One thing to remember is there was a ton of organized crime related corruption in Montreal. During the the run up to the Olympics this really effect the construction on many of the venues in both quality and cost. quote from Roger Taillibert “The construction of the Olympic Park and stadium showed me a level of organised corruption, theft, mediocrity, sabotage and indifference that I had never witnessed before and have never witnessed since. The system failed completely and every civil engineering firm involved knew they could just open this veritable cash register and serve themselves.” Roger himself was removed for corruption.
There are a few statements wrong with the video. The first is that everything that needed to work was ready for the 1976 Summer Olympics. The government of Quebec took over construction, and while the tower wasn't ready or the roof for that matter, everything else was, and so they had a successful Olympic games. Next, like I was mentioning, the design of the tower was from the early 70s, but it wasn't actually completed until 1987. Part of the problem was they engineers determined that the tower would fall over if built the way it was supposed to be, and so they built it lighter and stronger than in the original designs. Next, he tower never had pieces fall off of it. It was part of the exterior of the stadium that fell onto the concourse outside. It was a non-structural, 50 ton piece of concrete that fell in 1990, forcing the Expos to play their remaining games on the road. The problem was that the 8 steel cables holding it up would freeze in the winter and thaw in the spring or summer, and so they eventually weakened and broke. To have non-structural pieces like that all over the stadium kind of means that the stadium is a post-modern design. Next, crowds were coming back to Olympic Stadium when they had good teams in the early 90s. I know because I was there. The average attendance in 1994, for instance, was over 24,000 per ball game. Because attendance figures are usually lower in the spring and higher in the summer, I would go to baseball games there during the week where there were routinely 35,000 people, and 50,000 on the weekends. To suggest that Montreal didn't support their team is ridiculous. When ownership destroyed the best team in baseball with the 2nd lowest payroll ($19 million) in 3 days in 1995, that's when they lost lots of fans, including me. No fan should go through what they went through in 1995. To think that the same team produced Larry Walker and Vlad Guerrero, both in RF, and a few years apart, is unbelievable. Montreal, with 4.3 million people, is by far the largest metropolitan area in Canada and the USA without a major league team and could support it easily with a good stadium. Heck, it would even support a team at Olympic Stadium. It's funny how the government doesn't have $300 million to build a baseball specific stadium but has $250 million for a roof for a stadium that is old and doesn't work properly. Even without a roof, baseball would work in a new stadium in Montreal. People would just wear jackets in April and October, if there is baseball then. The credit union that has offices in the Olympic tower is Desjardins. They are big in Quebec and have their head offices in Montreal in the entertainment district. From what I heard, I think the offices in the tower are quite nice, even though I've never seen them. They should just let Olympic Stadium crumble, but keep the tower, as there is nothing wrong with it, it's functional with a nice cable car, and it gets lots of tourists.
That's the third roof; the original roof costing $1 billion took many years to raise selling commemorative coins, and broke shortly after. The second was also short lived.
@@dprgrmmd No, it's not a dumb take. With $870 million, Montreal could build a new stadium for baseball and have lots of concerts there. Olympic stadium is not the Eiffel tower. It's a landmark that's past its prime. It shouldn't be kept just to satisfy a few French tourists. It's time for Montreal to have a new stadium and new amenities so that the people there get a new stadium experience. Then they'll understand what they have been deprived of for so long.
@@robinchase2141 the fact you need to reinforce your mindless point further proves my point. In fact the stadium could be repurposed for a huge array of things specifically restaurants events and civic services. I leave it at that because discussing intellectually with qc ppl is pointless. Look at your society LOL
I’ve always had such high hopes for this venue. Personally I think the design is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me so much of Santiago Calatrava’s works around the world. Not just another boring typical building, but something artistic and thinking outside the box. I’m not a fan or plain utilitarian buildings. They don’t inspire or make the world more enjoyable just walking down the street or looking at a skyline. As a big MLB fan, I do wish the Expos could come back. And frankly I think it would be amazing to do a multimillion dollar refit/renovation of this building. At least keeping the tower, but possibly gutting or tearing down the stadium below and working out a new artistic design below it that fits in.
Any renovation of the Olympic Stadium wouldn't cost millions, it would be billions, especially considering Montreal is home to the most corrupt construction industry in North America. They still have yet to begin repairing the torn roof (for a third time) even though the funding of $250million was approved all the way back in 2017.
@@adellis24 They should still do it. I get tired of so many beautiful and/or historic things being torn down, just because no one wants to invest the time or money in them. I’m glad we’ve finally started learning this with some places the past few decades, but it needs to be done more often. Even if it does cost billions. An old boxy strip mall isn’t worth preserving. Something like the Olympic Stadium is.
The corruption is not as bad as it was at the time of the stadium tho. Look at the Samuel-De-Champlain bridge or the REM. These look great and works fine. Same with the Metro, which was built BEFORE Olympic stadium. Its just that people and politicians don’t wanna put money in an empty venue when there are so many more important issues and I get that.
You know, you keep neglecting the fact that Olympic Stadium was also designed for the Montreal Alouettes as well which when they moved in after the Olympics was a power house team in the CFL. Also check out the 1977 Grey Cup game at Olympic stadium. Great story with that.
Montreal was a great baseball city back in the day. There were years in the 80s in which they outdrew the Mets, and they had been in Montreal for 15+ years when this happened. This, in spite of the fact that the franchise never had any success there. The attendance only got really bad when it was clear that Loria had no intention of keeping the team in Montreal. It's the biggest non-Mexican MSA in North America without an MLB team and baseball could work there. The MSAs for Las Vegas and Nashville are much smaller and the attendance in both of those cities will really fall off after a few years because they just don't have the populations to support MLB teams that have 81 home games a year.
