Olympic Stadium (Montreal)

Template:Infobox Baseball Stadium The Olympic Stadium (French: Stade Olympique) is a stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada built as the main venue for the 1976 Summer Olympics. It subsequently became the home of Montreal's professional baseball and Canadian football teams. Since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2004, the stadium has had no main tenant, and with a history of financial and structural problems, is largely seen as a white elephant. It currently serves as a 56,040-seat multipurpose facility for special events (e.g. concerts, trade shows) during non-winter months, and continues to serve as a venue for select Montreal Alouettes and Grey Cup games.

History

Background

The stadium was designed by French architect Roger Taillibert to be a very elaborate facility featuring a retractable roof, which was to be opened and closed by a huge 175-metre (583 ft 4 in) tower — the tallest inclined structure in the world, six metres (20 ft) taller than the Washington Monument, and the sixth tallest building in Montreal.

The Olympic swimming pool is located under this tower. An Olympic velodrome (since converted to the Montreal Biodome, an indoor nature museum) was situated at the base of the tower in a building similar in design to the swimming pool. The building was built as the main stadium for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. The stadium was host to various events including: the opening and closing ceremonies, athletics, football finals, and some equestrian events.

Construction

As construction was well underway, a labour strike caused a major delay to the building of the tower. The roof languished in a warehouse in France until 1982. It was not until 1987, over a decade later, that both the tower and roof were completed, officially completing construction of the stadium as originally designed.

Opening

Problems plagued the stadium from the time it opened for the Olympic Games, when it was only half built.

Seating 58,500 at the time, the stadium was not fully completed in time for the games due to strikes by construction workers, leaving it without a tower or roof for the opening and several years following. Both the tower and the roof, made of over 60,000 square feet (5,575 square metres) of kevlar, were not completed for over a decade, and it was not until 1988 that it was possible to retract the roof. The 65-ton roof then proved difficult to retract, and could not operate at all in winds greater than 25 mph. It was also torn during high winds.

Stadium Financing

Despite initial projections in 1970 that the stadium would cost only C$134 million to construct, strikes and construction delays served to escalate these costs. By the time the stadium opened (in an unfinished form) the total costs had risen to C$264 million.

The Quebec government introduced a special tobacco tax in May 1976 to help recoup its investment. By 2006 the amount contributed to the Olympic Installations Board accounted for 8% of the tax revenue earned from cigarette sales. The 1976 special tobacco tax act stipulated that once the stadium was paid off, ownership of the facility would be returned back to the City of Montreal.

In December 2006 the stadium's costs were finally paid in full [1]. The total expenditure (including repairs, renovations, construction, interest, and inflation) amounted to C$1.61 billion. Despite initial plans to complete payment in October 2006, an indoor smoking ban introduced in May 2006 curtailed the revenue gathered by the tobacco tax [2].

Perceived by many to be a white elephant, the stadium has also been dubbed The Big Owe, Uh-O or The Big Mistake. In a speech announcing that Montreal would host the Olympic Games, then-mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, is remembered for saying, "The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby." This now-famous quote is often parodied by residents.

Continuing problems

Although not completed in time for the 1976 Olympics, construction on finishing the tower recommenced in the 1980's. During this period however, a large fire set the tower ablaze causing damage, and then in 1986 a large chunk of the tower fell onto the playing field during a baseball game.

In 1987 an orange coloured Kevlar retractable roof was installed, finally completing the stadium a decade late, however soon after it was put into use it ripped on several occasions due to design flaw. In the months that followed it was plagued by further rips and even leaks whenever it would rain, bringing water down into the stadium.

Due to claims of being a poor venue for baseball, the Olympic Stadium was remodeled in 1991, with 12,000 seats being removed for Expos games.

Olympic Stadium's blue roof

On September 8 of that year, support beams snapped and caused a 55 ton concrete slab to fall on to an exterior walkway. No one was injured, but the Expos had to move their final 13 home games of that season to the other cities. For the 1992 season, it was decided to keep the roof closed at all times. The Kevlar roof was removed in May 1998, making the stadium open-air for the 1998 season. Later in 1998, a $26 million opaque blue roof was installed which does not open.

