“Turner Field is on the verge of being torn down?” Ummm… Georgia St. University purchased Turner Field and converted it for football. It’s been their home stadium since 2017.
I remember when baseball stadiums weren’t supposed to be Disneyland. Working class people would just go to a ballgame, they didn’t need an “experience”
Winnipeg Goldeyes have a beautiful river side ballpark on the edge of downtown and is affordable family fun. Montreal will lose the NHL before they ever get MLB back. It isn't in the cards! Tear this garbage down and save Montreal billions.
Baseball attendance in the 1970’s was only about 14-15k per game. The new stadiums built since the 1990’s have increased attendance to about 25-30k per game.
I loved going to the games as a kid because stadiums were not built for kids! Stadiums were municipal facilities with a lot of cigar smoking men looking at race forms. It was like getting to go someplace you were not normally allowed to be, and I would see some stuff. Cool stuff. Not kid stuff.
It hasn’t aged well though. Yes it is unique and it was cool looking back in the day, but looking at it now, it isn’t and if you see it from up close it looks old. It’s also not very practical
Have you even been close up to it in life. It has a million cracks in the cement and is falling apart, not just the 20,000 rips that exist in the roof. $750,000,000 is completely nonsense and total corruption. Tear it down and build a billion dollars worth of affordable housing which is needed extremely badly. This city will lose the Canadiens sooner then MLB coming back. It is a hell hole of a city run by mobsters. They should not even be so bold to suggest a new roof for a useless place. And no big music shows are going to use it. Metallica sounded like absolute crap as this build had many echos and dead spots. It was not designed with concerts in mine and was always wrong for baseball. It is done and ready for recycling and that is it.
They've been saying that for decades, but they keep sinking money into it just for maintenance and upkeep and now a huge reno. Sounds like corruption to me. Better off just eating the cost now and demolish it.
Despite the fact it's been nothing but a money pit from the start, the "Big O" holds a special place in Montrealers' hearts. A call back to the glory days of the 60's and the Olympics which was a real point of pride for a Quebec in the heat of independence sentiment (sorry for those of you not up on Quebec history). Ask anyone about it and you'll get an eye roll and a sigh because of just how much money the thing's eaten up over the past 50 years but still, it is an icon of sorts. :)
That's true, my friend - the Big O was, and may still be, a point of real pride for all Quebecers; FWIW, I do remember the Soverigntists such as Rene Levesque, Gerald Godin and even, yes, Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry. From what I understand, the bond issue from the Province of Quebec to pay for the stadium wasn't paid off until 2010; still, I'm willing to look upon the Big O as a source of sports pride - not just the Expos, but also the Alouettes of the CFL, and the Machine of the WLAF. I thank you for listening to me.
This. This stadium acquired a sentimental value over time. It was home to 3 teams over time. It hosted the Olympics, for christ's sake! And it definitely became a landmark here in Montreal.
5:00 --Just so everyone understands; at the time this stadium was being planned, (I think) there was one domed stadium in existence (Astrodome) and there were two more domes being considered (Kingdome and LA Superdome). So not only were there almost no domed stadiums, one stadium tried to design a retractable roof (Texas Stadium; previous home of the Dallas Cowboys) but failed. So DG can say today how pathetic of an attempt this was; in reality, it was revolutionary for its time.
The funniest part was that the model for the retractable roof worked perfectly when it was being presented to the city but then the mob built it so of course it didn't work. The same architect firm then was hired to design the SkyDome in Toronto in the 80s and the retractable roof on the model for that stadium never worked properly but when it was properly constructed it became a marvel of modern construction and the first true retractable roof stadium that stood the test of time.
It would be a shame to not find SOME way to keep this stadium relevant... to DEmolish a billion dollar structure is such a waste. Put translucent windows in the upper part of the clamshell? Install a smooth seamless white surface along the inside of the clam roof on which to project images, or build an LED surround a la the Sphere in Vegas? Deploy innovative partitions to "right-size" the stadium for smaller crowds?
look how they constructed Climate Pledge arena in Seattle. They couldn't not touch the roof, Wich made it one heck of a project to complete. They could gut the whole inside of that stadium, and total revamp it into a multi purpose dream stadium. Fix the roof some how, and keep the shell as some history. could be bad ass.
@@davidlafleche1142 No it isn't. It's an ugly, dingy stadium that is perpetually closed off because it doesn't have a retractable roof. It's like playing in a warehouse. The fact the Rays are planning on building a new stadium in more or less the same location tells you all you need to know about its functionality.
This building new stadiums every 20 years is nuts and a waste! Just do a complete renovation. Wrigley, Fenway and Dodger stadiums followed that course of action. There isn't any reason that can't be the same solution for Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
I know I'm in az and I'm 32 and I used to love going to baseball games as a kid and the experience was fun, ever since colangelo sold team to new owner dbacks have become irrelevant with the exception of last year, owner wants a new stadium and wants tax payers to foot the bill instead of paying for it himself been milking people for years would sell prospects for cash this whole time making money for years instead of improving the team
1. The construction of the Olympic Stadium began in 1971 not 1969. Montreal was awarded the 1976 Summer Games in 1970. 2. As for the renovations of the stadium. It isn't the roof itself that needs to be replaced. The massive concrete shell (Technical Ring) also must be replaced. 3. There is no more land available in the Island of Montreal itself to built a stadium. The last available land Peel Bassin that was targeted by the group led by Stephen Bronfman to bring MLB back in Montreal is no longer available. After the Tampa Bay - Montreal project fell through the City of Montreal has announced that they have given the green light to Evimco for their massive Condominium Tower - Shopping Mall - Industrial Park project. Construction set to begin next Spring. 4. So the only land available to built a stadium in Montreal would be in the North or South Shore of the city and that doesn't go well with sports fans who want ONLY a downtown stadium. They reject any stadium to be built in the suburbs.
There are more locations but If let's say a MLB team was confirmed I would tear the Big Oh No down and get an agreement with CFL to build a duel stadium in its place, one side a CFL bowl that holds about 30,000 and a ballpark on the other side that holds about 35,000 seats with shared engineer and other facilities inbetween them. A perfect solution at the cost to build 800,000 Million and tear down cost at another $250,000,000 total cost of this effectent duel stadiums just over $1 Billion. But try to get a MLB team first off and good luck cooperating with another league the CFL. Now please understand anything after is not needed and is just bad seating that requires cleaning and maintenance and decreases the quality of either of the experiences. But by sharing a central building for the main operations of both stadiums it becomes more efficient then trying to a two new stadiums. If even just a large major league ballpark was built in it's place that would be fine, but Montreal would still need a MLB team! Never going to happen with the nationalist in charge!
