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

[C-mac]

well, you're entitled to believe what you want. When Shapiro came over here, one of his biggest issues was the stadium, and I still don't believe with these renos he's happy or content.

Again, much improvement and I agree it will be 10 years if we get a new stadium, but I don't believe it's a dead issue. Or perhaps they take the reno's even further by making some structural changes and somehow lowering some of the walls if that's possible.

 

[Johnny Au]

A view of the CN Tower from the Dome:

Source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/x4iwwu

 

[T.E.C.II]

If at some point in the future Rogers decides to stay at the Rogers Centre, what other renovations would folks like to see done? I can only imagine the stadium would have to go through some fairly major renos.

 

[C-mac]

If at some point in the future Rogers decides to stay at the Rogers Centre, what other renovations would folks like to see done? I can only imagine the stadium would have to go through some fairly major renos.

They just have to find a way to bring the walls down a bit. That's the real issue. The walls are just so god damn high that even when the roof is open, you don't get that feeling your in an "outdoor" ballpark.

 

[T.E.C.II]

I wonder how expensive or complicated it would be to make part (or the entire) roof translucent? Like the one they have in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas? It would make a huge difference.

I'd be curious to see some of the other proposed plans for the stadium, as I believe the one they went with was the cheapest one.

 

[Davy88]

I wonder how expensive or complicated it would be to make part (or the entire) roof translucent? Like the one they have in Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas? It would make a huge difference.

I'd be curious to see some of the other proposed plans for the stadium, as I believe the one they went with was the cheapest one.

I know there is a concept idea for the roof being half translucent. I'd love to see the concept/idea for the U.S. Bank Stadium used for the Rogers Centre's roof. Seeing they basically have the same weather as we do ( snow mostly ). I think it could work with the Rogers Centre.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

With what space exactly would we do that here in Toronto? There's no vacant land anywhere in sight around the Rogers Centre since the city didnt have the foresight to leave some land vacant around the stadium like many other cities do, but instead decided to sell out to Concord to build their trash around the Dome.

- Downsview park
- There's plenty of open land in the port lands (There's a plot of land S of Lake Shore/Gardiner, W of Cherry/Lake Shore, N of the Keating channel, and E of the toronto harbour cruises dock. It's roughly the similar size as the current site of the Rogers Centre)
- Any location can be used provided that the individual lots can be assembled.

The issue with any possible location is that it wouldn't have the transit accessibility that Rogers Centre currently has.

 

[sixrings]

- Downsview park
- There's plenty of open land in the port lands (There's a plot of land S of Lake Shore/Gardiner, W of Cherry/Lake Shore, N of the Keating channel, and E of the toronto harbour cruises dock. It's roughly the similar size as the current site of the Rogers Centre)
- Any location can be used provided that the individual lots can be assembled.

The issue with any possible location is that it wouldn't have the transit accessibility that Rogers Centre currently has.

We can barely get corporate bay and king financial district money at the games as it is. You think moving it to downsview park is going to work. This is the problem. Even with the perfect location the jays don’t attract massive crowds. You are betting a lot on a open air stadium to risk making up for the area.

 

[G.L.17]

We can barely get corporate bay and king financial district money at the games as it is. You think moving it to downsview park is going to work. This is the problem. Even with the perfect location the jays don’t attract massive crowds. You are betting a lot on a open air stadium to risk making up for the area.

Not to mention, basically killing any last minute walk-ups to the gates. Not worth even entertaining those sites IMO.

 

[Woodbridge_Heights]

We can barely get corporate bay and king financial district money at the games as it is. You think moving it to downsview park is going to work. This is the problem. Even with the perfect location the jays don’t attract massive crowds. You are betting a lot on a open air stadium to risk making up for the area.

- I never said Downsview would work, in fact I specifically noted that transit access would be a issue for any new location vis a vis the current location.
- Baseball has never been about selling out the building 81 times a season (at least not in the way that NHL./NBA/NFL can still sell out for bad teams). Rogers Centre is the last of a generation of buildings that hosted both football and baseball (which meant capacities that were too high for baseball and too small for footbal), most new stadiums have been built in the 35k to 45k range and that's what the aim should be here, be it a renovation or new build.
- Open air in toronto is a complete non starter. Sure there's open air stadiums in Minneapolis, Detroit and Cleveland but I believe that Toronto's baseball culture would not support an open air stadium.