I remember watching games on the TV played there in the early 80’s. The tower was half the size since it was still under construction. The stadium was open air. There was even a fire in the tower during construction. Once the towers was completed, they tried to get the retractable roof working, but it took several years to do it. In the late 80’s, I was able to go to Montreal to a few games, and they had the roof in place. The attendance at those games was a huge, but decent and one could see that those who were there loved their Expos. In the 90’s, they decided to put the roof on permanently since they couldn’t get it to work. I returned to Montreal in 2013, and we went up in the tower. It was a very cool observation deck. They were also still giving tours of the stadium. I think that the design concept is very cool, but not practical - especially for baseball. The hardest part is and has been for many years is what to do with it.
The one major problem with that roof system was wind. You could not open or close the roof system if there was any wind because just a slight breeze catching the roof tarp could snap and damage the cables and the tower. And when there were any snow storms the roof could not handle more than 5cm of snow. You would need a team of over 100 men to remove the snow and the stadium structure is also falling apart. The latest estimate it would cost $780 million just to replace the roof with a new one. As for a future expansion team, I don't expect that to happen because of all the delays from MLB on if or when Montreal will get a team. Prime downtown land is becoming unabalable and word that we may have to wait some 10-15 years before a team returns has made it harder to attract investors in the project.
Crazy that they'd design an Olympic Stadium as an.....Olympic Stadium. The stadium was completed for the Olympics....the tower wasn't. The roof couldn't have been used for the games anyway.
I was there live the first time they raised the roof. Odyssey music playing. It was cool but letting a French architect design a stadium for 10 days instead of baseball was mistake 1, been to well over 100-150 games and never felt like a ballpark, actually Jarry Park was much friendlier. ⚾⚾
Can you do a video on bad stadium renovations? Either the Reno design was ugly or the team left anyway etc. I think the carrier dome renovation looks goofy
Parts of the tower never detached and felled on the pitch. Snow fell after a tear of the membrane. There was a collapse of a concrete part the outer structure for sure though. It happened once.
A small piece of metal fell in centre field during a game. The road team was fielding at the time. It was being welden in place at the time. so that would have happened in the mid eighties, maybe 1986.
You forgot that Montreal is a baseball city. Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals before MLB. The Expos fell apart after the MLB strike in 94 and when sold to Loria... he pulled games off TV, invested in no talents instead selling everyone, against a new stadium being built and had Selig in his corner for contraction with the Minesotta Twins... they get a new stadium eventually. The fans knew what was happening especially when the relocation talks started and the team being moved to Puerto Rico. MLB wanted Washingtom to have its 3rd try at professional baseball. The fans are there... it will work of they are not in the worst stadium in MLB history. Every city that lost their team got it back. Same division as the Jays... it works.
Wasn’t their attendance always bad though? Even before 94? Their lack of playoff appearances are bad too, to only make it one in 1981 in their 35 years.
@@RB01.10 Attendance was good before 94. The team had players like larry walker and pedro martinez. Do you think the rays and marlins get better numbers today? After the strike... the management and ownership stopped caring. Read what was written above. Also, their new stadium deal fell apart. A lot has changed since 2004 when they left. The Jays hosted a few games since... all sell outs. Merchandise still being sold and worn throughout the city. If you move them to the same division as Jays... it's perfect.
@@saltbae865 That’s the thing though, people love dunking on the Marlins but they at least won two World Series within their first 10 years despite being a Wild Card team both times. Was the fact the Wild Card wasn’t introduced until 1995 part of the reason why the Expos kept missing the playoffs? It seems that by looking at a lot of their seasons with winning records they should’ve made the playoffs more times than just 1981 which was a strike shortened season anyway. Do you think though had the 94 strike not killed the season and the Expos ended up making or even winning the World Series would they have stayed?
@@RB01.10 I think that there are other teams like as well with no world series rings or even division titles. Don't you believe winning would have helped... of course. If a new ownership group comes in and sees the benefit of contending and having a rivalry with the Jays... not just interleague play... it will be just as good as markets like Kansas City or Minesotta. You need good ownership... a team now is like 2 bill so it may be taken more seriously. It's a large market and diverse city... lots lf baseball history... MLB should give Montreal another chance.
I get it would be expensive but if Montreal gets a MLB team again they should renovate the Olympic stadium to be baseball only and a proper retractable roof
Yes. Singe blowing it up is not on the table better spending millions to finally fix it than building a costly new stadium and see this marvel of engineering rot away.
I am guessing that MLB is banking on a "Build it they will come" mentality in Tampa because things don't look good when you have a crappy stadium and are the 3rd worst attended team in 2022.
@@DemonAngelTag Won't help them, just a waste of money. And unfortunately because I live near Tampa I'm going to have to pay to help build it. It can be bright and sunny and nobody will go to Ray's games. Yet my team in Seattle, it can be pouring down rain and they fill Safeco with no issue.
A downtown stadium and it would work. There is still a Hunger for baseball in Montreal, and there is history with the major league baseball that goes back to Jackie Robinson playing for the Montreal Royals. But if there isn’t a stadium downtown, it won’t work.
Why didn’t anyone go to the games though? They always said they had bad attendance even before 94. Add to the fact they only made the playoffs once in their 35 years
@@RB01.10 had been to many Expos games where it was practically sold out. Especially in 93 & 94. But it is true what they say about it. Attendance fell. There were a couple American baseball teams had similar attendance problems,Milwaukee and Minnesota were having trouble around the same time. Lol. One Massive Problem though about the Olympic stadium. Location,location,location. If there was a downtown stadium a major league baseball team would succeed Montreal
The Expos had the fans when they were winning. The 1994 strike and trading all their players who won World Series with different uniforms including Pedro Martinez.