$2 billion is a ton of money for a new stadium with taxpayers forced to pay the bill. Cities that have so many needs should stop spending so much money for billionaires so they can make huge fortunes on other regular people's money.
Not much of a choice, the Big O was over-engineered and sits on-top of a metro line and station, thus the scale and scope to take that thing apart would cost roughly $1B to do. What it needs is a massive renovation to retrofit it so it can last another 30 years. It needs the same scope of work as the New Orleans Superdome or MSG renovations. If they were going to tear that thing down, now would be the time. If they are committing to this scope of renovation then they will have to commit to full renovate that thing.
Where did you get the impression the former Turner Field is on the verge of being demolished? Do you have footnotes? Did you read it in a Tweet and determine it to be true? Or are you just making stuff up?
I was there in October 23. They are renovating the tower and observation decks. They are renovating the outside, which does have issues, and i saw men abseiling on it so its not just about the roof. I wanted to go there because i remember seeing it in '76 and thinking how modern it was and hoped we would get something outstanding when Sydney got the Games. We didn't, but ours is used all the time and doesn't have these issues. I loved seeing it. Its still futuristic! It was a highlight from childhood!
It was in fact state-of-the-art for its time, and the roof, albeit a very cool and ambitious feat of engineering, failed. The original roof/tarp was replaced around 1999/2000 with a new one, and being a tarp it makes sense that after 20+ years it’s time to fix. It’s Canada and therefore they must have indoor stadiums, be it baseball , football, concerts etc. Lastly, it’s a very unique structure which has become somewhat of a historic landmark and part of the Montreal skyline… I think it’s completely possible for such a renovation to bring this building up to modern standards in many ways. Especially if it brings back the Expos
The problem is that there is no room in downtown Montreal for a stadium. And the MLB doesn't want a stadium in the suburbs (which could be viable with the new REM metro system going to the south shore). And tearing down Olympic Stadium would cost the equivalent of building a new stadium.
The Oakland coliseum is wayyy mor decrepid than olympic stadium. The A's stadium has leaking sewage, is in a crime infested area. You could redo the roof, withoyt closing it in, and the inner bowl and outfield enough, until a new stadium was ready. Al Davis destroyed the ambiance of the Coliseum decades ago.
750 mil sounds like a ton just for a renovation, but new stadiums cost billions now. Any new major league sports team would want to have a new stadium, so what’s the point.
It’s a terrible stadium for baseball, but for football or soccer and other major stadium events the bones are there to keep an iconic stadium relevant.
It wasn't that bad for baseball. I watched lots of Expos games there. People liked to bitch about it because it was fashionable to do so and they were pissed off that it cost so much.
This place doesn’t need an MLB team. If it costs just as much to demolish than renovate, then just renovate it to get CFL Alouettes back, and some of the bigger/early season bad weather CF Montreal games, in addition to concerts and maybe one-off events like soccer friendlies and NFL preseason or something, and that’s enough to be worth getting another few decades out of this place without an MLB team. The bar for success in that lens is much more reasonable. Also I think the tower is one of the tallest 45 degree angled structures in the world so yes it is indeed a landmark. I’ve been to the top of the tower (we weren’t able to see the stadium part on our tour) and the view is amazing.
The Problem with that stadium is that there is so much concrete in it that destroying it would take years to take the concrete out of the city. Montreal is an Island and they projected that they would need to build a new bridge just for that and it would need years of trucking 24/7 to clean it up. Also there is a subway line right underneath, and they are pretty sure that the demolition would crush the subway tunnel. It's a mess.
The Olympic games are a giant money pit for the host cities. The Montréal stadium architecture screams 1976, and I think any renovations would be throwing good money after bad. Fulton County Stadium was already in place for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was demolished in 1997. (I actually attended a Braves game when I was a kid, and the post-game fireworks were unbearably loud as the sounds echoed around the metal overhang.)
You are 100 percent right about the money pit comment, Bu I really believe Paris will make money on the 2024 Olympics because people will have waited for 8 years to see them again. No one was allowed to watch in 2021. People are going to be Rabid for the games and the USA has the most stars on its track and field team since the 80's.
The Olympicgames are not a money pit when Los Angeles hosts the Games. As was the case in 1984, Los Angeles doesn’t have to build a single permanent structure for the 2028 Olympic Games. In fact, Los Angeles has so many stadiums & arenas that several Class A venues won’t see any Olympic Games events. BTW - Public funding wasn’t used to build any sports venues in LA in which pro sports teams play, as all pro sports venues in LA were privately financed.
@@dorothygale1104 remodeling venues, traffic, security, etc probably mean that LA is maybe going to break even and what they will make is going to be a fraction of their annual revenues anyway. But yes they will definitely come out in far better shape than Rio or Athens did. Even for the best-equipped cities the olympics are a racket.
If they are rehabbing that stadium, they know something. The Las Vegas mess is even more of a mess than anybody is willing to acknowledge. The A's don't have a ballpark in 2025 and won't get one -- if then -- until 2028. The Vegas disaster is being brushed off as no big deal. Montreal knows something and it's not about expansion.
I think they could make the roof work. It's 50 years later the technology is better, But they would have to remodel the whole thing since it hasn't been used for so long.
Another thing is,its the tallest tower that sits at a 45 angle. It's an office building with 1000 employees, an athletic training centre all attached. You can't just tear the thing down. No need for a retractable roof, it has no main tenant for sports. Even if it did, how often would it be used anyway. Good or bad it has history. It's like friends tell me I should go to see hockey games in Montreal, Toronto, Boston or Chicago for the history. I'm like i would, but they demolished history and put up cookie cutter arenas 😂
Due to the market being flooded with new stadiums that are- in an architectural sense- more often than not horrific monstrosities of plastic; these old ballparks are now prized architectural monuments.
Ya historically horrible I have been to many football and baseball games at the Big O. Secondly it is even worse for for concerts because of the lousy acoustics
There has been new stadiums built, that people hated, as they were not what they thought it was going to be. There is also the teardown, which is not cheap, it costs big money to destroy them.
In the Provence of Quebec built an arena up to NHL standards (at the time of construction) from scratch in Quebec City without the promise of getting a team. The same Provence is spending money to fix the roof of a multipurpose stadium like bad plastic surgery instead of making any new facility geared towards baseball or soccer/concerts. If the province cared as much about baseball as they did hockey there would be better odds that they would get a MLB team back.
Why would they build a MLB park without the promise of a MLB team? With the Quebec arena, at least, the minor league team could us it and it can host concerts so there was always an "out" if the NHL team never came.
@@KOSMOinfinite my point was to show the over the top dedication to hockey the province has to hockey but never had consistently for baseball. Yes building a pro venue before a team is secured is crazy but the province is crazy for hockey between the Habs support and the QC desire for a NHL team but lukewarm on baseball.
