I remember when baseball stadiums weren’t supposed to be Disneyland. Working class people would just go to a ballgame, they didn’t need an “experience”

The problem is the demolition costs on this thing is also insane

“Turner Field is on the verge of being torn down?” Ummm… Georgia St. University purchased Turner Field and converted it for football. It’s been their home stadium since 2017.

The Oakland coliseum is wayyy mor decrepid than olympic stadium. The A's stadium has leaking sewage, is in a crime infested area. You could redo the roof, withoyt closing it in, and the inner bowl and outfield enough, until a new stadium was ready. Al Davis destroyed the ambiance of the Coliseum decades ago.

The tower is really cool if you ever get the chance to visit and go up there

It would be a shame to not find SOME way to keep this stadium relevant... to DEmolish a billion dollar structure is such a waste. Put translucent windows in the upper part of the clamshell? Install a smooth seamless white surface along the inside of the clam roof on which to project images, or build an LED surround a la the Sphere in Vegas? Deploy innovative partitions to "right-size" the stadium for smaller crowds?

Despite the fact it's been nothing but a money pit from the start, the "Big O" holds a special place in Montrealers' hearts. A call back to the glory days of the 60's and the Olympics which was a real point of pride for a Quebec in the heat of independence sentiment (sorry for those of you not up on Quebec history). Ask anyone about it and you'll get an eye roll and a sigh because of just how much money the thing's eaten up over the past 50 years but still, it is an icon of sorts. :)

5:00 --Just so everyone understands; at the time this stadium was being planned, (I think) there was one domed stadium in existence (Astrodome) and there were two more domes being considered (Kingdome and LA Superdome). So not only were there almost no domed stadiums, one stadium tried to design a retractable roof (Texas Stadium; previous home of the Dallas Cowboys) but failed. So DG can say today how pathetic of an attempt this was; in reality, it was revolutionary for its time.

Tropicana in St. Petersburg makes the Big O look like the Ritz.

I mean, this is a very unique and architecturally relevant stadium. It might be old, but I wouldn’t say it “looks like a piece of crap.“

It was 8 years for the Expos at Jarry Park, 1969-76. The Expos moved into Olympic Stadium in 1977.

look how they constructed Climate Pledge arena in Seattle. They couldn't not touch the roof, Wich made it one heck of a project to complete. They could gut the whole inside of that stadium, and total revamp it into a multi purpose dream stadium. Fix the roof some how, and keep the shell as some history. could be bad ass.

This building new stadiums every 20 years is nuts and a waste! Just do a complete renovation. Wrigley, Fenway and Dodger stadiums followed that course of action. There isn't any reason that can't be the same solution for Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

I went to this stadium when I was 13 years old, and I loved it because I pretended that I was inside an alien spaceship.

The problem has been that the cost to demolish the stadium is crazy high, Montreal probably feels like they are stuck with Olympic stadium so they mine as well make it as appealing as possible.

Not much of a choice, the Big O was over-engineered and sits on-top of a metro line and station, thus the scale and scope to take that thing apart would cost roughly $1B to do. What it needs is a massive renovation to retrofit it so it can last another 30 years. It needs the same scope of work as the New Orleans Superdome or MSG renovations. If they were going to tear that thing down, now would be the time. If they are committing to this scope of renovation then they will have to commit to full renovate that thing.

Any politician who allows this to go through can basically say they're going to be packing up their desk and heading back to a low paying private sector job and never be heard from ever again.

1. The construction of the Olympic Stadium began in 1971 not 1969. Montreal was awarded the 1976 Summer Games in 1970. 2. As for the renovations of the stadium. It isn't the roof itself that needs to be replaced. The massive concrete shell (Technical Ring) also must be replaced. 3. There is no more land available in the Island of Montreal itself to built a stadium. The last available land Peel Bassin that was targeted by the group led by Stephen Bronfman to bring MLB back in Montreal is no longer available. After the Tampa Bay - Montreal project fell through the City of Montreal has announced that they have given the green light to Evimco for their massive Condominium Tower - Shopping Mall - Industrial Park project. Construction set to begin next Spring. 4. So the only land available to built a stadium in Montreal would be in the North or South Shore of the city and that doesn't go well with sports fans who want ONLY a downtown stadium. They reject any stadium to be built in the suburbs.

It’s a terrible stadium for baseball, but for football or soccer and other major stadium events the bones are there to keep an iconic stadium relevant.

$2 billion is a ton of money for a new stadium with taxpayers forced to pay the bill. Cities that have so many needs should stop spending so much money for billionaires so they can make huge fortunes on other regular people's money.