That tower still holds the world record for the tallest inclined tower, throughout the 80's there was a restaurant there, the roof was completed in 1987 Darryl Strawberry almost hit a ball off it opening day, there were wind and weather restrictions on when it needed to move, there was a game with a 2 hour delay because it was open then rained and they had to close it, it was made of Kevlar which made it bullet proof but it wasn't water proof and it torn open so much the army bought it for less then a dollar they took it down and cut it up to make blankets, the stadium was completed in time for the olympics although it was the smallest of the modern day with a capacity of under 60000, perfect example of building a horrible multi purpose stadium the football field was made up of 2 different field turf systems, another major problem with it is that it was built in the far east end of town which was not a good location, a section fell inside in 1996 and there was another problem with the stadium in 2003 resulting in the Expos playing in Puerto Rico, what really killed baseball in Montreal was Jeffery Lurie wanted to move the game and stopped the english broadcasts, it would cost billions to tear it down
I still love the place... That being said, if you think it was a bad venue for baseball, you should have seen a football game there. The only OK seats were between the 30 yards lines in the 2 lowest levels. And there were NO lower level seats outside the 30's.
1st. Time going there in 1982-83. The Tower was only about half way finished at that time. Went back in 1994 & 95 it was finished & watched Montreal play The Colorado Rockies in Baseball.
Amazing that if there was never a strike that killed the 94 season the Expos were great that year and we're the favorite to win it all and had the best record. By the time the strike ended in 95 their best players left as free agents and as many times as that happened there losing that possible title killed baseball there.
As a native of Montreal it's a bit of it's a bit of I love hate relationship. Technically adjusted for inflation if I believe correct later if I believe correctly that building Was the most expensive stadium ever built up until so fI. It's been a 50 year cluster fack
Having watched many MLB games at this venue and as someone who lived in Montreal for a number of years, the city would absolutely support an MLB team but not in that location and not in that stadium in the long term. This is a sports market that vehemently votes with their wallets and they were absolutely done dirty by their ownership which dismantled WS quality teams in the mid-90s and the 94 strike in particular killed off the support with everything going on at the time. The fan experience here and sightlines to watch from were awful. Being in row 1 for a baseball game there is like being in row 25 in basically any other modern stadium. The location is far from downtown, with poor access to transit and really poor access to the highway system so getting there is a chore (sound like familiar issues with the Rays?)
Cost 5 times the budget to build, was 25 years behind schedule, now is only used for monster truck and tractor pull and will cost just as much to demolish as it did to build
The stadium is undeniably lousy, but also keep in mind the location. It's on the east end which is far from the English speaking population and has limited transit connectivity. This stadium was a bad fit from day one. Also, the weakness of the Canadian dollar and one Jeffrey Loria finished this team off. What might have been?
Yup ! They should've built that with an included PERMANENT roof instead ! Wanting a retractable roof is like buying a mobile home, but it never moves from its spot ! They never should've hired that French architect Roger Taillibert ! I think they absolutely wanted French-speaking architects and didn't want to have anything to do with English-speaking ones ! The 70's was a time of Separatism, with the Parti Québecois & all.
I can't and won't say that MLB should not go back to Montreal. When they had good teams, the fans came.. but the ownership couldn't get out of their own way and really made sure they would be allowed to move the team by tanking. I would love to see a team go back, but Stade Olympique is and was that infamous cookie cutter that nobody really liked. The will need a new stadium and something tells me.. that won't happen. If a hockey team wants one.. it would be built.. but not baseball..
@@phightinphil25 Yeah, but lets be honest.. a NHL/NBA arena costs a fraction of a MLB stadium, and will have more uses beyond the primary tenant (concerts, circus's.. etc) where an MLB stadium is probably open air and that means 6 months out of the year, COLD!... and not very useful. That's before we take into account that it's Canada and hockey is not a sport, but a religion. I know the NHL has shown zero interest in returning.. not sure why beyond maybe the market size..
@@ronpeacock9939 Because Bettman (Who is American.) clearly doesn't care about Canadian hockey fans in my opinion. He has his commitment to the south of the US and that's why Pheonix still has a team while playing in a 3,000 seat university stadium (No other "big 4" league would put up with that capacity being the max and with these owners.) with no solid plans for a professional level stadium that would take 2-3 years to build in the works. My point was about how strong the Hockey market is in Canada, not necessarily the market for baseball. I am sorry if I confused you.
@@phightinphil25 You didn't confuse me... I'm a hockey fan first and baseball second.. and I know the `Yotes mess better than most (as I live 25 mins from their old Gila River Arena).. I agree, that there should be hockey.. but hockey was not the subject at hand.. Baseball was. That stadium is an old cookie cutter.. which was universally hated. I loved the expos even though I was in Buffalo at the time. (Gary Carter had a lot to do with that long before he became a Met).. when the Expos won.. fans came.. the problem is, ownership tanked the team badly the last few years to ensure the ability to move. That is a crime against sport in general. The hockey situation was different with Quebec.. do I think the NHL should return... probably, but the NHL does not intend to expand and for some reason, Buttman hates Quebec... I am an Avs fan (having lived there for years as well).. but I disliked the Nordiques moving (the North Stars and Jets even less).. but that's hockey and a totally different subject from here.. this was baseball... and it should have stayed.. with new ownership and the old ownership should not have been allowed to get a different franchise since they didn't even try in MTL.
@@ronpeacock9939 Loria should have never been allowed to buy the Marlins and then run them into the ground twice and fleece the taxpayers to build Marlins park after what he did in Montreal that's obvious . I agree with you that it's unlikely that Montreal will get replacement MLB team.
I visited Montreal in a trip to Canada just before my 10th birthday, and saw the Expos play the Phillies. This was an unusually highly attended Expos game (the attendance hadn't quite collapsed to the level it was when they moved 8 years later) and because of how low the roof is as can be seen in the outside pictures of the stadium the noise level was incredible and left me with a severe migraine. I think getting Montreal another MLB team might be a bit unrealistic, but it would be nice if we got more baseball played in perhaps a new stadium that's not quite big enough for MLB. Perhaps Montreal could get a AAA team again, they had a successful one where Jackie Robinson made his professional debut which is the reason Montreal got a MLB team before Toronto did.
