Toronto BMO Field Renovations (FIFA26) | MLSE | Gensler

[christiesplits]

If you were there a bit early you could have caught Toronto FC doing a training session there today.

Lots of photos floating around from inside the stadium now. These are taken from Twitter (credit John Molinaro, Waking The Red and Toronto FC).View attachment 721747View attachment 721748View attachment 721749View attachment 721750View attachment 721751

A shame the temporary seats couldn't be red like the permanent seats.

 

[kotsy]

 

[nightstreak]

I still find all of this rather embarrassing. We invited the world to our house and set up milk crates for couches.

Biking by and seeing that "Toronto Stadium" is a series of temporary bleachers, unfinished ceilings under the canopies and seats and exposed piping and ironwork in the permanent areas, makes me grimace every time. I hope international broadcasters are distracted by the lake and skyline views and the party atmosphere from Princes' Gates to the stadium pulling their eye (and cameras) away from the stadium itself.

World Cups and other international events like the Olympics or World Fairs are an opportunity for the world's top engineers and architects to perform their best work and showcase a city, each stadium a character onto itself representing the city its in. It's also a once in a generation opportunity to leave a legacy for sports and urban infrastructure in that city. We threw together some scaffolding and much of what was built for this will be taken apart weeks later.

I can't think of a single urban infrastructure legacy project that was accelerated to accommodate the World Cup, with the foresight of knowing we were selected 8 years in advance of the Cup. No transit improvements, no new nearby parks, no new or renovated public square, and certainly no flagship stadium.

In fact, a bird's eye views from the stadium will be seeing this at nearby Ontario Place:

... and this at the stadium's transit stop, with attendees walking over and through a construction zone:

I've been to a few of these world events in different countries and let me you, they all rushed to finish nearby construction projects to show off an appearance of finished and well put together grounds. We didn't even try.

It's easy to point to vague missed opportunities so I'll list specific doable projects that could've been accomplished with planning:

• Work on the Ontario Line should've been started in advance at Exhibition Station to have begun building the station 8 years ago to have a finished World Cup transit terminal for GO trains, buses and streetcars linking Toronto Stadium to Liberty Village. An entire subway line is asking for too much (even though some cities like Vancouver expedited their transit line to open in time for their world event) but the station itself could've been built in time.
• Legacy public space: The Bentway west of Strachan and east of Bathurst had plenty of time to have been built with 8 years of anticipated scheduling and a strict deadline, creating a Fan Festival from Toronto Stadium to Downtown Toronto, leaving a permanent linear park as a legacy after the Cup.
• Exhibition Place: demolition of the Better Living Centre to expand Bandshell Park could've been done in time for this with years of advance notice.
• The Food Building is only now being planned to be renovated. Not like we didn't know 8 years ago that we'd be hosting the world in 2026.
• Liberty Village Park is only now starting the process of launching a competition to design a park.
• Toronto Stadium: it has the right bones for a respectable venue and granted the temporary seating was inevitable given our smaller permanent requirements but seeing that little was done to improve the appearance of the stadium and bring the collection of disparate additions into some harmony is disheartening. A new permanent south canopy, lifting the existing one to the height of the others. At the very least finishing the underside of the canopies and seating and the exterior of the stairwells, expanding the yellow brick and red cladding to finish unfinished areas around the perimeter. A competent architect could've harmonized the stadium into feeling like one.

 

[PL1]

I still find all of this rather embarrassing. We invited the world to our house and set up milk crates for couches.

Biking by and seeing that "Toronto Stadium" is a series of temporary bleachers, unfinished ceilings under the canopies and seats and exposed piping and ironwork in the permanent areas, makes me grimace every time. I hope international broadcasters are distracted by the lake and skyline views and the party atmosphere from Princes' Gates to the stadium pulling their eye (and cameras) away from the stadium itself.

World Cups and other international events like the Olympics or World Fairs are an opportunity for the world's top engineers and architects to perform their best work and showcase a city, each stadium a character onto itself representing the city its in. It's also a once in a generation opportunity to leave a legacy for sports and urban infrastructure in that city. We threw together some scaffolding and much of what was built for this will be taken apart weeks later.

I can't think of a single urban infrastructure legacy project that was accelerated to accommodate the World Cup, with the foresight of knowing we were selected 8 years in advance of the Cup. No transit improvements, no new nearby parks, no new or renovated public square, and certainly no flagship stadium.