@@concertvids34when you see that there is more people watching junior game in quebec than people watching some of these NHL teams, you realize that the reason why nordique don’t come back is because of that old bastard. When he’ll perish, the nordique will come back
that was the case from the 1976 Summer Olympics to their folding in 1987. Then, upon their return in 1996, they played at the Big O until an U2 concert that was held on the same day as a 1997 playoff game forced them to play the game at the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. Since then, they were only playing playoff games at the Olympic Stadium and stopped playing games at the Olympic after 2013 season
The Alouettes still use the stadium’s facilities as their main practice facility and team offices. Percival Molson Stadium fills the purpose of playing games in it quite well (minus a Grey Cup Game). The problems with Olympic is if it’s not sold out or even 75% full, it’s a bad atmosphere in there. They used to hold the fan appreciation game there too, but it wasn’t selling out anymore and looked dead on TV. I love his content but I find his nickel and diming of the CFL to be annoying.
In the late 90's/early 2000's Loria tried to build Labatt Park in downtown Montreal. It would have been open roof, baseball specific, and would cost 250 million. He wanted public funding but the Quebec politicians could justify spending on a new stadium when hospitals in the city were closing down.
For the record Metallica played two shows this summer and actually beat the attendance record, largest crowd since the Olympics, so concerts can be held hear. That being said, the acoustics are atrocious. It's not used pretty much all year round. It's a giant money pit, better to have it without a roof as all the other stadium plans had no roof anyways.
5:45... It was never about "attendance." Ownership/management traded away their assets, and gave the fans dreck. If you're a team owner, and only put forth dreck as opposed to a quality team, should you REALLY expect the fans to support it? Come on now...
Drapeau really screwed this one up. Hired a terrible architect, didn't do their geological survey. And stubbornly went on with the project. A mayor who was high on his Expo success left Montreal with a legacy. Not a good one either.
Speaking of Stadiums, right now in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we are about to build a New Hockey Arena starting rather in the Spring or Summer 2024 and the New Hockey Arena for the Calgary Flames 🔥 is expected to be finished before the 2026/27 NHL Season. The 2 things that the City of Calgary are finishing are the renovations of Victoria Park/Stampede Station, and the BMO Centre after tearing down the Heritage Hockey Stadium called Stampede Corral and the pedestrian bridge to the Scotiabank Saddledome. The reason why Calgary is building a new Hockey Stadium is because the roof of the Saddledome has been cracking up (Scotiabank Saddledome original name was Olympic Saddledome after hosting the First Winter Olympics in Canada back in 1988 a.k.a the 2nd Olympic Games in Canadian History) Saddledome has been around since 1980 For our Football Stadium called McMahon Stadium 🏟️ it has been around since 1960 that had the Olympic Flames 🔥 in the 1988 Winter Olympics and still being used as the main Home Stadium for the Calgary Stampeders 🐎 (CFL) it still has a good condition before they build a New Football Stadium and it's unknown when Calgary will Build a New Football Stadium 🏟️
Renovate to include the Alouettes, new MLB team, concerts, International Sporting events like FIFA. Make it multipurpose. The city of that size needs a 50-60000 seat stadium to draw world events. Other events like the NHL Heritage Classic, or Grey Cup also. The stadium should be multipurpose to make it viable. Modern engineering could pull it off. Better than ripping down the whole thing
Making it a multipurpose stadium is such a bad idea, I'm sorry. There's a reason why Rogers moved on from having the Argos play at the Rogers Centre and have it focused mainly on baseball. A sixty thousand stadium is way too large for baseball.
Hello. Lets looks at a few other variables. Cost of replacing the stadium now as oppossed to 20 years from now is what you brought up. and the cost of investing in a new roof now estimated at 1 billion. but what was left out was the cost of demolition in 20 years from now will be higher as well. Its always sad to see an iconic building have to be demolished but it actually makes more sense to invest in a new building now instead of later. like also how do we know if the new roof will even last 20 years. The first 2 roofs didnt last any where near as long as projected. Like if the tower is sound, why not leave it and replace the rest. that should lower the demolition cost a lot and you would still have a historic icon in place with its lookout intact.
The problem was that the Olympics required an open air stadium. Once they were over, there was no real need to open the roof. They had a lot of needless complexity. The other problem was the distance from the city center. The stadium is not that bad. People didn't like it because of the price. I have watched baseball games and football games there and it is fine. The problem is the location and I think we just finished paying for it. It looks better than most stadiums. The question is how well it is maintained. If there is no baseball team and the football team moved to Molson stadium, is there any reason to keep it?
@@dustinsindledecker154 I agree people complain about location of stadium and want to renovated it. With that money better off building stadium downtown if wanted to. My impression they won't.
@@MKPiatkowski I heard they had opportunity to build when Expos still in town in late 90's. Toronto doesn't have problem Roger Centre is in a perfect location is walking distance to Union Station. Renovation of current Stadium give them a extra 20 year or more. I should know I use work downtown.
Cost estimates to tear it down is close to 1 billion due to the mass amount of concrete. It can’t be imploded. The stadium roof has more than 20,000 tears in it, not 70 or 80.
This is what we could call a "white elephant"...meaning while it is loooooong overstayed its welcome it'd be too expensive to tear down something like that down also. So Montreal kinda feels compelled to get SOME use from it.
Which will be the last multipurpose stadium to survive? The Astrodome (even though it's technically a parking garage now) or "The Big Owe". Though I do wonder if they'll just say screw it and turn the roof into a canopy or perhaps redesign the roof to have a retractable roof that actually works.
My wife and I had our honeymoon in Montreal in 2005, the stadium's first year without the Expos. We took the Metro to the stadium and took a guided tour. We got to stand in what had been the outfield (the artificial turf was gone, so it was just concrete), We also went to the top of the tower. Another building we toured was where the Olympic cycling events were held. That building is now a Biodome, an indoor nature exhibit.
So, the price more than tripled during the 24 month approval process? Down in socialist LA, SoCal stadium's price went from 2B to 5B during the 24 month approval process. Gee, I wonder what happened?
That stadium is a clammy dank mess! It was STILL being paid for deep into the ‘90’s! The concerts were hampered by weird acoustics. The Concorde and both Alouette had issues with playing on a nasty turf carpet.
We visited it in 1975. Back then and even now, I thought it was an awsome design. Great design, horrible execution. Took them 30 yrs to pay it off. You can thank the mob for its exorbiant cost back then. I do hope they can find a future for it. I do like the Biodome there.