Taylor Swift singing in Montreal. People in Montreal will pay & see it

They need to use the engineering team that designed the roof in Frankfurt, Germany. They apparently figured out how to make the cable system work

It was in fact state-of-the-art for its time, and the roof, albeit a very cool and ambitious feat of engineering, failed. The original roof/tarp was replaced around 1999/2000 with a new one, and being a tarp it makes sense that after 20+ years it’s time to fix. It’s Canada and therefore they must have indoor stadiums, be it baseball , football, concerts etc. Lastly, it’s a very unique structure which has become somewhat of a historic landmark and part of the Montreal skyline… I think it’s completely possible for such a renovation to bring this building up to modern standards in many ways. Especially if it brings back the Expos

"Worst stadium itw" is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?

Mid 80s seats in outfield were $1, even for double header. That is when I went to see the expos.

The problem is that there is no room in downtown Montreal for a stadium. And the MLB doesn't want a stadium in the suburbs (which could be viable with the new REM metro system going to the south shore). And tearing down Olympic Stadium would cost the equivalent of building a new stadium.

It is hilarious how here you say that indoor stadiums are bad, yet for the NFL you want all games played indoors.YOu have no clue what you want.

Please have you been there...this place is historic and different...

...and by the world I mean, North America. And by North America, I mean just Canada and the USA. Sounds a bit insular don't you think?

I don't think Montreal gives a ---- about your suggestion? I wonder if you have ever been to Olympic Stadium?

I was there in October 23. They are renovating the tower and observation decks. They are renovating the outside, which does have issues, and i saw men abseiling on it so its not just about the roof. I wanted to go there because i remember seeing it in '76 and thinking how modern it was and hoped we would get something outstanding when Sydney got the Games. We didn't, but ours is used all the time and doesn't have these issues. I loved seeing it. Its still futuristic! It was a highlight from childhood!

Where did you get the impression the former Turner Field is on the verge of being demolished? Do you have footnotes? Did you read it in a Tweet and determine it to be true? Or are you just making stuff up?

Greece put much more in and half of the venue are lost now..and now broke down

This place doesn’t need an MLB team. If it costs just as much to demolish than renovate, then just renovate it to get CFL Alouettes back, and some of the bigger/early season bad weather CF Montreal games, in addition to concerts and maybe one-off events like soccer friendlies and NFL preseason or something, and that’s enough to be worth getting another few decades out of this place without an MLB team. The bar for success in that lens is much more reasonable. Also I think the tower is one of the tallest 45 degree angled structures in the world so yes it is indeed a landmark. I’ve been to the top of the tower (we weren’t able to see the stadium part on our tour) and the view is amazing.

The Problem with that stadium is that there is so much concrete in it that destroying it would take years to take the concrete out of the city. Montreal is an Island and they projected that they would need to build a new bridge just for that and it would need years of trucking 24/7 to clean it up. Also there is a subway line right underneath, and they are pretty sure that the demolition would crush the subway tunnel. It's a mess.

I think they could make the roof work. It's 50 years later the technology is better, But they would have to remodel the whole thing since it hasn't been used for so long.

The Olympic games are a giant money pit for the host cities. The Montréal stadium architecture screams 1976, and I think any renovations would be throwing good money after bad. Fulton County Stadium was already in place for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and was demolished in 1997. (I actually attended a Braves game when I was a kid, and the post-game fireworks were unbearably loud as the sounds echoed around the metal overhang.)

750 mil sounds like a ton just for a renovation, but new stadiums cost billions now. Any new major league sports team would want to have a new stadium, so what’s the point.

It still has Olympic swimming pools weird ass zoo like areas, offices in the tower itself. It’s ahead of it’s time in a lot of ways

1973-1976 is how long Montreal Olympic Stadium took to built. I loved that stadium, as a kid, back in the 1980s and early 1990s. I'm 44, now.

Due to the market being flooded with new stadiums that are- in an architectural sense- more often than not horrific monstrosities of plastic; these old ballparks are now prized architectural monuments.

Why no mention of trying to lure a CFL team to play there? Didn't the Alouettes used to play at Olympic Stadium at one point in time?

First time i am hearing about this stadium. It has a unique alien spice ship type of look which i like

It would be fun for a staduim series hockey game to be played at Olympic stadium

Pay me $250,000,000 and I will make all this disappear and save Montreal a half a billion dollars! Just have your insurance in place.

