Canada - USA - Mexico win 2026 world cup bid

[rdavies]

LOL - thought that would get the expected reaction.
But who knows what will happen by 2026 but having a few World Cup games with little cost to taxpayers is great for the city. Thousands of foreign visitors.

Expected reaction? You were trying to get a response? Sounds like the T word. : )

[rdavies]

Quebec to spend at least $200 million on new roof for Olympic Stadium
Olympic Installations Board will produce a viability study for work to replace the problem-plagued roof and hopes to have it installed by 2023.
Philip Authier, Montreal Gazette November 10, 2017

QUEBEC — The Couillard government has given the go-ahead to replacing the failing roof on the Olympic Stadium.

Officials said Thursday the decision was made by the Quebec cabinet Oct. 25, but the government was waiting until after the municipal election, last Sunday, to make it public.

The estimated cost of the new roof is between $200 million and $250 million.

An agency that oversees Montreal’s Olympic Stadium said on Friday that parts of the new roof planned for the cavernous facility could be removable. The Parc Olympique said in a statement it favours the option of a fixed roof made out of some form of textile.

But it says the Olympic Installations Board will also look at the possibility of making various sections removable for different events.

The OIB has been authorized to produce a viability study and seek tenders, internationally, for the highly specialized work of replacing the problem-plagued roof. The target to have the new roof installed is 2023.

Quebec wants to look at all the available options, but a fully retractable roof — which was part of French architect Roger Taillibert’s original design — is not going to happen.

Quebec’s harsh winters played havoc with that roof, which was made out of the miracle product of the day — Kevlar — and the government doesn’t want to get burned twice.

This time Quebec is looking for someone able to manufacture “a fixed but flexible,” style roof which can be partially dismantled in some areas on short notice to meet the needs of groups that want to hold events under the sun or stars.

Such stadium roofs exist in Marseille and Japan. Quebec believes such a roof will help transform the stadium into a money maker instead of a money pit.

“We want to see if this is technically feasible and financially viable,” said an official.

Quebec Tourism Minister Julie Boulet, who is responsible for the OIB, was not commenting on the new project Thursday, but has said in the past the government’s main concern is finding an entirely safe option.

On Thursday, however, Premier Philippe Couillard defended the idea of spending more public money on the stadium.

“Do we want to abandon the Olympic Stadium, let it fall into ruin?” Couillard asked, stopping during a tour of a plant in the city of Asbestos in the Townships.

“I don’t think many people would be happy about that. We are going to continue making it (the stadium) one of Montreal’s attractions.

“Desjardins just set up offices in the tower of the stadium and others will follow. but the place cannot be used if we don’t repair the roof,” Couillard added.

The stadium’s roof has been the source of grief for years, with a long litany of rips and tears even with events underway.

The first roof, installed in April 1987, lasted 11 years. The current fixed roof — installed in 1998 — is on its last legs. It was recently revealed that workers at the stadium have had to repair nearly 7,500 tears in the roof since 2007.

It cannot be used if there is more than three centimetres of snow on top of it.

Built for the 1976 Olympic Games, Montrealers have a love-hate relationship with the stadium, which is now more than 40 years old and has been home to such historic events as papal visits as well as major rock concerts.

The costs of construction, $1.47 billion, were not paid off in full until November 2006.

Some argued the stadium should be demolished, but those costs are also astronomically high, leaving the government little choice but to invest some of its new-found surplus money in the operation.