Sounds like you were there in mid 90s when the Expos had good teams and attendance was usually good. The problem is that MLB made it a self-fulfiling product by dissing on the team and city (as well as other issues) and residents just stopped going after years of being told the team was moving. As for a AAA team, I doubt that's going to happen. The last one in Canada was in Ottawa in 2007 and the minor leagues back then pretty much said they didn't want to be in Canada.
I want to share this stadium was post modernism which becomes dated overtime.If you look at stadiums like the sky dome, they become dated because they follow the trend at the time (big cookie cutter multipurpose stadium with hard carpet turf).
I had the "pleasure" of catching a Padres v Expos game in August 1990 at Olympic Stadium. What a POS place! It was 14 years old and already a major dump. Now...the tower area at the time was filled with Expos offices and tourist related stuff. They let you ride up the tower so you could walk around up there and see the view. Kinda cool...haha. Surprised anyone would spend $250 million on that facility. Blow it up and start fresh. Problem there is...the Expos (or whomever shows up) wouldn't be able to to put 25k people in the seats. That's why they left Montreal.
So baseball in Montreal is dead. Here is the short version of it. A former mayor who had business ties with Rays ownership threw a lot of money at sports projects. He has been part of the group to bring a baseball team back. Much of the recent stadium talks in Montreal were dependent on local government making a big contribution. Montreals political landscape has changed dramatically, and there won't be any support from local government for these types of projects, unless something drastically changes. That former mayor has lost twice now, including by nearly 20% the last election. The current mayor has zero interest in funding a baseball stadium, and they will be in power for 2 more years at a minimum.
About the stadium, you got a few facts wrong, and some things in the wrong decade. About the team attendance, who would go see a team that is going to move? No one. (See Oakland.) About spring training, they sold out 2 games every spring for about 6 years, ending only for the pandemic. About the future of MLB, the stadium will never host baseball again. It is being renovated this year to become SOCCER and CANADIAN FOOTBALL only. Even the clubhouses have been destroyed. PS Montreal’s MLS and CFL teams have thier own small home stadia and have no interest in the Big O.
A retractable roof in a city with that much snow is just impossible, there's just no engineering solution for that. It will never be 100% safe and reliable. Either go 100% dome or go 100% outdoor.
100% outdoor is difficult in the early spring and late fall because of snow and cold as well. Nobody wants a pure dome unless you find a way to at least get light in, ideally without blinding the players.
@@dickensonfarms And it was built a decade and a bit earlier. Due to that reality and the design it was always going to be harder to get a good result and they got a bad result resulting in constant replacements.
@Phightinphil25 the stadium itself was. The roof only predated the Skydome by a couple years. It seemed like the Big Owe was a pipe dream of trying to do everything at once, and a combination of shortcuts in construction, and being too far ahead of its time doomed it
@@dickensonfarms I think the roof was designed at the same time as the stadium they just couldn't get it built for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to bureaucracy, corruption, labor disagreements, stubbornness and refusal to to change designs by the lead architect who was then fired, and faulty materials. It's a shame they didn't just try and adapt a more modern and less artistic retracting roof in the 8 years they had between the Olympics and the installation of the very flawed original roof.
1:32 WTF are you even talking about? For several years the roof WAS RETRACTABLE. It was retractable all the way until 1998 lol The tower was always empty because it was supposed to house different sports associations after the Olympics and it never happened. It now has multiple tenants and it generates more money than is require to maintain. The Olympic Stadium isn't really a dump, it's used multiple times a month for events. This whole video is stupid lol The current roof is fixed, it doesn't move and it was never designed to move because the city didn't want to risk it anymore. You should at least try to go to an event there once in your life. It's an incredibly impressive building even for today's standards.
One thing to remember is there was a ton of organized crime related corruption in Montreal. During the the run up to the Olympics this really effect the construction on many of the venues in both quality and cost. quote from Roger Taillibert “The construction of the Olympic Park and stadium showed me a level of organised corruption, theft, mediocrity, sabotage and indifference that I had never witnessed before and have never witnessed since. The system failed completely and every civil engineering firm involved knew they could just open this veritable cash register and serve themselves.” Roger himself was removed for corruption.
Construction + Corruption + Montreal = Sounds like a perfect match!!!!!
There are a few statements wrong with the video. The first is that everything that needed to work was ready for the 1976 Summer Olympics. The government of Quebec took over construction, and while the tower wasn't ready or the roof for that matter, everything else was, and so they had a successful Olympic games.
Next, like I was mentioning, the design of the tower was from the early 70s, but it wasn't actually completed until 1987. Part of the problem was they engineers determined that the tower would fall over if built the way it was supposed to be, and so they built it lighter and stronger than in the original designs.
Next, he tower never had pieces fall off of it. It was part of the exterior of the stadium that fell onto the concourse outside. It was a non-structural, 50 ton piece of concrete that fell in 1990, forcing the Expos to play their remaining games on the road. The problem was that the 8 steel cables holding it up would freeze in the winter and thaw in the spring or summer, and so they eventually weakened and broke. To have non-structural pieces like that all over the stadium kind of means that the stadium is a post-modern design.
Next, crowds were coming back to Olympic Stadium when they had good teams in the early 90s. I know because I was there. The average attendance in 1994, for instance, was over 24,000 per ball game. Because attendance figures are usually lower in the spring and higher in the summer, I would go to baseball games there during the week where there were routinely 35,000 people, and 50,000 on the weekends. To suggest that Montreal didn't support their team is ridiculous. When ownership destroyed the best team in baseball with the 2nd lowest payroll ($19 million) in 3 days in 1995, that's when they lost lots of fans, including me. No fan should go through what they went through in 1995. To think that the same team produced Larry Walker and Vlad Guerrero, both in RF, and a few years apart, is unbelievable. Montreal, with 4.3 million people, is by far the largest metropolitan area in Canada and the USA without a major league team and could support it easily with a good stadium. Heck, it would even support a team at Olympic Stadium.
