So I guess Montreal Olympic Stadium is actually capable of hosting events during the winter.
I think that as some have suspected, the Als perhaps expected very little demand for their playoff games and chose not to rent the facility for last years playoff game, and in the event they hosted a game in 2013.
Makes more sense, clearly they don't have demand to fill the stadium. They used to get very large crowds at Olympic Stadium when they were selling out games at McGill.
As was pointed out on the Als board, tonight is the type of event that could be postponed due to inclement weather if necessary while a playoff game or Grey Cup realistically could not; somewhat like the difference between how comparatively easily a regular season MLB game can be “rained out” versus how hard they work to get playoff and World Series games played.
An Olympic Installations Board study found the roof unsafe if there was a significant snowfall (7-8 cm I believe). So they set a standard for how much snow was acceptable in the 24 hours before, and during, an event; it is less than the “danger zone” , presumably for insurance … err… safety reasons.
That is exactly what the deal is at Olympic. It is deemed unsafe should there be an amount of snow or hostile weather. It happend last season where an early season impact game at Olympic in march was scheduled for a saturday but do to weather conditions it was postponed and was able to be played on Sunday.
38K for a game in the Concacaf Champions league in Montreal is a really great crowd. Imagine if the roof was to be replaced with something that would be safe all year round no matter of weather. A lot more tickets would have been sold ahead of time with the certainty that the match would not be cancelled the last minute.
The reason why Impact and Saputo were outspoken about at least making Olympic a safe and servicable venue year round. The Als and the city of Montreal are going to feel the squeze again very very soon as they would be do for hosting a Grey Cup again in the very near future and they are unable to do so.
Hmm. It guess the snow they were getting tonight was not enough to cause cancellation because the storm that dumped 5 - 10 cm of snow then ice pellets here in Southern Ontario all day rolled into Montreal by late afternoon.
Sounds like it was a thrilling finish against the Mexican team for the 38,000+ Impact fans there.
The Limpact have terrible attendance otherwise... Their stadeium isnt much more full than BMO for most of their games... These one off games at the Owe are priced dirt cheap and people go becauseit is an event.. The only MLS team in Canada that makes money is in Vancouver. The Pacific Northwest is the only area of North America where soccer matters. The three teams here are also the only profitable teams in the league.. The LA Galaxy even lose money as well as all other teams in the league. Saputo made it well known that he is bleeding red ink in Montreal when he admitted that he over estimated the market.
Were they all Impact fans? 
Unfortunately they decided to put the money in a rink for the phantom NHL team. Huh I mean Junior hockey team in QC. :thdn:
If the roof is not safe or concrete slabs falling down as was the case in the past, there are 2 options.
Fix the roof or tear the joint down.
No baseball of football. What is it used for now anyway ? 1 Grey Cup every 7 years ?
They can't go on with this stadium having to check the weather for every event for pete sakes. Yup, fix it or tear it down, agree.
They basically let it ride out as is through the 2000's. Now they will need to make a decision soon.
It is costing a nice chunk of cash to even keep it as is and only being able to be used for barley half of the year.
Its going to cost big bucks to tear it down.
To completely gut it and renovate it will cost as much to tear it down.
A hard shell safe roof last I had read was in the 50 million range.
Montreal is among the biggest metro markets in North America and 1 of the big 3 in Canada.
It is or could be again one of only 3 enclosed major sized venues in Canada.
Along with Commonwealth it has the biggest capacity.
Would Montreal want to be one of the biggest metro regions in North America not to have a venue anywhere in the region that would be of major size/capacity to host a major event(s).
It is getting up there in age though to invest too much money on it. 40 years old next year and it really isn't that great for any sport because of the sight lines and how far away you can be from the play. It not only needs a new roof - it needs a fair chunk of change poured into it on other maintenance issues and to improve the guts of the stadium too, the concessions, the dressing rooms, private boxes etc. If you've ever been under the stands in the 'backroom' areas as I was when at an event in 2006 where we marched in under the stands and out on to the field area at an opening ceremony - the 'hidden' areas even then were not in the greatest shape.
I've also been to CFL and baseball games there and seen musical acts perform there. Some seats can be at slightly weird angles to the field too. For concerts the acoustics are awful. Yes a great big crowd can still create a great atmosphere as was obvious late in the soccer game last night - but upper deck seats especially are a long way away from the field because it was built for track. So I'm not sure how much (more) money they should spend on something that really doesn't work that well for anything.
They are truly caught between a rock and a hard place.
They cant just keep spending money each for basic needs as it continues to fall apart more and more each year.
It apparently is extremely expensive to even tear it down.
How much would/could need to be spent to make it a basic viable venue?
Anyway you look at it it is going to cost a lot of $$$
It is the lesser of which evil.
Spend to destroy or spend to fix something not used.
Then given the state that the old O is in, it is still in better shape than what Winnipeg has.
Hope that group is not building any malls or condos out there.
brihind88 wrote: Then given the state that the old O is in, it is still in better shape than what Winnipeg hasWhat, are you referring to IGF? It doesn't have a roof, much easier to repair as such since you aren't talking about a roof were the stadium was built to need one during the winter months and rain I assume for drainage. The Big Owe I believe needs a roof to exist, correct? :? But yes, there are problems with IGF. Legalities for sure. Single pane windows and poor insulation in Manitoba? That sounds plain stupid. I'm sure things like that were not done to building codes in Manitoba, one would think. [url=http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/sports/sports-cfl/story/1.2981173]http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/sports/sports ... /1.2981173[/url]
It was mainly a joke. Although neither is a laughing matter.
It is apples to oranges, but there are other problems with the O than just the roof.
However, the Oly is 38 years old while IGF is only 2 years.
There are more problems with the IGF than the Oly considering the age difference.
There is blame to go around. Corners were cut to make a deadline .
I always say do it right the first time. Better late than wrong.
They would have saved money being late than rushing it and faced with these costly repairs and legal issues.
I find it interesting in the story about the deficiencies at IGF they talk about needing them fixed now so that the stadium will last the 40-50 years they hope it will last.
Well the Olympic stadium IS almost that old. So how much more money do you want to throw at it if the expected life span of a stadium in most cases is 40 years or so.
Have you ever been in the place? I don’t know how they could ever get rid of it. There is a HUGE amount of concrete and I doubt they could ever blow it up. I think it will be around 1,000 years from now.
Yeah, the demolition of the tension cables inside the concrete would be pretty intense. It has been said that demolition would likely approach 400 million.
I’ve heard some estimates even higher than the $400 million for demolition cost. But eventually they’ll have to do something. Some estimates for a new (safe) roof are as high as $300 million and in the meantime they are spending millions a year on maintenance just to keep it in its current somewhat decrepit not so useful state.
At some point I think they will have to make the same painful decision they did with Mirabel Airport terminal. Kill it. Not to do so at some point (relatively soon) just stops making sense. Especially with no team as tenant to use it on a regular basis. To do a BC Place type reno would only make sense if somebody is guaranteed to play their games there. To spend that kind of money just in the hopes of attracting a few special events each year would not warrant that kind of renovation expenditure.
It is like the elevated section of Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway. Bite the bullet, demolish the thing before a chunk of concrete kills somebody. I’m sure the land could be used for something that makes more sense in Montreal.