In January 1999, a 350 square metre portion of the roof collapsed, dumping ice and snow on workers that were setting up for the annual Montreal Auto Show. This led to the auto show leaving Olympic Stadium for good. Repaired once again, the roof has been modified to better react to the winter conditions. The OIB has installed a network of pipes to circulate heated water under the roof to allow for snow melting. Despite these corrective measures the stadium floor remains closed during the winter months. The contractors, manufacturers and engineers of the roof are now being sued for the roof failure.

The stadium's condition suffered considerably in the early 21st century. During the Expos' final years in Montreal, it was coated with grime. Much of the concrete was chipped, stained, and soiled.

The stadium is now closed for four months every winter as the fire marshal has concerns about the roof being unable to support snow loads. A third replacement roof is being considered as of March 2006.

Due to its costly maintenance, continual structural problems and having lost its primary function (a professional league baseball stadium) government studies have been recently conducted into the feasibility of demolishing the stadium. It was estimated demolition would cost 500 million dollars, due to the complexity of the structure and its proximity to the underground subway.

Post-Olympic use

Olympic Stadium

Football

The Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes became the stadium's first major post-Olympic tenant when it moved its home games there half-way through the 1976 season and used the location until 1986. The football team returned shortly for the 1996 and 1997 seasons but now only continue to use it for select regular season and home playoff games. The stadium is a Grey Cup venue; the CFL championship was held there most recently in 2001 and is scheduled to return in 2008. The stadium holds the record for the five largest crowds in CFL history, which include two regular season and three Grey Cup games. The single-game record of 69,093 was played on September 6, 1977 between the Alouettes and Toronto Argonauts.

In 1991 and 1992, the stadium played host to the Montreal Machine of the World League of American Football. This included hosting World Bowl II on June 6, 1992, in which the Sacramento Surge defeated the Orlando Thunder 21-17 before 43,789 fans.

Baseball

In 1977, the stadium became the home ballpark of the National League's Montreal Expos in which it regularly played its 81 games a year every summer until the franchise was moved to Washington, D.C. after the 2004 season. On April 14, 1977 the first ever baseball game was played at the stadium. In front of 57, 592 fans, the Expos lost 7-2 to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Expos played five home playoff games in 1981; two against the Philadelphia Phillies and three in the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. On October 19, 1981, the Expos lost the decisive fifth game, 2-1, to the Dodgers on Rick Monday's ninth inning home run. In 1982, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played at Olympic Stadium in front of 59,057 fans--a stadium record for baseball. Prior to the 1992 season, a major overhaul was done on the stadium's baseball configuration. The new lay-out moved the fans closer to the action and reduced the capacity to 46,000. On September 29, 2004, the Expos played their last game in Montreal, losing 9-1 to the Florida Marlins before 31,395 fans.

Soccer

The stadium was also the home of the Montreal Manic soccer team from 1981 - 1983. A 1981 playoff game against the Chicago Sting attracted a crowd of over 58,000. Several games of the 2007 FIFA Under 20 World Cup were played at Olympic Stadium and drew the largest crowds of the tournament, including two sell-outs of 55,800.

Other

The stadium also has various other multipurpose uses.

On September 11, 1984, Pope John Paul II participated in a youth rally with about 55 000 people in attendance.

In 2005, since the stadium had no regular use for its artificial grass surface, the FieldTurf surface was sold for $1 million (Canadian) to the BC Place domed stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is being used by the CFL B.C. Lions which will be the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

It was recently used in 2006 for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1st World Outgames and is regularly used for other events such as the main event of the Black and Blue Festival, the biggest gay circuit party in the world.

Transit

The stadium is directly connected to the Pie-IX metro station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro.

Facts and Figures

• Well over its original budget, the stadium ended up costing $770 million dollar to construct. By 2006, the final cost had risen to $1.47 billion dollars when calculating in repairs, modifications and interest paid out. It took tax payers 30 years to finally pay off the cost, leading to its nickname of "The Big Owe" (a play on "The Big O", a reference to its circular shape).