It's funny how the government doesn't have $300 million to build a baseball specific stadium but has $250 million for a roof for a stadium that is old and doesn't work properly. Even without a roof, baseball would work in a new stadium in Montreal. People would just wear jackets in April and October, if there is baseball then.
The credit union that has offices in the Olympic tower is Desjardins. They are big in Quebec and have their head offices in Montreal in the entertainment district. From what I heard, I think the offices in the tower are quite nice, even though I've never seen them. They should just let Olympic Stadium crumble, but keep the tower, as there is nothing wrong with it, it's functional with a nice cable car, and it gets lots of tourists.
Thanks for the info. I was in Montreal last week. Nice town. Also visited Quebec City. Very beautiful.
That's the third roof; the original roof costing $1 billion took many years to raise selling commemorative coins, and broke shortly after. The second was also short lived.
Ya let it crumble what a dumb take.
@@dprgrmmd No, it's not a dumb take. With $870 million, Montreal could build a new stadium for baseball and have lots of concerts there. Olympic stadium is not the Eiffel tower. It's a landmark that's past its prime. It shouldn't be kept just to satisfy a few French tourists. It's time for Montreal to have a new stadium and new amenities so that the people there get a new stadium experience. Then they'll understand what they have been deprived of for so long.
@@robinchase2141 the fact you need to reinforce your mindless point further proves my point.
In fact the stadium could be repurposed for a huge array of things specifically restaurants events and civic services.
I leave it at that because discussing intellectually with qc ppl is pointless. Look at your society LOL
I’ve always had such high hopes for this venue. Personally I think the design is absolutely beautiful. It reminds me so much of Santiago Calatrava’s works around the world. Not just another boring typical building, but something artistic and thinking outside the box. I’m not a fan or plain utilitarian buildings. They don’t inspire or make the world more enjoyable just walking down the street or looking at a skyline. As a big MLB fan, I do wish the Expos could come back. And frankly I think it would be amazing to do a multimillion dollar refit/renovation of this building. At least keeping the tower, but possibly gutting or tearing down the stadium below and working out a new artistic design below it that fits in.
Any renovation of the Olympic Stadium wouldn't cost millions, it would be billions, especially considering Montreal is home to the most corrupt construction industry in North America. They still have yet to begin repairing the torn roof (for a third time) even though the funding of $250million was approved all the way back in 2017.
@@adellis24 They should still do it. I get tired of so many beautiful and/or historic things being torn down, just because no one wants to invest the time or money in them. I’m glad we’ve finally started learning this with some places the past few decades, but it needs to be done more often. Even if it does cost billions. An old boxy strip mall isn’t worth preserving. Something like the Olympic Stadium is.
The corruption is not as bad as it was at the time of the stadium tho. Look at the Samuel-De-Champlain bridge or the REM. These look great and works fine. Same with the Metro, which was built BEFORE Olympic stadium. Its just that people and politicians don’t wanna put money in an empty venue when there are so many more important issues and I get that.
You know, you keep neglecting the fact that Olympic Stadium was also designed for the Montreal Alouettes as well which when they moved in after the Olympics was a power house team in the CFL. Also check out the 1977 Grey Cup game at Olympic stadium. Great story with that.
Montreal was a great baseball city back in the day. There were years in the 80s in which they outdrew the Mets, and they had been in Montreal for 15+ years when this happened. This, in spite of the fact that the franchise never had any success there. The attendance only got really bad when it was clear that Loria had no intention of keeping the team in Montreal. It's the biggest non-Mexican MSA in North America without an MLB team and baseball could work there. The MSAs for Las Vegas and Nashville are much smaller and the attendance in both of those cities will really fall off after a few years because they just don't have the populations to support MLB teams that have 81 home games a year.
I remember watching games on the TV played there in the early 80’s. The tower was half the size since it was still under construction. The stadium was open air. There was even a fire in the tower during construction. Once the towers was completed, they tried to get the retractable roof working, but it took several years to do it. In the late 80’s, I was able to go to Montreal to a few games, and they had the roof in place. The attendance at those games was a huge, but decent and one could see that those who were there loved their Expos. In the 90’s, they decided to put the roof on permanently since they couldn’t get it to work. I returned to Montreal in 2013, and we went up in the tower. It was a very cool observation deck. They were also still giving tours of the stadium. I think that the design concept is very cool, but not practical - especially for baseball. The hardest part is and has been for many years is what to do with it.
The one major problem with that roof system was wind. You could not open or close the roof system if there was any wind because just a slight breeze catching the roof tarp could snap and damage the cables and the tower. And when there were any snow storms the roof could not handle more than 5cm of snow. You would need a team of over 100 men to remove the snow and the stadium structure is also falling apart. The latest estimate it would cost $780 million just to replace the roof with a new one.
As for a future expansion team, I don't expect that to happen because of all the delays from MLB on if or when Montreal will get a team. Prime downtown land is becoming unabalable and word that we may have to wait some 10-15 years before a team returns has made it harder to attract investors in the project.
Crazy that they'd design an Olympic Stadium as an.....Olympic Stadium.
The stadium was completed for the Olympics....the tower wasn't. The roof couldn't have been used for the games anyway.
Montreal deserves.To get the EXPOS back and have the rivalry between the expos and Blue Jays Again
I think it looks awesome. I love the tower, especially when the room is open it’s an epic backdrop for a game
Your reaction to the canopy design 😂
2,000 years ago, the Romans had a retractable roof over the 50,000 seat Colosseum.
