Bmo Field Expansion

[KevBaller]

5 pm Primetime Sports Interview with Bob McCown (Wed.Jan.29.14)

Leiweke: (On renovation of BMO Field) Want to think outside the box. Most impactful decision made in Toronto sports that will affect Toronto scene and all Toronto teams. Want to be a world class stadium. Spend 120 mill. Make the concourse and experience better. 30,000 stadium that can expand to 40,000 to host winter classic.

- Does it effect the CFL. Yes, it will mean the Argos will have an intimate 30,000 seat stadium.

- Not worried about buying Argos. Wants to fit the cities need in what they expect out of MLSE.

- Wants stands with rollers to keep intimacy for soccer and football because football has bigger dimensions. No football lines for soccer and no soccer lines for football.

- McCowan brings up how it runs a risk on field with football, ruins grass. Leiweke: Most stadiums in the world are multi purpose. They play football at Wembley. Matter of finding best practices. Could explore hybrid grass (real grass + synthetic grass, roots grow deeper).

- Wants to be able to make it perfect for both. Ways to do that now. Technology and Money allows them to make it perfect stadium for both.

- Renovation will allow us to put roof over all the seats.

[prizby]

I'm done trying to debate with you.

i don't get it...is that what happens when you are proven wrong...you wwooooooshhh off into space?

[prizby]

Prizby and Mulder, you need to both stop with the insults immediately, or we will need to start handing out infractions.
You can discuss the issues without attacking each other.
Thank-you.
The Friendly Mod Team.

sorry, but I don't think I have laid one insult down...was I too satirical?

[prizby]

5 pm Primetime Sports Interview with Bob McCown (Wed.Jan.29.14)

Leiweke: (On renovation of BMO Field) Want to think outside the box. Most impactful decision made in Toronto sports that will affect Toronto scene and all Toronto teams. Want to be a world class stadium. Spend 120 mill. Make the concourse and experience better. 30,000 stadium that can expand to 40,000 to host winter classic.

- Does it effect the CFL. Yes, it will mean the Argos will have an intimate 30,000 seat stadium.

- Not worried about buying Argos. Wants to fit the cities need in what they expect out of MLSE.

- Wants stands with rollers to keep intimacy for soccer and football because football has bigger dimensions. No football lines for soccer and no soccer lines for football.

- McCowan brings up how it runs a risk on field with football, ruins grass. Leiweke: Most stadiums in the world are multi purpose. They play football at Wembley. Matter of finding best practices. Could explore hybrid grass (real grass + synthetic grass, roots grow deeper).

- Wants to be able to make it perfect for both. Ways to do that now. Technology and Money allows them to make it perfect stadium for both.

- Renovation will allow us to put roof over all the seats.

spent a lot more time talking TFC than Raptors and Leafs combined, in my opinion

[Haddy]

5 pm Primetime Sports Interview with Bob McCown (Wed.Jan.29.14)

Leiweke: (On renovation of BMO Field) Want to think outside the box. Most impactful decision made in Toronto sports that will affect Toronto scene and all Toronto teams. Want to be a world class stadium. Spend 120 mill. Make the concourse and experience better. 30,000 stadium that can expand to 40,000 to host winter classic.

- Does it effect the CFL. Yes, it will mean the Argos will have an intimate 30,000 seat stadium.

- Not worried about buying Argos. Wants to fit the cities need in what they expect out of MLSE.

- Wants stands with rollers to keep intimacy for soccer and football because football has bigger dimensions. No football lines for soccer and no soccer lines for football.

- McCowan brings up how it runs a risk on field with football, ruins grass. Leiweke: Most stadiums in the world are multi purpose. They play football at Wembley. Matter of finding best practices. Could explore hybrid grass (real grass + synthetic grass, roots grow deeper).

- Wants to be able to make it perfect for both. Ways to do that now. Technology and Money allows them to make it perfect stadium for both.

- Renovation will allow us to put roof over all the seats.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/leiwe...for-bmo-field/

[rocktml]

full interview anywhere?

[KevBaller]

full interview anywhere?

http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-time-sports/

Scroll down half way to "Recent Podcast". Currently the 2nd listing.

[Kaz]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/leiwe...for-bmo-field/

why is that guy dressed like a British pimp from the 80s?

[denime]

Retractable south end stands is what I assume. Highly skeptical of it all really but these are the things often referred to in the rumours.

It has to be both,South and North,otherwise center of CFL field will be 50 yards offset to the south,since south stands are retractable ,once you move them back there will be no stands on west or east side on that part of the pitch.

