Rogers Centre (SkyDome)

Rogers Centre, formerly known as (and often still called) SkyDome, is a multi-purpose stadium in Toronto, Ontario, situated next to the CN Tower near the shores of Lake Ontario. It is home to Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays and the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts. While it is primarily a sports venue, Rogers Centre also hosts other large-scale events such as conventions, trade fairs, and concerts.

	Capacity		50,598 (baseball), 53,506 (football)
	Opened		June 5, 1989
	Owner		Rogers Communications
	Cost		$570 million (canadian)
	Architect		Rod Robbie, Michael Allen

Rogers Centre is also noted for being the first stadium to have a fully retractable motorized roof and as a stadium to have hotel rooms attached to it , with 70 rooms overlooking the field. It is also the last North American major-league stadium built to accommodate both football and baseball.

Rogers Centre was designed by Rod Robbie and Michael Allen and was constructed by Ellis-Don Construction of London, Ontario. The stadium’s construction lasted just over three years, from April 1986 to May 1989. The approximate cost of construction was $600 million (CAD) which was paid for by the Canadian federal government, Ontario provincial government, and a large consortium of corporations. Though nominally a multi-purpose stadium the primary impetus for its construction was the need for a new baseball stadium for the Blue Jays, who until 1989 played at Exhibition Stadium, which was seen as substandard due to a layout originally designed for football and exposure to cold weather. It was the 1982 CFL Grey Cup game that began the process of looking for a new stadium. The professional football match turned into chaos as the sleet and snow turned the playing field into a muddy pit, the washrooms were overflowing and the crowds were exposed to the miserable autumn weather. In attendance was Ontario Premier, Bill Davis. Following the fiasco began the search for an all-purpose, all-weather stadium. Over the years various tangible projects emerged, including a large indoor stadium at Exhibition Place with an air supported dome – similar to Vancouver’s BC Place. In 1985 an international design competition was launched to design a new stadium, along with selection of a site for the stadium. Some of the sites included Exhibition Place and York University. The final site was located at the base of the CN Tower just west of a major railway and transit hub Union Station, downtown Toronto.

Ultimately the Robbie/Allen concept won for it provided the largest roof opening of all the finalists, and it was the most technically sound. Others stadium designs included one that was like a bow tie, which cast a shadow over the field.

The stadium was publicly funded. The initial cost was greatly underestimated, with the final tab coming in at $570 million CAD. The stadium was also completed late, having been planned to open for the first regular season Toronto Blue Jays game. The stadium would later become the thorn in the side of David Peterson’s Ontario Liberal government for its overspending in the venture. An election in 1990 saw the party lose power.

The name SkyDome was coined by a private citizen who entered a Province-wide contest to name the stadium. Sponsored by the Toronto Sun, ballots were offered for people to submit their suggested name. Several people did choose ‘SkyDome’, and as a result a winning name was drawn from all the similar entries. The selected winners won lifetime seats to SkyDome.

In the early 1990s the consortium of companies that had built the stadium had amassed a huge debt and a massive, and controversial, government bail-out was arranged. In 1998, Sportsco International LP bought the stadium for $85 million (Canadian). However, by 2004, Rogers Communications, parent company of the Blue Jays, agreed to acquire SkyDome from Sportco International, LP for about $25 million CAD (about $21.24 million USD) which was 1/24 the cost of construction.

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Rogers Centre website
Rogers Centre wikipedia entry
Toronto Blue Jays website
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