Montreal engineering firms knew this was utopia from the start but they jumped in for the money
I was there live the first time they raised the roof. Odyssey music playing. It was cool but letting a French architect design a stadium for 10 days instead of baseball was mistake 1, been to well over 100-150 games and never felt like a ballpark, actually Jarry Park was much friendlier. ⚾⚾
Can you do a video on bad stadium renovations? Either the Reno design was ugly or the team left anyway etc. I think the carrier dome renovation looks goofy
Parts of the tower never detached and felled on the pitch. Snow fell after a tear of the membrane. There was a collapse of a concrete part the outer structure for sure though. It happened once.
A small piece of metal fell in centre field during a game. The road team was fielding at the time. It was being welden in place at the time. so that would have happened in the mid eighties, maybe 1986.
Montreal is 10 years out from getting an MLB team. The Big O needs to come down and a new, smaller dome stadium needs to be built in the same place.
You forgot that Montreal is a baseball city. Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals before MLB. The Expos fell apart after the MLB strike in 94 and when sold to Loria... he pulled games off TV, invested in no talents instead selling everyone, against a new stadium being built and had Selig in his corner for contraction with the Minesotta Twins... they get a new stadium eventually. The fans knew what was happening especially when the relocation talks started and the team being moved to Puerto Rico. MLB wanted Washingtom to have its 3rd try at professional baseball. The fans are there... it will work of they are not in the worst stadium in MLB history. Every city that lost their team got it back. Same division as the Jays... it works.
Wasn’t their attendance always bad though? Even before 94?
Their lack of playoff appearances are bad too, to only make it one in 1981 in their 35 years.
@@RB01.10 Attendance was good before 94. The team had players like larry walker and pedro martinez. Do you think the rays and marlins get better numbers today? After the strike... the management and ownership stopped caring. Read what was written above. Also, their new stadium deal fell apart. A lot has changed since 2004 when they left. The Jays hosted a few games since... all sell outs. Merchandise still being sold and worn throughout the city. If you move them to the same division as Jays... it's perfect.
@@RB01.10 Exactly... if you contend you get better attendance... something the Rays and Marlins have not done despite being in the playoffs.
@@saltbae865 That’s the thing though, people love dunking on the Marlins but they at least won two World Series within their first 10 years despite being a Wild Card team both times.
Was the fact the Wild Card wasn’t introduced until 1995 part of the reason why the Expos kept missing the playoffs? It seems that by looking at a lot of their seasons with winning records they should’ve made the playoffs more times than just 1981 which was a strike shortened season anyway.
Do you think though had the 94 strike not killed the season and the Expos ended up making or even winning the World Series would they have stayed?
@@RB01.10 I think that there are other teams like as well with no world series rings or even division titles. Don't you believe winning would have helped... of course. If a new ownership group comes in and sees the benefit of contending and having a rivalry with the Jays... not just interleague play... it will be just as good as markets like Kansas City or Minesotta. You need good ownership... a team now is like 2 bill so it may be taken more seriously. It's a large market and diverse city... lots lf baseball history... MLB should give Montreal another chance.
I get it would be expensive but if Montreal gets a MLB team again they should renovate the Olympic stadium to be baseball only and a proper retractable roof
Yes. Singe blowing it up is not on the table better spending millions to finally fix it than building a costly new stadium and see this marvel of engineering rot away.
The Rays aren’t moving, they’re very close to getting a deal done in Florida, and unlike the A’s the MLB doesn’t want them to move
I am guessing that MLB is banking on a "Build it they will come" mentality in Tampa because things don't look good when you have a crappy stadium and are the 3rd worst attended team in 2022.
@@DemonAngelTag Won't help them, just a waste of money. And unfortunately because I live near Tampa I'm going to have to pay to help build it.
It can be bright and sunny and nobody will go to Ray's games. Yet my team in Seattle, it can be pouring down rain and they fill Safeco with no issue.
@@wesleysteeleiv Well salute from a Washington State Native and a Mariner fan since 1977.
@@wesleysteeleiv It’s about Market Size, West Florida is a massive and growing Market no sports league would want to leave
Expansion is the best option
A downtown stadium and it would work. There is still a
Hunger for baseball in Montreal, and there is history with the major league baseball that goes back to Jackie Robinson playing for the Montreal Royals. But if there isn’t a stadium downtown, it won’t work.
Why didn’t anyone go to the games though? They always said they had bad attendance even before 94.
Add to the fact they only made the playoffs once in their 35 years
@@RB01.10 had been to many Expos games where it was practically sold out. Especially in 93 & 94. But it is true what they say about it. Attendance fell. There were a couple American baseball teams
had similar attendance problems,Milwaukee and Minnesota were having trouble around the same time. Lol. One Massive Problem though about the Olympic stadium. Location,location,location. If there was a downtown stadium a major league baseball team would succeed Montreal
The Expos had the fans when they were winning. The 1994 strike and trading all their players who won World Series with different uniforms including Pedro Martinez.
I heard this was the first $1 billion dollar stadium back in 2003. That boggles my mind, but it was a money pit.
Its original nickname was "The Big O" but Montreal also called it "The Big Owe".
That tower still holds the world record for the tallest inclined tower, throughout the 80's there was a restaurant there, the roof was completed in 1987 Darryl Strawberry almost hit a ball off it opening day, there were wind and weather restrictions on when it needed to move, there was a game with a 2 hour delay because it was open then rained and they had to close it, it was made of Kevlar which made it bullet proof but it wasn't water proof and it torn open so much the army bought it for less then a dollar they took it down and cut it up to make blankets, the stadium was completed in time for the olympics although it was the smallest of the modern day with a capacity of under 60000, perfect example of building a horrible multi purpose stadium the football field was made up of 2 different field turf systems, another major problem with it is that it was built in the far east end of town which was not a good location, a section fell inside in 1996 and there was another problem with the stadium in 2003 resulting in the Expos playing in Puerto Rico, what really killed baseball in Montreal was Jeffery Lurie wanted to move the game and stopped the english broadcasts, it would cost billions to tear it down
I still love the place... That being said, if you think it was a bad venue for baseball, you should have seen a football game there. The only OK seats were between the 30 yards lines in the 2 lowest levels. And there were NO lower level seats outside the 30's.