Either way, this decrepit thing is a perfect moneytrap. It would cost nearly $450M to demolish and mop it up. The city won't build a new ball stadium so what can they do? The video didn't mention the only other thing that does make sense - the stadium still attracts tourists from the world enough for ppl to come to Mtl to see whatever they 'can' host there and make whatever is 'good enough' business to pay for a fraction of the costs if they're lucky. As for a ball team, forget it. If they won't build a new stadium, there won't be a ball team there even if the MLB is expanding.
Unless they have a confirmation that the stadium is going to be used if fixed, 100% certain, I think the priority should be in other areas, use the money for other parts of Toronto needs, and just tear it down.
I think Montreal’s Olympic Stadium aka the Big O will likely be demolished to make room for the new 48,000-seat ballpark if an MLB expansion team is awarded to Montreal for the 2028 MLB season.
The problem in montreal is not neccesarily the attendance ..its the location of the olympic stadium..if the stadium was downtown!!!! It wouldve been a totally different story
How do you expand baseball if there aren't enough players to man all of the teams? It's like there would be some major league teams and some minor league teams all playing at the same time in the same league.
@@FullOfMalarky That would be a huge W. Not that I hate Percival-Molson Memorial Stadium, but it gets cold. Plus it would justify the renovation, and tbh the Big O is easier to access imho then Percival-Molson
@@FullOfMalarky I also got into the CFL this year and im an Alouettes fan (LETS GOOOO) but getting to Percival Molson is a hassle, especially during the playoffs. However the Big O is maybe a bit big for the CFL. But I definitely prefer the Big O to Percival Molson
Montreal Olympic Stadium is one of the greatest examples of why overbuilding is never a good idea. People love to blame the Olympics for Montreal's. But my response to that is why was building such an unnecessary and overly complicated cable roof necessary? It wasn't. All Montreal needed to do was to build a normal stadium, and so much debt could've been avoided.
@@christiansaint-pierre5360 Ok, but why the unnecessary and overly complicated cable design? Anyone with common sense would've used the normal sliding retractable roof instead.
@@gabetalks9275 Well, I dont think that what you call the " normal sliding retractable roof" was possible or was thought possible then, or maybe I am wrong, I dont know.
@@gabetalks9275 That technology didn't exist then. The first working retractable roof was SkyDome and that was 1989. The cable system was the best guess at the time.
The argument is from the tourist board. That its part of Montreal history, that tourist make it a point to go see it. If it was removed it would cost billions, a piece of history removed and nothing to replace it. Quebec is big on heritage and protecting that. The are pushing big on tourist too as they been doing upgrades as per m.ua-cam.com/video/3xfiM2wigug/v-deo.html The stadium is connected to the metro (subway) system so if was removed this would need to be changed adding to the cost. Plus that metro stop connect to out tourist spots too. To provide prospective on the matter.
I'm only half-joking here; given the sheer amount of concrete in that building, demolition is going to take a while. Brutalist architecture is a b**ch to tear down. But how cool would it be to get a Winter Classic game at a modern stadium in Montreal?
“Turner Field is on the verge of being torn down?”
Ummm… Georgia St. University purchased Turner Field and converted it for football. It’s been their home stadium since 2017.
I caught that too. The research is clearly lacking here
He has no clue.
Dude talks without any knowledge. He is young and thinks money grows on trees.
I remember when baseball stadiums weren’t supposed to be Disneyland. Working class people would just go to a ballgame, they didn’t need an “experience”
Winnipeg Goldeyes have a beautiful river side ballpark on the edge of downtown and is affordable family fun. Montreal will lose the NHL before they ever get MLB back. It isn't in the cards! Tear this garbage down and save Montreal billions.
Baseball attendance in the 1970’s was only about 14-15k per game. The new stadiums built since the 1990’s have increased attendance to about 25-30k per game.
I loved going to the games as a kid because stadiums were not built for kids! Stadiums were municipal facilities with a lot of cigar smoking men looking at race forms. It was like getting to go someplace you were not normally allowed to be, and I would see some stuff. Cool stuff. Not kid stuff.
I mean, this is a very unique and architecturally relevant stadium. It might be old, but I wouldn’t say it “looks like a piece of crap.“
It hasn’t aged well though. Yes it is unique and it was cool looking back in the day, but looking at it now, it isn’t and if you see it from up close it looks old. It’s also not very practical
Looks great, it’s just a bit old and Ginger is really weird about stadiums over 20 years old
@@DavidKRoebuck It does not look great, come on. Even Expos fans would admit it's a crap stadium.
Have you even been close up to it in life. It has a million cracks in the cement and is falling apart, not just the 20,000 rips that exist in the roof. $750,000,000 is completely nonsense and total corruption. Tear it down and build a billion dollars worth of affordable housing which is needed extremely badly. This city will lose the Canadiens sooner then MLB coming back. It is a hell hole of a city run by mobsters. They should not even be so bold to suggest a new roof for a useless place. And no big music shows are going to use it. Metallica sounded like absolute crap as this build had many echos and dead spots. It was not designed with concerts in mine and was always wrong for baseball. It is done and ready for recycling and that is it.
Looks like chit
The problem is the demolition costs on this thing is also insane
They've been saying that for decades, but they keep sinking money into it just for maintenance and upkeep and now a huge reno. Sounds like corruption to me. Better off just eating the cost now and demolish it.
They are a one time cost.
Despite the fact it's been nothing but a money pit from the start, the "Big O" holds a special place in Montrealers' hearts. A call back to the glory days of the 60's and the Olympics which was a real point of pride for a Quebec in the heat of independence sentiment (sorry for those of you not up on Quebec history). Ask anyone about it and you'll get an eye roll and a sigh because of just how much money the thing's eaten up over the past 50 years but still, it is an icon of sorts. :)
I would say it is silly to take pride in such a disaster, but I'm from Toronto and we have the Leafs so I'm in no place to judge.
That's true, my friend - the Big O was, and may still be, a point of real pride for all Quebecers; FWIW, I do remember the Soverigntists such as Rene Levesque, Gerald Godin and even, yes, Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry.
From what I understand, the bond issue from the Province of Quebec to pay for the stadium wasn't paid off until 2010; still, I'm willing to look upon the Big O as a source of sports pride - not just the Expos, but also the Alouettes of the CFL, and the Machine of the WLAF.
I thank you for listening to me.
This. This stadium acquired a sentimental value over time. It was home to 3 teams over time. It hosted the Olympics, for christ's sake! And it definitely became a landmark here in Montreal.
5:00 --Just so everyone understands; at the time this stadium was being planned, (I think) there was one domed stadium in existence (Astrodome) and there were two more domes being considered (Kingdome and LA Superdome). So not only were there almost no domed stadiums, one stadium tried to design a retractable roof (Texas Stadium; previous home of the Dallas Cowboys) but failed.
So DG can say today how pathetic of an attempt this was; in reality, it was revolutionary for its time.