I wish TL and MLSE all the best when it comes to this project,but I'm afraid they will f*ck it up big time,grass will be disaster and stadium will be crap for both TFC and Argos.

[OgtheDim]

why is that guy dressed like a British pimp from the 80s?

Cause apart from sports, he hasn't left the 80's?

[Haddy]

It has to be both,South and North,otherwise center of CFL field will be 50 yards offset to the south,since south stands are retractable ,once you move them back there will be no stands on west or east side on that part of the pitch.

I wish TL and MLSE all the best when it comes to this project,but I'm afraid they will f*ck it up big time,grass will be disaster and stadium will be crap for both TFC and Argos.

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. But it's too hard to guarantee any high level of pitch quality unless they decide to slap on a retractable roof to reduce moisture. Doubt that.

As for retractable seating - I'm sure we can all list a bunch of stadiums from the past that employed similar engineering. As for recent or proposed stadiums, I came across Perth Stadium in Australia. It's going to be oval for hosting cricket and convert to a rectangle for rugby and soccer. I believe the main tenant will be Perth Glory.

http://stadiumdb.com/designs/aus/perth_stadium

[BuSaPuNk]

There's still huge gaps between the field and seats in those mockup photo's. Something like that would be a huge problem for alot of people.

[Haddy]

There's still huge gaps between the field and seats in those mockup photo's. Something like that would be a huge problem for alot of people.

Point is that rolling seats is definitely not an issue. It's up to the designers to ensure the intimacy.

I think we can agree that they need to improve on Perth's design.

[BuSaPuNk]

Point is that rolling seats is definitely not an issue. It's up to the designers to ensure the intimacy.

I think we can agree that they need to improve on Perth's design.

Agreed. I'm just wondering where the example of this working with our situation. There isn't.

[prizby]

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. But it's too hard to guarantee any high level of pitch quality unless they decide to slap on a retractable roof to reduce moisture. Doubt that.

As for retractable seating - I'm sure we can all list a bunch of stadiums from the past that employed similar engineering. As for recent or proposed stadiums, I came across Perth Stadium in Australia. It's going to be oval for hosting cricket and convert to a rectangle for rugby and soccer. I believe the main tenant will be Perth Glory.

http://stadiumdb.com/designs/aus/perth_stadium

they have been talking building a new stadium in Perth for at least 6 or 7 years...but that's just it, it is just talk...look at the cost of that thing though; somewhere between 1.1 to 1.5 billion dollars

[Kaz]

Agreed. I'm just wondering where the example of this working with our situation. There isn't.

The Aussie issue is totally different Aussie Rules is played on a large pitch, like nearly Cricket sized, it's oval and not rectangular and that is an example of moving from a Oval to Rectangular set up.

[BuSaPuNk]

And not just the fact of everything pitchwise or stadium wise do we really think we can sell out a 30,000 seat stadium? New season tickets are still for sale and there is 676 tickets left on a cap of 17,000. There hasn't been much movement after the Defoe and Bradley signings either. If we can't move all the season seats after what has been called the biggest signings in Toronto and let alone MLS how are we ever going to fill 30,000 constantly?

I hope we do. I really want to get to that point but as of right now were talking years until we get to that level.

[Kaz]

So thoughts...

He wants a roof over all the stands, and seating increased to 30k.

Is it 30k for MLS or 30k for CFL?

If you have retractable seats then you have several issues.

If you set it up for MLS then you loose seats behind the goals. for CFL knocking seating for CFL down by a few thousand seats, but it would still be attractive.

If you set it up for CFL then you have to loose a few thousand seats for MLS. With ugly empty seats in the corners.

The only option to give a "perfect" game day experience to both teams is a 31,000 MLS stadium and a 26-28,000 seat CFL configuration. ....

Though if they raised the stands (sank the pitch) and allowed pull out seats on the sides for the narrower CFL field, they could provide a 30,000 seat configuration for both.

[Haddy]

So thoughts...

He wants a roof over all the stands, and seating increased to 30k.

Is it 30k for MLS or 30k for CFL?

If you have retractable seats then you have several issues.

If you set it up for MLS then you loose seats behind the goals. for CFL knocking seating for CFL down by a few thousand seats, but it would still be attractive.

If you set it up for CFL then you have to loose a few thousand seats for MLS. With ugly empty seats in the corners.

The only option to give a "perfect" game day experience to both teams is a 31,000 MLS stadium and a 26-28,000 seat CFL configuration. ....

Though if they raised the stands (sank the pitch) and allowed pull out seats on the sides for the narrower CFL field, they could provide a 30,000 seat configuration for both.