Iconic like the Sydney Opera House; a priceless globally recognized brand for Montreal and Canada. Timeless, awesome in person, dare-to-dream big!
They would have to do something with the roof in order to get a baseball team to use it, even as a temporary venue.
1st. Time going there in 1982-83. The Tower was only about half way finished at that time. Went back in 1994 & 95 it was finished & watched Montreal play The Colorado Rockies in Baseball.
Amazing that if there was never a strike that killed the 94 season the Expos were great that year and we're the favorite to win it all and had the best record. By the time the strike ended in 95 their best players left as free agents and as many times as that happened there losing that possible title killed baseball there.
As a native of Montreal it's a bit of it's a bit of I love hate relationship. Technically adjusted for inflation if I believe correct later if I believe correctly that building Was the most expensive stadium ever built up until so fI. It's been a 50 year cluster fack
Two things with Montreal is that,, they have to have a roof, if they go back there and two Olympic stadium put the city in heavy debt.
Having watched many MLB games at this venue and as someone who lived in Montreal for a number of years, the city would absolutely support an MLB team but not in that location and not in that stadium in the long term. This is a sports market that vehemently votes with their wallets and they were absolutely done dirty by their ownership which dismantled WS quality teams in the mid-90s and the 94 strike in particular killed off the support with everything going on at the time.
The fan experience here and sightlines to watch from were awful. Being in row 1 for a baseball game there is like being in row 25 in basically any other modern stadium. The location is far from downtown, with poor access to transit and really poor access to the highway system so getting there is a chore (sound like familiar issues with the Rays?)
The jays stopped playing games in Montreal bc of the pandemic. I was supposed to go watch the 2020 one with my family but well… IT happened.
The roof opening looks like the flying monster in NOPE
It does!! 😂😅
It opened, it just didn't work the way it was supposed to.
9:28 anyone notice the hang glider in the photo?
The Astrodome
Cost 5 times the budget to build, was 25 years behind schedule, now is only used for monster truck and tractor pull and will cost just as much to demolish as it did to build
I went there and rode the elevator to the observatory at the top of the tower when i was 13. Pretty cool place at the time.
Stadium was a gong show from the start...its a dump
The stadium is undeniably lousy, but also keep in mind the location. It's on the east end which is far from the English speaking population and has limited transit connectivity. This stadium was a bad fit from day one. Also, the weakness of the Canadian dollar and one Jeffrey Loria finished this team off. What might have been?
There are literally two metro stations deserving the stadium as well as like 3 bus lines. Please stop being a lazy man.
I wouldn't be surprise if the stadium got hit by meteor shower
It was kind off cool for the era of multi purpose cookie cutter stadiums.
Yup ! They should've built that with an included PERMANENT roof instead ! Wanting a retractable roof is like buying a mobile home, but it never moves from its spot !
They never should've hired that French architect Roger Taillibert ! I think they absolutely wanted French-speaking architects and didn't want to have anything to do with English-speaking ones ! The 70's was a time of Separatism, with the Parti Québecois & all.
1:59 anyone ever seen the movie Nope (2022)?
NOPE! NOPE! NOPE!
The Big O. My dad was a huge Expos fan growing up
As an adult if I wanted autographs from the Expos , I would hit the Chez Paree strip club after a game this is were the players would be
It did work, for minute
I can't and won't say that MLB should not go back to Montreal. When they had good teams, the fans came.. but the ownership couldn't get out of their own way and really made sure they would be allowed to move the team by tanking. I would love to see a team go back, but Stade Olympique is and was that infamous cookie cutter that nobody really liked. The will need a new stadium and something tells me.. that won't happen. If a hockey team wants one.. it would be built.. but not baseball..
I mean heck Quebec (the city) got an NHL arena (belatedly) for a team the NHL won't give them.
@@phightinphil25 Yeah, but lets be honest.. a NHL/NBA arena costs a fraction of a MLB stadium, and will have more uses beyond the primary tenant (concerts, circus's.. etc) where an MLB stadium is probably open air and that means 6 months out of the year, COLD!... and not very useful. That's before we take into account that it's Canada and hockey is not a sport, but a religion. I know the NHL has shown zero interest in returning.. not sure why beyond maybe the market size..
@@ronpeacock9939 Because Bettman (Who is American.) clearly doesn't care about Canadian hockey fans in my opinion. He has his commitment to the south of the US and that's why Pheonix still has a team while playing in a 3,000 seat university stadium (No other "big 4" league would put up with that capacity being the max and with these owners.) with no solid plans for a professional level stadium that would take 2-3 years to build in the works. My point was about how strong the Hockey market is in Canada, not necessarily the market for baseball. I am sorry if I confused you.
@@phightinphil25 You didn't confuse me... I'm a hockey fan first and baseball second.. and I know the `Yotes mess better than most (as I live 25 mins from their old Gila River Arena).. I agree, that there should be hockey.. but hockey was not the subject at hand.. Baseball was. That stadium is an old cookie cutter.. which was universally hated. I loved the expos even though I was in Buffalo at the time. (Gary Carter had a lot to do with that long before he became a Met).. when the Expos won.. fans came.. the problem is, ownership tanked the team badly the last few years to ensure the ability to move. That is a crime against sport in general. The hockey situation was different with Quebec.. do I think the NHL should return... probably, but the NHL does not intend to expand and for some reason, Buttman hates Quebec... I am an Avs fan (having lived there for years as well).. but I disliked the Nordiques moving (the North Stars and Jets even less).. but that's hockey and a totally different subject from here.. this was baseball... and it should have stayed.. with new ownership and the old ownership should not have been allowed to get a different franchise since they didn't even try in MTL.