The funniest part was that the model for the retractable roof worked perfectly when it was being presented to the city but then the mob built it so of course it didn't work. The same architect firm then was hired to design the SkyDome in Toronto in the 80s and the retractable roof on the model for that stadium never worked properly but when it was properly constructed it became a marvel of modern construction and the first true retractable roof stadium that stood the test of time.
And Pontiac Silverdome 1975
@@EatAPeach72 Thanks for the catch.
It would be a shame to not find SOME way to keep this stadium relevant... to DEmolish a billion dollar structure is such a waste. Put translucent windows in the upper part of the clamshell? Install a smooth seamless white surface along the inside of the clam roof on which to project images, or build an LED surround a la the Sphere in Vegas? Deploy innovative partitions to "right-size" the stadium for smaller crowds?
It is a Quebec company that did the work on the Sphere. I suspect they'll be involved with the Big O someday.
look how they constructed Climate Pledge arena in Seattle. They couldn't not touch the roof, Wich made it one heck of a project to complete. They could gut the whole inside of that stadium, and total revamp it into a multi purpose dream stadium. Fix the roof some how, and keep the shell as some history. could be bad ass.
Olympic stadium wasn't built that way.
Tropicana in St. Petersburg makes the Big O look like the Ritz.
Nothing wrong with The Trop except location.
@@davidlafleche1142 Yet everyone and their grandma rips into the thing for being ugly and sterile...
@@ElmerFudd16 So what? It's functional and in good condition. Its only flaw is location.
@@davidlafleche1142 And the stadium itself.
@@davidlafleche1142 No it isn't. It's an ugly, dingy stadium that is perpetually closed off because it doesn't have a retractable roof. It's like playing in a warehouse. The fact the Rays are planning on building a new stadium in more or less the same location tells you all you need to know about its functionality.
This building new stadiums every 20 years is nuts and a waste! Just do a complete renovation. Wrigley, Fenway and Dodger stadiums followed that course of action. There isn't any reason that can't be the same solution for Montreal's Olympic Stadium.
I know I'm in az and I'm 32 and I used to love going to baseball games as a kid and the experience was fun, ever since colangelo sold team to new owner dbacks have become irrelevant with the exception of last year, owner wants a new stadium and wants tax payers to foot the bill instead of paying for it himself been milking people for years would sell prospects for cash this whole time making money for years instead of improving the team
The tower is really cool if you ever get the chance to visit and go up there
1. The construction of the Olympic Stadium began in 1971 not 1969. Montreal was awarded the 1976 Summer Games in 1970.
2. As for the renovations of the stadium. It isn't the roof itself that needs to be replaced. The massive concrete shell (Technical Ring) also must be replaced.
3. There is no more land available in the Island of Montreal itself to built a stadium. The last available land Peel Bassin that was targeted by the group led by Stephen Bronfman to bring MLB back in Montreal is no longer available. After the Tampa Bay - Montreal project fell through the City of Montreal has announced that they have given the green light to Evimco for their massive Condominium Tower - Shopping Mall - Industrial Park project. Construction set to begin next Spring.
4. So the only land available to built a stadium in Montreal would be in the North or South Shore of the city and that doesn't go well with sports fans who want ONLY a downtown stadium. They reject any stadium to be built in the suburbs.
Stadium Saputo is all that Montreal needs, should expand the stands to make it even bigger
also the roof wasnt installed until the 80s.
Couldn't one have thought of Philly for the '76 games? The Bicentennial was upcoming; surely Philly and environs could've hosted the Olympics.
@@StukInBuf You should study your history then. The Olympics was awarded to Montreal on the back of the massively successful 1967 Expo.
There are more locations but If let's say a MLB team was confirmed I would tear the Big Oh No down and get an agreement with CFL to build a duel stadium in its place, one side a CFL bowl that holds about 30,000 and a ballpark on the other side that holds about 35,000 seats with shared engineer and other facilities inbetween them. A perfect solution at the cost to build 800,000 Million and tear down cost at another $250,000,000 total cost of this effectent duel stadiums just over $1 Billion. But try to get a MLB team first off and good luck cooperating with another league the CFL. Now please understand anything after is not needed and is just bad seating that requires cleaning and maintenance and decreases the quality of either of the experiences. But by sharing a central building for the main operations of both stadiums it becomes more efficient then trying to a two new stadiums. If even just a large major league ballpark was built in it's place that would be fine, but Montreal would still need a MLB team! Never going to happen with the nationalist in charge!
$2 billion is a ton of money for a new stadium with taxpayers forced to pay the bill. Cities that have so many needs should stop spending so much money for billionaires so they can make huge fortunes on other regular people's money.
It was 8 years for the Expos at Jarry Park, 1969-76. The Expos moved into Olympic Stadium in 1977.
I went to this stadium when I was 13 years old, and I loved it because I pretended that I was inside an alien spaceship.
Not much of a choice, the Big O was over-engineered and sits on-top of a metro line and station, thus the scale and scope to take that thing apart would cost roughly $1B to do. What it needs is a massive renovation to retrofit it so it can last another 30 years. It needs the same scope of work as the New Orleans Superdome or MSG renovations. If they were going to tear that thing down, now would be the time. If they are committing to this scope of renovation then they will have to commit to full renovate that thing.
That is correct. The MSG was renovated during the summers of 2011 to 2013 at a cost of a $1,19 B and Penn Station is underneath the MSG.
The new roof is supposed to last 50 years
Where did you get the impression the former Turner Field is on the verge of being demolished?
Do you have footnotes? Did you read it in a Tweet and determine it to be true? Or are you just making stuff up?
It is hilarious how here you say that indoor stadiums are bad, yet for the NFL you want all games played indoors.YOu have no clue what you want.
I was there in October 23. They are renovating the tower and observation decks. They are renovating the outside, which does have issues, and i saw men abseiling on it so its not just about the roof. I wanted to go there because i remember seeing it in '76 and thinking how modern it was and hoped we would get something outstanding when Sydney got the Games. We didn't, but ours is used all the time and doesn't have these issues. I loved seeing it. Its still futuristic! It was a highlight from childhood!
It was in fact state-of-the-art for its time, and the roof, albeit a very cool and ambitious feat of engineering, failed. The original roof/tarp was replaced around 1999/2000 with a new one, and being a tarp it makes sense that after 20+ years it’s time to fix. It’s Canada and therefore they must have indoor stadiums, be it baseball , football, concerts etc. Lastly, it’s a very unique structure which has become somewhat of a historic landmark and part of the Montreal skyline… I think it’s completely possible for such a renovation to bring this building up to modern standards in many ways. Especially if it brings back the Expos
Even if they fix the roof the stadium is not made for concerts. The acoustics are absolutely horrible.