30 for MLS
25-26 for CFL

...read that in the Globe I think.

[Dave67]

And not just the fact of everything pitchwise or stadium wise do we really think we can sell out a 30,000 seat stadium? New season tickets are still for sale and there is 676 tickets left on a cap of 17,000. There hasn't been much movement after the Defoe and Bradley signings either. If we can't move all the season seats after what has been called the biggest signings in Toronto and let alone MLS how are we ever going to fill 30,000 constantly?

I hope we do. I really want to get to that point but as of right now were talking years until we get to that level.

If more seats are available at reasonable prices then they will sell. They'll sell to people like me, people who would come back to season tickets but not at the prices currently being offered.

[Kaz]

So this is still the issue, even with a north and south stand that is about 8% larger currently I can't see how you get a good CFL and MLS experience... someone has to suffer. If you make the stands fully moveable with the ability to put in extra stands on the ends... how do you do that with a Roof?

(I did the CFL arrangement really quick or I would have put the lines on... I just couldn't bring my self to do it... )

Though the CFL field seems large and it might be a issue with the satellite angle. I'm assuming this would work without changing the south end stands size wise, basically I added 18m to either side.. again this is a quick hack job so I may have had my calculations off a bit.

[tsn3]

Just bumping this recent post again...

Since there have been some drawings done on here of what potentially BMO Field might end up looking like, I tried my hand at a bit of dodgy-photoshop to see how it might end up if they did move the Argos to BMO. I think it should have a 2 tier seating bowl all the way around, however lower bowl is retractable at the ends to allow for CFL field. Roof all the way around covering most of the seats. Scoreboard to fit in the northern end 2nd tier of seats.

Here goes: (Apologies in advance for average quality).

1. Soccer mode (retractable lower tier stands at the ends, roof off):



2. Soccer mode (retractable lower tier stands at the ends, roof ON:
(Yeah I borrowed Sporting KS's roof for this, the bottom right corner is missing in this pic but I think they should have the roof all the way around... my photoshop abilities hit the wall on that corner


3. CFL mode (retractable lower tier stands at the ends removed, roof off):



4. CFL mode (retractable lower tier stands at the ends removed, roof ON):

[Super]

Man, a roof sure does make a stadium look sexy, doesn't it? Plus the irony is that it's pointy-ball that's going to come help our stadium NOT look like a cheap, small town pointy-ball high school stadium.

[billyfly]

Don't forget the concourses. He said more concourses.

[Whoop]

Ummm... when would the renovations take place?

Would TFC move into SkyDome during the summer of whatever year they plan on doing the renos?

I don't see them doing this during the offseason.

[billyfly]

2 years as per Sholts

MLSE executive vice-president Bob Hunter, who is in charge of the BMO renovations, said Wednesday it will take about two years to finish, with the seating expected to be ready for the Pan American Games in the summer of 2015, and the canopy over the seats to be done by 2016.

[Phil]

Its always been promised that it won't interfere with the schedule. I would expect an off season reno and a break at the begining of the season (road trip) or during to accomdate the needed work, then offseason part 2.

[billyfly]

If they need a couple of games at Rogers Centre to give them a bigger stretch to do the reno, they will make a thing out of it.

[kwmanion]

30 for MLS
25-26 for CFL

...read that in the Globe I think.

Yeah, it's the globe article here:

...which will seat 30,000 for soccer and between 25,000 and 26,000 for football.

Also, we know they want to be able to expand to 40,000 for special games (Grey Cup, Winter Classic, etc.) from this article:

Leiweke said the renovation would allow for a temporary capacity of 40,000 for a major event like the NHL’s Winter Classic.

I'm trying to wrap my head around what this stadium will look like. It's at 22,000 right now. It sounds to me that there will be 26,000 permanent seats for CFL games with another 4,000 seats being rolled onto the end zones to accommodate soccer matches. That will take us to the 30,000 number. Then where do the extra 10,000 temporary seats come into play?

[nfitz]

It'd just be the dream option IMO. But to me driving isn't one of the main issues with a stadium there- I mean it's LITERALLY on a subway station.

You'd think ... but nothing is more accessible for transit than the Air Canada Centre, what being physically connected to Union Station, so it's easy for those folks in 905 to get there too. But judging by the extra traffic on the Gardiner tonight at 6:45 pm, a lot of people drive. I can't fathom why anyone wouldn't grab one of those plentiful free parking spots at any Lakeshore GO station (certainly plenty at 6 pm) and grab a frequent train to Union ... and yet clearly people still do.