@@ronpeacock9939 Loria should have never been allowed to buy the Marlins and then run them into the ground twice and fleece the taxpayers to build Marlins park after what he did in Montreal that's obvious . I agree with you that it's unlikely that Montreal will get replacement MLB team.
whose*
I visited Montreal in a trip to Canada just before my 10th birthday, and saw the Expos play the Phillies. This was an unusually highly attended Expos game (the attendance hadn't quite collapsed to the level it was when they moved 8 years later) and because of how low the roof is as can be seen in the outside pictures of the stadium the noise level was incredible and left me with a severe migraine.
I think getting Montreal another MLB team might be a bit unrealistic, but it would be nice if we got more baseball played in perhaps a new stadium that's not quite big enough for MLB. Perhaps Montreal could get a AAA team again, they had a successful one where Jackie Robinson made his professional debut which is the reason Montreal got a MLB team before Toronto did.
Sounds like you were there in mid 90s when the Expos had good teams and attendance was usually good. The problem is that MLB made it a self-fulfiling product by dissing on the team and city (as well as other issues) and residents just stopped going after years of being told the team was moving.
As for a AAA team, I doubt that's going to happen. The last one in Canada was in Ottawa in 2007 and the minor leagues back then pretty much said they didn't want to be in Canada.
Honestly they should renovate the stadium so they can get the Expos back
And design a floating ice rink above the ground supported by giant helium balloons so we van bring the Nordiques back
Man oh man, talk about a white elephant!!!
AT least an elephant pulls it a r s e
I want to share this stadium was post modernism which becomes dated overtime.If you look at stadiums like the sky dome, they become dated because they follow the trend at the time (big cookie cutter multipurpose stadium with hard carpet turf).
Rip off the roof, make it a proper canopy baseball stadium ans put some real grass.
Voila
I had the "pleasure" of catching a Padres v Expos game in August 1990 at Olympic Stadium. What a POS place! It was 14 years old and already a major dump.
Now...the tower area at the time was filled with Expos offices and tourist related stuff. They let you ride up the tower so you could walk around up there and see the view. Kinda cool...haha.
Surprised anyone would spend $250 million on that facility. Blow it up and start fresh. Problem there is...the Expos (or whomever shows up) wouldn't be able to to put 25k people in the seats. That's why they left Montreal.
looks cooler than the saddle dome in calgary
Lol
So baseball in Montreal is dead. Here is the short version of it. A former mayor who had business ties with Rays ownership threw a lot of money at sports projects. He has been part of the group to bring a baseball team back. Much of the recent stadium talks in Montreal were dependent on local government making a big contribution. Montreals political landscape has changed dramatically, and there won't be any support from local government for these types of projects, unless something drastically changes. That former mayor has lost twice now, including by nearly 20% the last election. The current mayor has zero interest in funding a baseball stadium, and they will be in power for 2 more years at a minimum.
About the stadium, you got a few facts wrong, and some things in the wrong decade.
About the team attendance, who would go see a team that is going to move? No one. (See Oakland.)
About spring training, they sold out 2 games every spring for about 6 years, ending only for the pandemic.
About the future of MLB, the stadium will never host baseball again. It is being renovated this year to become SOCCER and CANADIAN FOOTBALL only. Even the clubhouses have been destroyed. PS Montreal’s MLS and CFL teams have thier own small home stadia and have no interest in the Big O.
Fake news. Only the tower is getting renovated.
Feel free to delete this comment once you see/edit, but who’s is a contraction for who is - correct here is “whose”
Big owe
Nearly bankrupted the city.
Many bad 'facts"
A retractable roof in a city with that much snow is just impossible, there's just no engineering solution for that. It will never be 100% safe and reliable. Either go 100% dome or go 100% outdoor.
100% outdoor is difficult in the early spring and late fall because of snow and cold as well. Nobody wants a pure dome unless you find a way to at least get light in, ideally without blinding the players.
Toronto gets a lot of snow too, and the retractable roof at Rogers Centre works fine. The problem with Montreal's was it was a flexible roof.
@@dickensonfarms And it was built a decade and a bit earlier. Due to that reality and the design it was always going to be harder to get a good result and they got a bad result resulting in constant replacements.
@Phightinphil25 the stadium itself was. The roof only predated the Skydome by a couple years. It seemed like the Big Owe was a pipe dream of trying to do everything at once, and a combination of shortcuts in construction, and being too far ahead of its time doomed it
@@dickensonfarms I think the roof was designed at the same time as the stadium they just couldn't get it built for a multitude of reasons, including but not limited to bureaucracy, corruption, labor disagreements, stubbornness and refusal to to change designs by the lead architect who was then fired, and faulty materials. It's a shame they didn't just try and adapt a more modern and less artistic retracting roof in the 8 years they had between the Olympics and the installation of the very flawed original roof.
The way you pronounce Montreal makes this hard to listen to. It's not pronounced mantreal dude.
1:32 WTF are you even talking about? For several years the roof WAS RETRACTABLE. It was retractable all the way until 1998 lol
The tower was always empty because it was supposed to house different sports associations after the Olympics and it never happened. It now has multiple tenants and it generates more money than is require to maintain.
The Olympic Stadium isn't really a dump, it's used multiple times a month for events. This whole video is stupid lol
The current roof is fixed, it doesn't move and it was never designed to move because the city didn't want to risk it anymore.
You should at least try to go to an event there once in your life. It's an incredibly impressive building even for today's standards.
As a temporary venue, it's fine. Though, construction would have to be underway for MLB to consider a rebirth of Les Expos