@@StuartMcNair-kk9nbthey will reorganize the audio placement. It will sound better, we’ll see how it goes
The problem is that there is no room in downtown Montreal for a stadium. And the MLB doesn't want a stadium in the suburbs (which could be viable with the new REM metro system going to the south shore). And tearing down Olympic Stadium would cost the equivalent of building a new stadium.
It's not entirely true.....around griffintown there's space
The Oakland coliseum is wayyy mor decrepid than olympic stadium. The A's stadium has leaking sewage, is in a crime infested area. You could redo the roof, withoyt closing it in, and the inner bowl and outfield enough, until a new stadium was ready. Al Davis destroyed the ambiance of the Coliseum decades ago.
Quit lying dude it was rebuilt in 1996. The stadium is fine.
Wrong
750 mil sounds like a ton just for a renovation, but new stadiums cost billions now.
Any new major league sports team would want to have a new stadium, so what’s the point.
It’s a terrible stadium for baseball, but for football or soccer and other major stadium events the bones are there to keep an iconic stadium relevant.
It wasn't that bad for baseball. I watched lots of Expos games there. People liked to bitch about it because it was fashionable to do so and they were pissed off that it cost so much.
They need to use the engineering team that designed the roof in Frankfurt, Germany. They apparently figured out how to make the cable system work
Really? That would be interesting...
This place doesn’t need an MLB team. If it costs just as much to demolish than renovate, then just renovate it to get CFL Alouettes back, and some of the bigger/early season bad weather CF Montreal games, in addition to concerts and maybe one-off events like soccer friendlies and NFL preseason or something, and that’s enough to be worth getting another few decades out of this place without an MLB team. The bar for success in that lens is much more reasonable.
Also I think the tower is one of the tallest 45 degree angled structures in the world so yes it is indeed a landmark. I’ve been to the top of the tower (we weren’t able to see the stadium part on our tour) and the view is amazing.
Monster truck and trade shows. Remember an auto show was going on when the roof last failed. BC Place is booked 250 times a year
The Problem with that stadium is that there is so much concrete in it that destroying it would take years to take the concrete out of the city. Montreal is an Island and they projected that they would need to build a new bridge just for that and it would need years of trucking 24/7 to clean it up. Also there is a subway line right underneath, and they are pretty sure that the demolition would crush the subway tunnel. It's a mess.
Mid 80s seats in outfield were $1, even for double header. That is when I went to see the expos.
Or you could buy the $4.25 grandstand seats and by the 5th inning move to just about any part of the ballpark.
The Olympic games are a giant money pit for the host cities. The Montréal stadium architecture screams 1976, and I think any renovations would be throwing good money after bad. Fulton County Stadium was already in place for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was demolished in 1997. (I actually attended a Braves game when I was a kid, and the post-game fireworks were unbearably loud as the sounds echoed around the metal overhang.)
You are 100 percent right about the money pit comment, Bu I really believe Paris will make money on the 2024 Olympics because people will have waited for 8 years to see them again. No one was allowed to watch in 2021. People are going to be Rabid for the games and the USA has the most stars on its track and field team since the 80's.
The Olympicgames are not a money pit when Los Angeles hosts the Games. As was the case in 1984, Los Angeles doesn’t have to build a single permanent structure for the 2028 Olympic Games. In fact, Los Angeles has so many stadiums & arenas that several Class A venues won’t see any Olympic Games events. BTW - Public funding wasn’t used to build any sports venues in LA in which pro sports teams play, as all pro sports venues in LA were privately financed.
@@dorothygale1104 remodeling venues, traffic, security, etc probably mean that LA is maybe going to break even and what they will make is going to be a fraction of their annual revenues anyway. But yes they will definitely come out in far better shape than Rio or Athens did. Even for the best-equipped cities the olympics are a racket.
1973-1976 is how long Montreal Olympic Stadium took to built. I loved that stadium, as a kid, back in the 1980s and early 1990s. I'm 44, now.
Taylor Swift singing in Montreal. People in Montreal will pay & see it
"Worst stadium itw" is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?
What he means it's outdated
If they are rehabbing that stadium, they know something. The Las Vegas mess is even more of a mess than anybody is willing to acknowledge. The A's don't have a ballpark in 2025 and won't get one -- if then -- until 2028. The Vegas disaster is being brushed off as no big deal. Montreal knows something and it's not about expansion.
I think they could make the roof work. It's 50 years later the technology is better, But they would have to remodel the whole thing since it hasn't been used for so long.
I wonder if instead of doing the umbrella method that they tried to use if they used something similar to what was done at BC Place
Another thing is,its the tallest tower that sits at a 45 angle.
It's an office building with 1000 employees, an athletic training centre all attached. You can't just tear the thing down.
No need for a retractable roof, it has no main tenant for sports. Even if it did, how often would it be used anyway.
Good or bad it has history.
It's like friends tell me I should go to see hockey games in Montreal, Toronto, Boston or Chicago for the history. I'm like i would, but they demolished history and put up cookie cutter arenas 😂
It still has Olympic swimming pools weird ass zoo like areas, offices in the tower itself. It’s ahead of it’s time in a lot of ways
...and by the world I mean, North America. And by North America, I mean just Canada and the USA.
Sounds a bit insular don't you think?
Bro hates this stadium way too much lmao
Due to the market being flooded with new stadiums that are- in an architectural sense- more often than not horrific monstrosities of plastic; these old ballparks are now prized architectural monuments.
Greece put much more in and half of the venue are lost now..and now broke down
Pretty sure that Georgia State University have no plans to demolish The Ted...
First time i am hearing about this stadium. It has a unique alien spice ship type of look which i like
Please have you been there...this place is historic and different...
Ya historically horrible I have been to many football and baseball games at the Big O. Secondly it is even worse for for concerts because of the lousy acoustics
@@StuartMcNair-kk9nb The acoustic are part of the renovation
It would be fun for a staduim series hockey game to be played at Olympic stadium
No people would be too far away from the action
That was a huge part of the problem with the baseball configuration.
when you said the worst stadium in the world, I figured Tampa was dumping a ton of money into the Trop.
Same # rays fan
I agree it is one of the worst stadiums but I don;t think it is worse than Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay
There has been new stadiums built, that people hated, as they were not what they thought it was going to be. There is also the teardown, which is not cheap, it costs big money to destroy them.
In the Provence of Quebec built an arena up to NHL standards (at the time of construction) from scratch in Quebec City without the promise of getting a team. The same Provence is spending money to fix the roof of a multipurpose stadium like bad plastic surgery instead of making any new facility geared towards baseball or soccer/concerts. If the province cared as much about baseball as they did hockey there would be better odds that they would get a MLB team back.