Bro hates this stadium way too much lmao

Another thing is,its the tallest tower that sits at a 45 angle. It's an office building with 1000 employees, an athletic training centre all attached. You can't just tear the thing down. No need for a retractable roof, it has no main tenant for sports. Even if it did, how often would it be used anyway. Good or bad it has history. It's like friends tell me I should go to see hockey games in Montreal, Toronto, Boston or Chicago for the history. I'm like i would, but they demolished history and put up cookie cutter arenas 😂

Pretty sure that Georgia State University have no plans to demolish The Ted...

My wife and I had our honeymoon in Montreal in 2005, the stadium's first year without the Expos. We took the Metro to the stadium and took a guided tour. We got to stand in what had been the outfield (the artificial turf was gone, so it was just concrete), We also went to the top of the tower. Another building we toured was where the Olympic cycling events were held. That building is now a Biodome, an indoor nature exhibit.

Drapeau really screwed this one up. Hired a terrible architect, didn't do their geological survey. And stubbornly went on with the project. A mayor who was high on his Expo success left Montreal with a legacy. Not a good one either.

A place in England called Old Trafford is leaking. Crumbling and rotting. It's also got a food hygiene rating of 1 from 5.

Lots of hate in this video

I wonder if this is part of Montreal’s attempt to get an expansion MLB team.

There has been new stadiums built, that people hated, as they were not what they thought it was going to be. There is also the teardown, which is not cheap, it costs big money to destroy them.

when you said the worst stadium in the world, I figured Tampa was dumping a ton of money into the Trop.

It looks like a stadium built in 1960 Soviet Union.

Former Expos player Warren Cromartie said the Olympic Stadium was the worst place he ever played in. He called it a "toilet bowl"

FedEx Field is probably the worst stadium in North America!

If they are rehabbing that stadium, they know something. The Las Vegas mess is even more of a mess than anybody is willing to acknowledge. The A's don't have a ballpark in 2025 and won't get one -- if then -- until 2028. The Vegas disaster is being brushed off as no big deal. Montreal knows something and it's not about expansion.

They just announced that they’re going to renovate the whole entire stadium and it’ll take 4 years to be complete which to me is a piece of cake 🍰.

In the late 90's/early 2000's Loria tried to build Labatt Park in downtown Montreal. It would have been open roof, baseball specific, and would cost 250 million. He wanted public funding but the Quebec politicians could justify spending on a new stadium when hospitals in the city were closing down.

Hello. Lets looks at a few other variables. Cost of replacing the stadium now as oppossed to 20 years from now is what you brought up. and the cost of investing in a new roof now estimated at 1 billion. but what was left out was the cost of demolition in 20 years from now will be higher as well. Its always sad to see an iconic building have to be demolished but it actually makes more sense to invest in a new building now instead of later. like also how do we know if the new roof will even last 20 years. The first 2 roofs didnt last any where near as long as projected. Like if the tower is sound, why not leave it and replace the rest. that should lower the demolition cost a lot and you would still have a historic icon in place with its lookout intact.

I don't think MLB should expand. Baseball is not popular enough anymore

They say the acoustics are Crappy inside there.

The gift that keeps on giving

The Canadiens are Montreal’s team

For the record Metallica played two shows this summer and actually beat the attendance record, largest crowd since the Olympics, so concerts can be held hear. That being said, the acoustics are atrocious. It's not used pretty much all year round. It's a giant money pit, better to have it without a roof as all the other stadium plans had no roof anyways.

Which will be the last multipurpose stadium to survive? The Astrodome (even though it's technically a parking garage now) or "The Big Owe". Though I do wonder if they'll just say screw it and turn the roof into a canopy or perhaps redesign the roof to have a retractable roof that actually works.

it looks like a spaceship from a 60s movie

In the Provence of Quebec built an arena up to NHL standards (at the time of construction) from scratch in Quebec City without the promise of getting a team. The same Provence is spending money to fix the roof of a multipurpose stadium like bad plastic surgery instead of making any new facility geared towards baseball or soccer/concerts. If the province cared as much about baseball as they did hockey there would be better odds that they would get a MLB team back.

I agree it is one of the worst stadiums but I don;t think it is worse than Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay

Your comments are harsh brother LOL some are true some are out of context.

The current roof has over 20,000 small rips, and it want to die so badly, just let it.

Turner Field is about to be demolished? I haven’t seen that in the news anywhere. Georgia State University owns it now.

So, the price more than tripled during the 24 month approval process? Down in socialist LA, SoCal stadium's price went from 2B to 5B during the 24 month approval process. Gee, I wonder what happened?