In fact, a bird's eye views from the stadium will be seeing this at nearby Ontario Place:

... and this at the stadium's transit stop, with attendees walking over and through a construction zone:

I've been to a few of these world events in different countries and let me you, they all rushed to finish nearby construction projects to show off an appearance of finished and well put together grounds. We didn't even try.

It's easy to point to vague missed opportunities so I'll list specific doable projects that could've been accomplished with planning:

• Work on the Ontario Line should've been started in advance at Exhibition Station to have begun building the station 8 years ago to have a finished World Cup transit terminal for GO trains, buses and streetcars linking Toronto Stadium to Liberty Village. An entire subway line is asking for too much (even though some cities like Vancouver expedited their transit line to open in time for their world event) but the station itself could've been built in time.
• Legacy public space: The Bentway west of Strachan and east of Bathurst had plenty of time to have been built with 8 years of anticipated scheduling and a strict deadline, creating a Fan Festival from Toronto Stadium to Downtown Toronto, leaving a permanent linear park as a legacy after the Cup.
• Exhibition Place: demolition of the Better Living Centre to expand Bandshell Park could've been done in time for this with years of advance notice.
• The Food Building is only now being planned to be renovated. Not like we didn't know 8 years ago that we'd be hosting the world in 2026.
• Liberty Village Park is only now starting the process of launching a competition to design a park.
• Toronto Stadium: it has the right bones for a respectable venue and granted the temporary seating was inevitable given our smaller permanent requirements but seeing that little was done to improve the appearance of the stadium and bring the collection of disparate additions into some harmony is disheartening. A new permanent south canopy, lifting the existing one to the height of the others. At the very least finishing the underside of the canopies and seating and the exterior of the stairwells, expanding the yellow brick and red cladding to finish unfinished areas around the perimeter. A competent architect could've harmonized the stadium into feeling like one.

View attachment 722043

I was at the game today. The new/temporary stands look decent. Other WCs have had temporary stadiums or added stands

 

[narduch]

When the games are on TV nobody will care how ugly the stadium is.

Also BMO Field will most likely have one of the best playing surfaces in the entire tournament.

 

[kotsy]

The World Cup renos aren't done yet. The renderings showed them and the most of the support structures underneath wrapped.

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

keeping this in perspective @nightstreak we aren’t hosting the Olympics. BMO field is only hosting a few round-robin games and one(!) round of 32 games, out of a total of 104 games.
At this point FIFA should be paying us to host the thing never mind creating legacy projects to commemorate this boondoggle. Toronto is a warm-up venue - that’s it.

 

[ericmacm]

keeping this in perspective @nightstreak we aren’t hosting the Olympics. BMO field is only hosting a few round-robin games and one(!) round of 32 games, out of a total of 104 games.
At this point FIFA should be paying us to host the thing never mind creating legacy projects to commemorate this boondoggle. Toronto is a warm-up venue - that’s it.

Agreed. What is happening at BMO with the scale of the upgrades and temporary seating is perfectly consistent with the facility’s role in hosting.

If this were only a Canada/US World Cup and we had a greater contribution for hosting, then I think an argument could be made about the state of BMO being inadequate. That being said, I am hoping that MLSE will look into a replacement for BMO that is state-of-the-art. The 2038 World Cup is going to be awarded to either a CONCACAF or Oceania bid and there is already talk of another joint North America bid like 2026, it would be nice to have a bigger role in that bid.

 

[AnnetteMeetsJane]

Agreed. What is happening at BMO with the scale of the upgrades and temporary seating is perfectly consistent with the facility’s role in hosting.

If this were only a Canada/US World Cup and we had a greater contribution for hosting, then I think an argument could be made about the state of BMO being inadequate. That being said, I am hoping that MLSE will look into a replacement for BMO that is state-of-the-art. The 2038 World Cup is going to be awarded to either a CONCACAF or Oceania bid and there is already talk of another joint North America bid like 2026, it would be nice to have a bigger role in that bid.

Hard to imagine that FIFA would contemplate another brush with the USA administration, even if they get through the 2926 WC without any more embarrassing incidents, but $$$ talk.

BUT we need to give ourselves a hard shake to even contemplate a joint bid with the USA anytime this side of never.

 

[ash_iwn95]

Hard to imagine that FIFA would contemplate another brush with the USA administration, even if they get through the 2926 WC without any more embarrassing incidents, but $$$ talk.

BUT we need to give ourselves a hard shake to even contemplate a joint bid with the USA anytime this side of never.

In my opinion It's a wait and see decision. 2-3 years after the world cup ends if there's a steady growth in the viewership of the sport (all leagues) and attendance numbers in the country we could maybe invest in permanent upgrades to our stadiums for a more involved bid.

