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

A closer look at the renovations in the 100 level outfield. Multiple rows of seats have been removed from the top of the outfield sections opening up a view to the field and widening the concourses too. Via reddit user dnovi:

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Translude15 said:
I think your're a tad too cynical with your criticisms. This is likely a pre-cursor to the large scale renovations and having a more open view of the playing field is a win in my books. Same with additional concourse space.
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You can remove all the seats and replace them with seats made of Californium but the stadium itself is just a concrete bunker.
 
Richard White said:
You can remove all the seats and replace them with seats made of Californium but the stadium itself is just a concrete bunker.
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Understandable you think that but besides demolishing the entire venue and building a brand new stadium, which would be a logistical nightmare and would cost over $1 billion, what else can be done besides extensive renovations and retrofitting? I fail to see how re-configuring the existing layout and making the in-game experience more fan friendly is a bad thing to be scoffed at.
 
this looks a lot better than I thought. I'm always wandering the concourse out there (getting a $5 beer and hotdog) and it's nice that i can just stand and watch from there now. Stadium still sucks but I can appreciate these small changes.
 
I have long thought they should restructure the seating tiers as to resemble a Fenway or Wrigley layout - tight and intimate. The same treatment could be made for the Big Owe. For Rogers - it is now Baseball Only so they should be able to do a hell of a makeover on the inside. You will never beat the location.
 
themarc said:
I have long thought they should restructure the seating tiers as to resemble a Fenway or Wrigley layout - tight and intimate. The same treatment could be made for the Big Owe. For Rogers - it is now Baseball Only so they should be able to do a hell of a makeover on the inside. You will never beat the location.
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Read a few years ago on the Blue Jays reddit page that there are plans to do that for the 100 level - eventually. Likely coincides with the larger scale renovations but the team did request proposals from firms to bid on the work. The poster worked for one of the engineering firms that submitted a proposal and the project included demolishing and rebuilding the 100 level seating deck with a steeper incline and then have the baselines angled more towards home plate. All seats would be replaced allowing for more elbow and legroom. Premium seating was to emulate the dugout suites they created in Cleveland a few years back:

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Translude15 said:
Read a few years ago on the Blue Jays reddit page that there are plans to do that for the 100 level - eventually. Likely coincides with the larger scale renovations but the team did request proposals from firms to bid on the work. The poster worked for one of the engineering firms that submitted a proposal and the project included demolishing and rebuilding the 100 level seating deck with a steeper incline and then have the baselines angled more towards home plate. All seats would be replaced allowing for more elbow and legroom. Premium seating was to emulate the dugout suites they created in Cleveland a few years back:

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Oh, and the 100-level seats better have padding for the majority of its seats.
 
Johnny Au said:
Oh, and the 100-level seats better have padding for the majority of its seats.
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I'd imagine they would keep padded seats for premium seating only, similar to the existing setup but probably expanded. In the Action, proposed dugout suites, 100-level premium seating (which would likely expand), TD Comfort zone and all luxury suites. Pretty standard for baseball stadiums to have limited padded seats and the majority are your basic plastic variety. I'd be okay with regular plastic seats so long as they're roomier AND have actual cup holders. Rebuilding the lower level seating bowl and installing roomier seats probably brings total capacity to 45,000 or less which is a good thing IMO.
 
I read an article a few years back now stating that all seats will be replaced (not sure about the new ones in the 200 level), and since the new seats will be wider, seating capacity will be reduced by about 2,500-3,000 seats roughly. So the intention is to not intentionally get rid of seats in terms of what Cleveland did in their upper level, but the overall capacity would be down to about 43,000.
 
PinkLucy said:
Tight and intimate might not be a big draw these days
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Actually, now might be the perfect opportunity to do a lot of the work that they had planned on doing in stages because they had to work around baseball seasons. It's clear that baseball (or any sports with a crowd) is not coming back this year.

Nobody thinks that this pandemic will last forever but I can't see crowds at any stadium until there's a vaccine, sometime next year. Might as well get a construction exemption from Ford to "rebuild our sports industry after COVID-19" and go all in with the work planned for the SkyDome.
 
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