This is what we could call a "white elephant"...meaning while it is loooooong overstayed its welcome it'd be too expensive to tear down something like that down also. So Montreal kinda feels compelled to get SOME use from it.

Corruption lives alive and well in the province of Quebec!! Quebec likes to build white elephants like Mirabel and Montreal Olympic Stadium!!!!!!

It's a great place to watch a baseball game...Saw many Expos games there....!!!

I think Montreal’s Olympic Stadium aka the Big O will likely be demolished to make room for the new 48,000-seat ballpark if an MLB expansion team is awarded to Montreal for the 2028 MLB season.

the worst stadiums are all indoor nfl stadiums

Saputo owns a stadium in Montreal where they play and host soccer

Poor Expos had to play in a minor league stadium for 7 years where as The Teas Rangers only had to play in one for 22 years from 1972 to 1993. :)

that is $750M in Canadian dollars, so $568M U.S.... it truly earned the nickname "The Big Owe"...

How do you expand baseball if there aren't enough players to man all of the teams? It's like there would be some major league teams and some minor league teams all playing at the same time in the same league.

Speaking of Stadiums, right now in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, we are about to build a New Hockey Arena starting rather in the Spring or Summer 2024 and the New Hockey Arena for the Calgary Flames 🔥 is expected to be finished before the 2026/27 NHL Season. The 2 things that the City of Calgary are finishing are the renovations of Victoria Park/Stampede Station, and the BMO Centre after tearing down the Heritage Hockey Stadium called Stampede Corral and the pedestrian bridge to the Scotiabank Saddledome. The reason why Calgary is building a new Hockey Stadium is because the roof of the Saddledome has been cracking up (Scotiabank Saddledome original name was Olympic Saddledome after hosting the First Winter Olympics in Canada back in 1988 a.k.a the 2nd Olympic Games in Canadian History) Saddledome has been around since 1980 For our Football Stadium called McMahon Stadium 🏟️ it has been around since 1960 that had the Olympic Flames 🔥 in the 1988 Winter Olympics and still being used as the main Home Stadium for the Calgary Stampeders 🐎 (CFL) it still has a good condition before they build a New Football Stadium and it's unknown when Calgary will Build a New Football Stadium 🏟️

We visited it in 1975. Back then and even now, I thought it was an awsome design. Great design, horrible execution. Took them 30 yrs to pay it off. You can thank the mob for its exorbiant cost back then. I do hope they can find a future for it. I do like the Biodome there.

The argument is from the tourist board. That its part of Montreal history, that tourist make it a point to go see it. If it was removed it would cost billions, a piece of history removed and nothing to replace it. Quebec is big on heritage and protecting that. The are pushing big on tourist too as they been doing upgrades as per m.kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ad6WnLBj3M_LpZs.html The stadium is connected to the metro (subway) system so if was removed this would need to be changed adding to the cost. Plus that metro stop connect to out tourist spots too. To provide prospective on the matter.

I completely disagree with calling this stadium outdated. Whether you like it or not, it's a piece of the history of Montreal and it should be preserved. The 750 million price is a bit much, but I hate our society's throwaway attitude with everything 20 or 30 years old being replaced by something shiny and new.

We need an update since the fire, please 😊

Most stadiums built for the Olympics are disasters now.

The AMC Pacer of stadiums.

Have to ever been to these stadiums you like to complain about?

Unless they have a confirmation that the stadium is going to be used if fixed, 100% certain, I think the priority should be in other areas, use the money for other parts of Toronto needs, and just tear it down.

They’re trying to get the Alouettes CFL team back to Olympic Stadium

build a new stadium...won any jerk can say that.

Renovate to include the Alouettes, new MLB team, concerts, International Sporting events like FIFA. Make it multipurpose. The city of that size needs a 50-60000 seat stadium to draw world events. Other events like the NHL Heritage Classic, or Grey Cup also. The stadium should be multipurpose to make it viable. Modern engineering could pull it off. Better than ripping down the whole thing

I'm only half-joking here; given the sheer amount of concrete in that building, demolition is going to take a while. Brutalist architecture is a b**ch to tear down. But how cool would it be to get a Winter Classic game at a modern stadium in Montreal?

That stadium is a clammy dank mess! It was STILL being paid for deep into the ‘90’s! The concerts were hampered by weird acoustics. The Concorde and both Alouette had issues with playing on a nasty turf carpet.

1 billion to fix or tear down and build a newer BETTER AND LARGER capacity stadium with more revenue potential i vote the later

Maybe they could get a football team. Wait, doesn’t Montreal have a football team that used to play there?