• Olympic Stadium holds the record for a soccer game attendance in Canada. At the 1976 Summer Olympics soccer final, 72,000 people witnessed East Germany's 3-1 win over Poland.

• Olympic Stadium was extensively featured on the final episode of The Amazing Race: Family Edition, when teams spent part of a leg in Montreal.

• In 1977, Pink Floyd wrapped up their Animals tour at this venue. During the performance, Roger Waters started to sing "Pigs on the Wing 2", but was interrupted by an audience member setting off a firecracker near the stage. He stopped singing and shouted out, "Oh, for fuck's sake. Stop letting off fireworks and shouting and screaming. I'm trying to sing a song." The crowd cheered at this. He continued:

"I mean I don't care. If you don't wanna hear it, you know... Fuck you! I'm sure there's a lot of people here who do want to hear it. So why don't you just be quiet... If you wanna let your fireworks off, go outside and let them off out there. And if you wanna shout and scream and holler go and do it out there but... I'm trying to sing a song that some people want to listen to. I want to listen to it!"

()

He then continued with the song. The situation continued to deteriorate, however, and during "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", Waters watched incredulously as one fan climbed the netting that separated the audience from the band. Out of disgust, Waters spat in the fan's face. Near the end of the show, Pink Floyd guitarist and singer David Gilmour was reported to have walked off the stage in disgust, sitting out the final encore. Following the performance, Waters regretted his actions, and began to lament the separation between the audience and band. It was this which caused Waters to come up with the idea of the critically acclaimed album The Wall. The band would not play at the stadium again until 1988, after Waters' departure, on their A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. On that occasion, the performance went smoothly. They subsequently returned to the venue on their 1994 The Division Bell tour.

The 1977 show has been released as a bootleg, humorously titled "Who Was Trained Not To Spit on the Fan". This title is derived from the lyrics to the song "Dogs" - the actual lyrics are "Who Was Trained Not To Spit in the Fan."

• A month later, Emerson Lake and Palmer recorded and filmed a live performance at this venue with an orchestra which was released on the live album Works Live and the video Live at Olympic Stadium.

• Fifteen years later in 1992, Metallica lead singer James Hetfield had his arm severely burned in a pyro mishap causing Metallica to curtail their set. Then Guns N' Roses curtailed their set when singer Axl Rose, having issues with the sound system, walked off the stage. A riot broke out at the venue, leaving dozens injured and requiring Montreal police to subdue the angry fans.

• Other music groups have played at the stadium without incident, including The Rolling Stones, U2, and Genesis.

• The roof is only 52 metres (173 ft 4 in) above the field of play. As a result, a number of pop-ups and long home runs hit the roof since play began, necessitating the painting of orange lines on the roof to separate foul balls from fair balls.

• The Montreal games of the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup were held at Olympic Stadium on a FieldTurf surface that was installed specifically for the tournament.

• The scenes representing the M&T Bank Stadium in the 2002 film The Sum of All Fears were filmed at Olympic Stadium.

• In the movie Blades of Glory, the fictional 2006 World Wintersport Games/Les Mondiaux Des Sports d'Hiver figure skating pairs finals were held at Olympic Stadium (though they were actually filmed inside the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena). The logo for the games was the elevator lift at Olympic Stadium.

• One seat is marked specifically because of a monster 502-foot home run hit by then-Expo Vladimir Guerrero

• A yellow seat on the 300 level commemorates the late Willie Stargell's 534 foot home run

See also

• Olympic Stadium
• List of Canadian Football League stadiums

External links

• Ballpark Digest visit to Olympic Stadium
• Ballparks.com
• Football Ballparks.com
• Baseball Reference
• Baseball Library
• Régie des installations olympiques (Government of Quebec)
• Google maps
• Olympic Stadium datasheet on Images Montreal

Multimedia

• CBC Archives A clip from 1975 - Stadium architect talks about his design.
• CBC Archives - A look back on the history of the stadium (1999).

45°33′28.48″N 73°33′6.39″W