed for baseball. These renos will finally make it a baseball stadium. I'll give it a chance.

I wasn't a big fan of the exterior when it opened. I'm still not a big fan of it. The last thing I would want is for them to modernize it by covering up the concrete

At one point, Wrigley Field was considered an old stadium, a monument to the past compared to the newfangled multipurpose stadiums that were popping up in the suburbs. Today, it's a gem.

Will SkyDome have the legacy of Wrigley? No, but I suspect that working within the bounds of what is possible by updating it and giving it the patina of eras - even if flawed - will give it more distinctive character than just building another new retro-classic or retro-modern ballpark like has been built many times over.

You can sit in the sun and enjoy a ballgame at SkyDome in the summer in reasonable comfort. Or if the weather is awful, you don't have to be wet or freeze. It's close to transit and is in the core of the city, so it's not a hassle to get to. Sure, it's kind of big and sterile, but I was there for the game, not the building.

When I think of bad arenas/stadiums, I think of something like Canadian Tire Place, stuck in the boonies of Ottawa, where the one demerit (accessibility) annihilates every other benefit.

Anyway, good on Rogers for trying to make improvements to what they have instead of whinging for a handout from government for a new thing.

[Djeffery]

I think when the time comes, they will knock down the dome and build new in place. The year before that, they will throw a big chunk of change into Salen Field in Buffalo and play there until they can move into their new home. I suggested playing in Buffalo a while back but after the last couple years, it's not as far fetched anymore. Especially if they bring that up to a much higher standard than even when they played there over the pandemic and have a seating capacity for Canadians who can now go there pretty freely.

The current location is just too good to mess with. No way are they moving to the suburbs. The pain of dealing with Buffalo for a couple or maybe 3 seasons would be long forgotten after the new place opens.

[Djeffery]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

They are also reconstructing the outfield seats down the foul lines to face towards home plate/infield. This is long overdue and make it more palatable to spend upwards of $100 to sit there and not have to crane your neck around to view the action.

That's part of the post-2023 season work where they will totally gut the 100 level and redo the lower bowl to something more baseball friendly.