New Stadium Locations

[Gill The Thrill]

The Pan-Am stadium in Hamilton is costing something like $150M, with no land cost, and it looks pretty bare-bones to me. Based on that, I think with land costs, a new Toronto stadium would cost well above $150M.

BMO as it stands now is not the quality of stadium we'd want long-term, although with the rumoured upgrades (projected to cost $100M) it could be a very nice long-term home for us.

Are you referring to Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. It does not look that bare bones to me...it has more walls and finished structure than BMO field, which is described by one poster on here as a "mechano standium". BMO as it stands now is not CFL calibre because of the seating. Surely a CFL stadium in Toronto should have more than 21,000 capacity, and probably no less than 30k, but at the very least 27-28K with an ability to expand to host Grey Cups. This needs to be considered if Rogers Centre changes their turf to natural grass but also changes their rotating 100 level sections to fix them permanently to baseball seating. That would pretty much ruin the football or soccer sightlines at Rogers Centre.

If bare bones means not having an unnecessary hotel built, or bronze gargoyles on the outside or carpeting on the concourse, then that's fine with me. Many of the great stadiums in other places don't have those and they provide a great atmosphere, better than any atmosphere the RC has.

The new stadium should be in the downtown Toronto area so that fans can enjoy the downtown area with countless quality restaurants plus the usual " chain " restaurants. Numerous out of town fans attend the games and spend the day & night . Games should be saved for Fr Sat nights /Sat & Sun afternoons .

Contrary to one post in this thread...Downsview is not a 50 minute subway ride from Union Stadium. At most it's a 25 minute ride by transit and even car from some parts of downtown. If out of town fans spend day and night, it's definitely possible to enjoy a downtown restaurant close to your downtown hotel and then take one conveniant subway ride (with no transfers) to a possible stadium in Downsview which could have a natural tailgate atmosphere. That could work, much better than dealing with a horrible parking situation downtown, horrible traffic with closed streets, and another event like a basketball game like we had last Sunday...the supposed accessible walk to the stadium from Union Station can be 20 minutes on P.A.T.H when you take account of all the detours and stairs that you go through while walking because of the construction that seems to never end...that's about the same length of time that it would take for a nice comfortable ride on a TTC subway from Union to Downsview....and if you're driving, you have highways that move in all directions with no lake preventing traffic from moving in all 4 cardinal directions. Many stadiums in many major cities are not located downtown...Giants/Jets Stadium is not even in New York State, let alone New York City.