A multi-purpose venue is still a good idea, but your suggestion about surrounding infrastructure or construction also brings some value to a sports complex GHT.
The theatre deal was with Empire Theatres but they are out of the business now.
https://www.empiretheatres.com/closing
[i]We have loved the many years of serving our loyal movie-goers.
Thank you for experiencing the movies with us.
All former Empire Theatres locations are under new ownership by
Cineplex Entertainment or Landmark Cinemas.[/i]
The unknown is whether Cineplex or Landmark want a theatre complex in that location.
That is encouraging and I agree that if possible during a renovation to reconfigure into a Football/Soccer set up would be a nice touch along with some suites.
Redoing the locker room facilities like at McMahon. could become home for the Als practice facility
Do what they do at BC Place for White Cap games where the upper is closed off for a smaller seating of 25K.
A big undertaking and cost but would be well worth it in drawing Big Events year round again. Grey Cups alone are pumping record amounts of money into the local economy.
The problem with putting a new roof on the Olympic Stadium is that what it would be attached to is almost 40 years old. The money would be far better spent on a brand new stadium (say 35-45 seats and built to be reconfigurable). The Big Owe will be a costly and time consuming demolition (I believe I read that they can’t implode it), but the land under it should help offset those costs; it should be possible to keep the connection to the Metro, making the space prime real estate.
Your statement about Olympic is true and that is what the question has been all along. Olympic was built at about the same time that the Superdome in New Orleans was built and instead of building a new stadium with a retractable roof Superdome was renovated after Hurricane Katrina at a cost of 320 million including new siding that was 30 years old.
So if the roof is the big problem and it cant even be knocked down then keeping the main structure and making upgrades would be reasonable.
I believe I read that the new roof would cost 50 Million.
Once a new roof is placed on Olympic even without a lot of other indoor upgrades a Grey Cup bid would probably be granted ASAP. The last GC in Montreal was in 2008 and that was just at the beginning of the CFL on RDS/TSN really took off. Now with more people than ever watching the CFL especially in Quebec on RDS a Grey Cup now in Montreal would really pump a ton of $$$ onto the city of Montreal.
Also now with the Impact drawing crowds and setting a combined TSN/RDS vs the White caps with an TV audience of over 500K sith 250K plus on RDS imagine if the Impact could draw some friendlies from the EPL or Ligue 1 to play at Olympic
The Stade Olympique would need a similar head-to-toe refurbishing, not just a new roof; the Superdome did not, to my knowledge, have an existing problem of the stadium randomly shedding chunks of concrete. If the structural integrity can be guaranteed, then a refurbishing makes sense. A hard surface roof would make the most sense, but would likely need some sort of arch system as the stadium was not designed to support a roof, that was the tower’s job.
You could still use a hard surface and have the winch cables suspend them. Same concept as a suspension bridge. Still does not tackle the rebar corrosion and water infiltration eating the skeleton…
To answer the original question, no. They will not think about new stadium for a long time. Not after they made such significant investment on the renovation of Molson Stadium.
As for the Big Owe, because of its structure and its links with other buildings and facilities, it can not be “demolished”. It has to be dismantled piece by piece. The cost of dismantling the Big Owe is in the hundreds of million of dollars. So, for the foreseeable future, the Big Owe is there to stay, falling concrete, ripped roof and everything.
i would have to agree. Montreal and their fans seem very happy playing out of McGill and they have done what has needed to be done, adding 5K seats modern suites, ti make it a CFL friendly home filed for the franchise.
The bigger issue is revamping and placing a roof on Olympic to give what all three of the biggest cities in Canada need and that is enclosed 55K plus seat venue that can be used for events year round.
Two major international events are coming to Canada in 2015 with the Pan Am Games and the WWC. Once they see the amount of $$$ that will be pumped in to the economy by having visitors from all over the world should turn some heads.
For Montreal whether it comes from public or private having the ability to host any event in Montreal with plenty of hotels, resturants, etc having a venue to host such events will be invaluable.
I have mentioned before that as soon as a new roof can be put on you can rest assured that the league and its TV partner TSN/RDS will want the GC their ASAP. 65K plus in seating. Also in the ERA of VIP sections and suite using the stage area for set up a super VIP section. The possibilities are endless and very lucrative.
With TSN/RDS parent company being Bell it is time that they purchase the naming rights for the Bell Olympic Stadium.
second the Als keeping the tradition of having home playoff games at Bell Olympic Stade.
Third. The Impact could use Bell Olympic for a pre season tournament. Inviting a team or two from a european league. French Ligue1, EPL, Mexico etc. in January or february.
Canada also now will have the ability to host a Concacaf Gold Cup with Olympic with no CFL team as there main home field would be a great situation to be the main location for opening games and semis and finals
Still being able to configure for baseball could be a sight for the World baseball classic. If the Blue Jays end of spring game series goes well this year it could become a yearly event.
The issue may be whether the tower was designed to support that kind of weight. Were the tower pulled down onto the stadium, the demolition process would get quite a jumpstart.
hmmm… .108% attendance… nice!
Molson stadium has a charm to it. A location which cannot be matched. When all the rest of the league is going new and state of the art, it's good to reserve some history. I've never had the problem with the bench seating at Molson that I did with the benches at IWS. My back didn't seem to notice I wasn't in a chair.
I hope Molson is around for a long time.
I agree I think the Als and their fans and players are very happy at Molson so happy that they invested in upgrades to raise capacity to 25K. Although not usually sold out it still pushes 23-24K a game so it is almost packed and are able to get the modern revenue streams by adding corporate luxury suites.’
The bigger picture will be to get Olympic winter playable again to be able to continue to host the 50K Als home playoff games tradition, get back into the Grey Cup hosting picture now that it has become a much bigger money maker for team and city since the last they hosted in 2008. Grey Cups now are automatic sellouts and with 65K plus seats as well as setting up some pricy VIP areas are too good for Montreal not to try to get the 50 million dollar roof on for starters.
Also possible for the very popular Impact to host an MLS Pre season soccer tournament during the bitter cold January and february Months.
Who knows what the CFL future has in store could a regular season game against Ottawa or a possible expansion QC become an event that would require a bigger venue once a season.
The Jays Spring training will end at Olympic this season and who knows if that goes well could be an annual event. Perhaps drawing some high profile teams like the Yankees or Red Sox may be something that MLB would like to see to get MLB a lil more popular in Montreal