Why would they build a MLB park without the promise of a MLB team? With the Quebec arena, at least, the minor league team could us it and it can host concerts so there was always an "out" if the NHL team never came.
@@KOSMOinfinite my point was to show the over the top dedication to hockey the province has to hockey but never had consistently for baseball. Yes building a pro venue before a team is secured is crazy but the province is crazy for hockey between the Habs support and the QC desire for a NHL team but lukewarm on baseball.
@@concertvids34when you see that there is more people watching junior game in quebec than people watching some of these NHL teams, you realize that the reason why nordique don’t come back is because of that old bastard. When he’ll perish, the nordique will come back
Why no mention of trying to lure a CFL team to play there? Didn't the Alouettes used to play at Olympic Stadium at one point in time?
that was the case from the 1976 Summer Olympics to their folding in 1987. Then, upon their return in 1996, they played at the Big O until an U2 concert that was held on the same day as a 1997 playoff game forced them to play the game at the Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. Since then, they were only playing playoff games at the Olympic Stadium and stopped playing games at the Olympic after 2013 season
The Alouettes still use the stadium’s facilities as their main practice facility and team offices.
Percival Molson Stadium fills the purpose of playing games in it quite well (minus a Grey Cup Game).
The problems with Olympic is if it’s not sold out or even 75% full, it’s a bad atmosphere in there. They used to hold the fan appreciation game there too, but it wasn’t selling out anymore and looked dead on TV.
I love his content but I find his nickel and diming of the CFL to be annoying.
Lots of hate in this video
In the late 90's/early 2000's Loria tried to build Labatt Park in downtown Montreal. It would have been open roof, baseball specific, and would cost 250 million. He wanted public funding but the Quebec politicians could justify spending on a new stadium when hospitals in the city were closing down.
A place in England called Old Trafford is leaking. Crumbling and rotting. It's also got a food hygiene rating of 1 from 5.
Isn’t that where Man U plays? Very historic location. Too bad if the food really is that bad!
For the record Metallica played two shows this summer and actually beat the attendance record, largest crowd since the Olympics, so concerts can be held hear. That being said, the acoustics are atrocious. It's not used pretty much all year round. It's a giant money pit, better to have it without a roof as all the other stadium plans had no roof anyways.
5:45... It was never about "attendance." Ownership/management traded away their assets, and gave the fans dreck. If you're a team owner, and only put forth dreck as opposed to a quality team, should you REALLY expect the fans to support it? Come on now...
Turner Field is about to be demolished? I haven’t seen that in the news anywhere. Georgia State University owns it now.
I don't think MLB should expand. Baseball is not popular enough anymore
tbh a NBA team would work better in Montreal than baseball
Have to ever been to these stadiums you like to complain about?
Drapeau really screwed this one up. Hired a terrible architect, didn't do their geological survey. And stubbornly went on with the project. A mayor who was high on his Expo success left Montreal with a legacy. Not a good one either.
build a new stadium...won any jerk can say that.
It looks like a stadium built in 1960 Soviet Union.
Speaking of Stadiums, right now in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we are about to build a New Hockey Arena starting rather in the Spring or Summer 2024 and the New Hockey Arena for the Calgary Flames 🔥 is expected to be finished before the 2026/27 NHL Season.
The 2 things that the City of Calgary are finishing are the renovations of Victoria Park/Stampede Station, and the BMO Centre after tearing down the Heritage Hockey Stadium called Stampede Corral and the pedestrian bridge to the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The reason why Calgary is building a new Hockey Stadium is because the roof of the Saddledome has been cracking up (Scotiabank Saddledome original name was Olympic Saddledome after hosting the First Winter Olympics in Canada back in 1988 a.k.a the 2nd Olympic Games in Canadian History) Saddledome has been around since 1980
For our Football Stadium called McMahon Stadium 🏟️ it has been around since 1960 that had the Olympic Flames 🔥 in the 1988 Winter Olympics and still being used as the main Home Stadium for the Calgary Stampeders 🐎 (CFL) it still has a good condition before they build a New Football Stadium and it's unknown when Calgary will Build a New Football Stadium 🏟️
Renovate to include the Alouettes, new MLB team, concerts, International Sporting events like FIFA. Make it multipurpose. The city of that size needs a 50-60000 seat stadium to draw world events. Other events like the NHL Heritage Classic, or Grey Cup also. The stadium should be multipurpose to make it viable. Modern engineering could pull it off. Better than ripping down the whole thing
Making it a multipurpose stadium is such a bad idea, I'm sorry. There's a reason why Rogers moved on from having the Argos play at the Rogers Centre and have it focused mainly on baseball. A sixty thousand stadium is way too large for baseball.
It won't work for concerts the acoustics are jst plain horrible.
Hello. Lets looks at a few other variables. Cost of replacing the stadium now as oppossed to 20 years from now is what you brought up. and the cost of investing in a new roof now estimated at 1 billion. but what was left out was the cost of demolition in 20 years from now will be higher as well. Its always sad to see an iconic building have to be demolished but it actually makes more sense to invest in a new building now instead of later. like also how do we know if the new roof will even last 20 years. The first 2 roofs didnt last any where near as long as projected. Like if the tower is sound, why not leave it and replace the rest. that should lower the demolition cost a lot and you would still have a historic icon in place with its lookout intact.
The problem was that the Olympics required an open air stadium. Once they were over, there was no real need to open the roof. They had a lot of needless complexity. The other problem was the distance from the city center. The stadium is not that bad. People didn't like it because of the price. I have watched baseball games and football games there and it is fine. The problem is the location and I think we just finished paying for it. It looks better than most stadiums. The question is how well it is maintained. If there is no baseball team and the football team moved to Molson stadium, is there any reason to keep it?
I wonder if this is part of Montreal’s attempt to get an expansion MLB team.
I’d love to see the Expos come back to Montreal. I miss the Expos.
Not gonna happen
@@dustinsindledecker154 I agree people complain about location of stadium and want to renovated it. With that money better off building stadium downtown if wanted to. My impression they won't.
@@cost7569 Where is there land? Toronto has the same problem.
@@MKPiatkowski I heard they had opportunity to build when Expos still in town in late 90's. Toronto doesn't have problem Roger Centre is in a perfect location is walking distance to Union Station. Renovation of current Stadium give them a extra 20 year or more. I should know I use work downtown.
FedEx Field is probably the worst stadium in North America!
Former Expos player Warren Cromartie said the Olympic Stadium was the worst place he ever played in. He called it a "toilet bowl"
the worst stadiums are all indoor nfl stadiums
Cost estimates to tear it down is close to 1 billion due to the mass amount of concrete. It can’t be imploded. The stadium roof has more than 20,000 tears in it, not 70 or 80.