 

[sixrings]

- I never said Downsview would work, in fact I specifically noted that transit access would be a issue for any new location vis a vis the current location.
- Baseball has never been about selling out the building 81 times a season (at least not in the way that NHL./NBA/NFL can still sell out for bad teams). Rogers Centre is the last of a generation of buildings that hosted both football and baseball (which meant capacities that were too high for baseball and too small for footbal), most new stadiums have been built in the 35k to 45k range and that's what the aim should be here, be it a renovation or new build.
- Open air in toronto is a complete non starter. Sure there's open air stadiums in Minneapolis, Detroit and Cleveland but I believe that Toronto's baseball culture would not support an open air stadium.

If we’re just going to build an indoor stadium I have no idea why they would move.

 

[T.E.C.II]

There is a feeling amongst Shapiro and Rogers that the Rogers Centre is an outdated building. As positive as he is about the renovations being made, Shapiro has been pretty clear that this is all a temporary solution. Which is probably why they went with the cheapest, less complicated proposal. The renovations buy them some more time before they must make a decision.

You can hate it all you want, but the Blue Jays will very likely be playing in a new ballpark in another decade or so.

 

[JMSRead]

I agree, I don't think Downsview is a good option. But the 'Jays don't draw' thing has really been proven incorrect since 2015, at least when the team is good. Just did a quick skim and the Jays have had 19 games of 40,000+ crowds this year. And I'm guessing they'll get several more down the stretch. They'll probably finish 8th or 9th in MLB attendance by the end of the year.

2023 MLB Attendance - Major League Baseball - ESPN

Check out this 2023 report of MLB attendance sortable by both baseball stadium and team.

www.espn.com

We can barely get corporate bay and king financial district money at the games as it is. You think moving it to downsview park is going to work. This is the problem. Even with the perfect location the jays don’t attract massive crowds. You are betting a lot on a open air stadium to risk making up for the area.

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

I agree, I don't think Downsview is a good option. But the 'Jays don't draw' thing has really been proven incorrect since 2015, at least when the team is good. Just did a quick skim and the Jays have had 19 games of 40,000+ crowds this year. And I'm guessing they'll get several more down the stretch. They'll probably finish 8th or 9th in MLB attendance by the end of the year.

2023 MLB Attendance - Major League Baseball - ESPN

Check out this 2023 report of MLB attendance sortable by both baseball stadium and team.

www.espn.com

By contrast, everyone agrees Camden Yards is the gold standard for the post-Skydome era, right? They're celebrating their 30th anniversary and their team is having a Cinderella year, in a surprising pennant race. Last night, against the team just ahead of them in the playoff race, they had 8,411 people there. They have the 7th-worst attendance in the major leagues.

Read that again - fewer than 8,500 people, in September, against the Jays. The weather was 73 degrees and overcast; yeah, it was delayed 15 mins for possible rain but so what? When's the last time the Jays had fewer than 10,000 in their joke of an outdated stadium? Maybe when they were tanking a few years ago?

Amusingly, Cleveland (leading their division; newer retro-style park than Baltimore) is 4th worst and Tampa (ahead of Toronto for the wildcard and closing on the division-leading Yankees) are 3rd worst (though, in fairness, their park is obviously absolute trash).

Anyway, I'm sure Shapiro and the Jays want a new stadium but they're in a perfect trap as their current stadium isn't falling apart enough or poorly located enough to make it an easy choice. We'll see if he's still around if and when they actually get to that point but I have my fingers crossed that the second round of renos will do even more to make the park quite satisfactory for another 10-15 years.

 

[milkycontent]

Step 1: Complete the Ontario Line
Step 2: Build a temporary stadium at one of two locations:
a) Exhibition Place parking lot 2 (or maybe on the footprint of Better Living Centre?)
b) Booth Yards (next door to East Harbour)
Step 3: Demolish Rogers Centre and build a permanent new stadium in the same spot

Those sites might be the only ones that would have the transit access and big enough parcels of land to make it work in the short term, but the current Rogers Centre location is the ideal spot.