 

[simplmind02]

When the games are on TV nobody will care how ugly the stadium is.

Also BMO Field will most likely have one of the best playing surfaces in the entire tournament.

Why will it have the best surface?

 

[simplmind02]

I still find all of this rather embarrassing. We invited the world to our house and set up milk crates for couches.

Biking by and seeing that "Toronto Stadium" is a series of temporary bleachers, unfinished ceilings under the canopies and seats and exposed piping and ironwork in the permanent areas, makes me grimace every time. I hope international broadcasters are distracted by the lake and skyline views and the party atmosphere from Princes' Gates to the stadium pulling their eye (and cameras) away from the stadium itself.

World Cups and other international events like the Olympics or World Fairs are an opportunity for the world's top engineers and architects to perform their best work and showcase a city, each stadium a character onto itself representing the city its in. It's also a once in a generation opportunity to leave a legacy for sports and urban infrastructure in that city. We threw together some scaffolding and much of what was built for this will be taken apart weeks later.

I can't think of a single urban infrastructure legacy project that was accelerated to accommodate the World Cup, with the foresight of knowing we were selected 8 years in advance of the Cup. No transit improvements, no new nearby parks, no new or renovated public square, and certainly no flagship stadium.

In fact, a bird's eye views from the stadium will be seeing this at nearby Ontario Place:

... and this at the stadium's transit stop, with attendees walking over and through a construction zone:

I've been to a few of these world events in different countries and let me you, they all rushed to finish nearby construction projects to show off an appearance of finished and well put together grounds. We didn't even try.

It's easy to point to vague missed opportunities so I'll list specific doable projects that could've been accomplished with planning:

• Work on the Ontario Line should've been started in advance at Exhibition Station to have begun building the station 8 years ago to have a finished World Cup transit terminal for GO trains, buses and streetcars linking Toronto Stadium to Liberty Village. An entire subway line is asking for too much (even though some cities like Vancouver expedited their transit line to open in time for their world event) but the station itself could've been built in time.
• Legacy public space: The Bentway west of Strachan and east of Bathurst had plenty of time to have been built with 8 years of anticipated scheduling and a strict deadline, creating a Fan Festival from Toronto Stadium to Downtown Toronto, leaving a permanent linear park as a legacy after the Cup.
• Exhibition Place: demolition of the Better Living Centre to expand Bandshell Park could've been done in time for this with years of advance notice.
• The Food Building is only now being planned to be renovated. Not like we didn't know 8 years ago that we'd be hosting the world in 2026.
• Liberty Village Park is only now starting the process of launching a competition to design a park.
• Toronto Stadium: it has the right bones for a respectable venue and granted the temporary seating was inevitable given our smaller permanent requirements but seeing that little was done to improve the appearance of the stadium and bring the collection of disparate additions into some harmony is disheartening. A new permanent south canopy, lifting the existing one to the height of the others. At the very least finishing the underside of the canopies and seating and the exterior of the stairwells, expanding the yellow brick and red cladding to finish unfinished areas around the perimeter. A competent architect could've harmonized the stadium into feeling like one

100% - even if you forget the stadium and argue we shouldnt be building anything new for a few group stage games..fine.. but there is so much more that could be done to upgrade and enhance the experience. But is anyone surprised by any of this, we cant have nice things because someone always complains.
What percent of city council even had a clue what we are hosting? They keep refering to it as "fifa" rather than "world cup"..tells me everything i need know.

 

[UrbanOzz]

Why will it have the best surface?

most if not all the US venues are turf usualy and will have temporary grass installed which never plays as well. the Mexican venues all have real grass though so i'm not sure we will have the best surface, but it'll be better than the surfaces in the US where they need to stich together a pitch. The US hosted the Copa America and there were a lot of complaints about the grass surfaces. I'm going to assume FIFA will do a better better job of this than CONMEBOL but who knows.

 

[GabrielHurl]

8 of the 16 venues have artificial turf - 1 in Canada and 7 in the US

 

[ash_iwn95]

Not only will it have one of the best surfaces, but like I've said earlier in this thread, this is still a soccer specific stadium with the stands right up against the pitch making for a better fan atmosphere.

In the NFL even the lowest "best seats" are raised a couple feet to accommodate for the large benches on either sideline.

Rest assured how janky this temporary expansion may look (I still hope we can close corners and raise the south stand canopy one day), this stadium is going to sound amazing during the big games and it will be a dream surface for the players. It's not aesthetically pleasing but it is functionally a world cup worthy venue for the amount the city and province were willing to invest.