Your comments are harsh brother LOL some are true some are out of context.
They just announced that they’re going to renovate the whole entire stadium and it’ll take 4 years to be complete which to me is a piece of cake 🍰.
This is what we could call a "white elephant"...meaning while it is loooooong overstayed its welcome it'd be too expensive to tear down something like that down also. So Montreal kinda feels compelled to get SOME use from it.
The gift that keeps on giving
The Canadiens are Montreal’s team
They say the acoustics are Crappy inside there.
Poor Expos had to play in a minor league stadium for 7 years where as The Teas Rangers only had to play in one for 22 years from 1972 to 1993. :)
Actually, it was 8 years for the Expos, 1969-76. The Expos moved into Olympic Stadium in 1977.
that is $750M in Canadian dollars, so $568M U.S.... it truly earned the nickname "The Big Owe"...
It's a great place to watch a baseball game...Saw many Expos games there....!!!
Which will be the last multipurpose stadium to survive? The Astrodome (even though it's technically a parking garage now) or "The Big Owe". Though I do wonder if they'll just say screw it and turn the roof into a canopy or perhaps redesign the roof to have a retractable roof that actually works.
A canopy could work. I mean hell if the twins don't have a roof why would we need one?
My wife and I had our honeymoon in Montreal in 2005, the stadium's first year without the Expos. We took the Metro to the stadium and took a guided tour. We got to stand in what had been the outfield (the artificial turf was gone, so it was just concrete), We also went to the top of the tower. Another building we toured was where the Olympic cycling events were held. That building is now a Biodome, an indoor nature exhibit.
Wrong expos left in 1995 not 2005
@StuartMcNair-kk9nb Wrong, Expos last game was 2004.
@@aarondersnah863 wrong I was at the last game in 1994 before they moved to Washington.
@StuartMcNair-kk9nb you may have been at the last game, but it was in 2004.
So, the price more than tripled during the 24 month approval process? Down in socialist LA, SoCal stadium's price went from 2B to 5B during the 24 month approval process. Gee, I wonder what happened?
Why should it be "renovated" any further? It's a damned eyesore; *TEAR IT DOWN NOW!!!!*
Corruption lives alive and well in the province of Quebec!! Quebec likes to build white elephants like Mirabel and Montreal Olympic Stadium!!!!!!
I saw the Blue Jays play the expos at Olympic Stadium 20 years ago and it was out of date then.
That stadium is a clammy dank mess! It was STILL being paid for deep into the ‘90’s! The concerts were hampered by weird acoustics. The Concorde and both Alouette had issues with playing on a nasty turf carpet.
We visited it in 1975. Back then and even now, I thought it was an awsome design. Great design, horrible execution. Took them 30 yrs to pay it off. You can thank the mob for its exorbiant cost back then. I do hope they can find a future for it. I do like the Biodome there.
How is Montreal getting a renovation before the Angels? They haven’t had a team since 2004.
They need to get to build the same roof as the Astrodome!!!
it looks like a spaceship from a 60s movie
Either way, this decrepit thing is a perfect moneytrap. It would cost nearly $450M to demolish and mop it up. The city won't build a new ball stadium so what can they do? The video didn't mention the only other thing that does make sense - the stadium still attracts tourists from the world enough for ppl to come to Mtl to see whatever they 'can' host there and make whatever is 'good enough' business to pay for a fraction of the costs if they're lucky.
As for a ball team, forget it. If they won't build a new stadium, there won't be a ball team there even if the MLB is expanding.
Unless they have a confirmation that the stadium is going to be used if fixed, 100% certain, I think the priority should be in other areas, use the money for other parts of Toronto needs, and just tear it down.
bro… 😂😂 Why would quebec province give money to the ontario province. It’s not the same state my dude😂😂
I think Montreal’s Olympic Stadium aka the Big O will likely be demolished to make room for the new 48,000-seat ballpark if an MLB expansion team is awarded to Montreal for the 2028 MLB season.
The problem in montreal is not neccesarily the attendance ..its the location of the olympic stadium..if the stadium was downtown!!!! It wouldve been a totally different story
Olympic stadium. it is nicknamed "The Big O". Now C$ 770 million and all the upgrades. The new nickname should be "The Big Owe".
How do you expand baseball if there aren't enough players to man all of the teams? It's like there would be some major league teams and some minor league teams all playing at the same time in the same league.
They’re trying to get the Alouettes CFL team back to Olympic Stadium
Possibly a Grey cup host
@@FullOfMalarky That would be a huge W. Not that I hate Percival-Molson Memorial Stadium, but it gets cold. Plus it would justify the renovation, and tbh the Big O is easier to access imho then Percival-Molson
@@LeCommieBoi And I hope to go either/both one day. I just git into the CFL and am a RedBalcks so I am not far away.
@@FullOfMalarky I also got into the CFL this year and im an Alouettes fan (LETS GOOOO) but getting to Percival Molson is a hassle, especially during the playoffs. However the Big O is maybe a bit big for the CFL. But I definitely prefer the Big O to Percival Molson
@@LeCommieBoi I bet on the Als for the Grey Cup. What a ride.
Most stadiums built for the Olympics are disasters now.
Montreal Olympic Stadium is one of the greatest examples of why overbuilding is never a good idea. People love to blame the Olympics for Montreal's. But my response to that is why was building such an unnecessary and overly complicated cable roof necessary? It wasn't. All Montreal needed to do was to build a normal stadium, and so much debt could've been avoided.
They made it with a roof because it was MLB that wanted the Expos to play in a stadium with a roof, they would not have done it for the olympics!
@@christiansaint-pierre5360 Ok, but why the unnecessary and overly complicated cable design? Anyone with common sense would've used the normal sliding retractable roof instead.
@@gabetalks9275 Well, I dont think that what you call the " normal sliding retractable roof" was possible or was thought possible then, or maybe I am wrong, I dont know.
@@gabetalks9275 That technology didn't exist then. The first working retractable roof was SkyDome and that was 1989. The cable system was the best guess at the time.
The argument is from the tourist board. That its part of Montreal history, that tourist make it a point to go see it. If it was removed it would cost billions, a piece of history removed and nothing to replace it. Quebec is big on heritage and protecting that. The are pushing big on tourist too as they been doing upgrades as per m.ua-cam.com/video/3xfiM2wigug/v-deo.html
The stadium is connected to the metro (subway) system so if was removed this would need to be changed adding to the cost. Plus that metro stop connect to out tourist spots too. To provide prospective on the matter.
I'm only half-joking here; given the sheer amount of concrete in that building, demolition is going to take a while. Brutalist architecture is a b**ch to tear down. But how cool would it be to get a Winter Classic game at a modern stadium in Montreal?