Montreal Olympic Stadium

Montréal Olympic Stadium
The Big Owe
The Montreal Olympic Stadium (September 2004)
Data
place	4141 Pierre-de Coubertin Avenue Montreal , Québec H1V 3N7, Canada
Coordinates	45 ° 33 ′ 31 ″  N , 73 ° 33 ′ 15 ″  W Coordinates: 45 ° 33 ′ 31 ″  N , 73 ° 33 ′ 15 ″  W
owner	Régie des Installations Olympiques (RIO), (Government of Quebec)
start of building	April 28, 1973
opening	17th July 1976
Renovations	1991
surface	1976: Natural grass since 1977: Artificial grass
costs	until opening: stadium CAD 264 million total complex CAD 770 million, by 2006 CAD 1.47 billion (with additional costs, interest and repairs)
architect	Roger Taillibert
capacity	66,308 seats (Canadian football) 43,739 seats (baseball)
playing area	105 × 68 m (football)
Societies)
Montreal Alouettes ( CFL , 1976–1986, playoff only) Montreal Expos ( MLB , 1977-2004) Montreal Manic ( NASL , 1981-1983) Montreal Machine ( WLAF , 1991-1992) Montreal Impact ( MLS since 2012, single games only)
Events
1976 Summer Olympics Gray Cup finals 1977, 1979, 1981, 1985, 2001, 2008 Pope Mass of John Paul II in 1984 World Bowl 1992 Junior World Cup 2007 Final of the Trophée des Champions 2009 Football Women's World Cup 2015

The Olympic Stadium at night with an illuminated tower

The Olympic Stadium ( French : Stade Olympique ) in Montreal is part of the Olympic Park ( Parc Olympique ), a multifunctional stadium in the east of the city , which was built for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal . Colloquially, the stadium is referred to as The Big O , based on its shape . A characteristic feature of the stadium is the inclined tower, which with a height of 175 meters forms the highest inclined tower in the world.

The stadium construction came under criticism in particular because of its high costs of 264 million Canadian dollars ; the stadium was only paid off 30 years after the Olympics. As a result, the stadium was also known as The Big Owe (German about: The big debts ).

After the Olympic Games, the stadium was home to the Montreal Expos from Major League Baseball from 1977 until the club was relocated to Washington, DC after the end of the 2004 season . It was also used between 1976 and 1986 as the venue for the Montreal Alouettes ( Canadian Football ) and as the football stadium for the Montreal Manic (1981 to 1983). At the moment the Olympic Stadium does not serve as the home of a sports team, but when the number of spectators increases, the Montreal Impact will move its home games from Stade Saputo to the Olympic Stadium; There are also regular music concerts by various well-known artists and bands .

Building history

Planning and construction

The stadium, which is designed for 55,000 spectators, was designed by the Parisian architect Roger Taillibert . The original plan was to finish the stadium in 1972. The construction of the stadium did not begin until April 28, 1973, the opening was celebrated at the beginning of the Summer Olympics in Montreal in the summer of 1976; because of financial, organizational - workers went on strike during an important construction phase - and technical - there were no reference structures for the architecture of the stadium - problems that had occurred during construction, however, the construction was still not fully completed when it opened. When it opened, the tower, which is characteristic today, was only built in the base and was hardly recognizable. The tower and roof were not completed until 1987, after a fire had set the tower's construction process back significantly and recent calculations had shown that the originally planned concrete structure of the tower would be too heavy and thus endanger the structure of the tower; the tower was completed with a steel structure .

The stadium was initially built with a retractable roof 52 meters above the field. During the Summer Olympics, this height was found to be too low during certain ball and ball sports , so that balls frequently hit the stadium roof. This made it necessary to put orange lines on the roof, which made it possible to identify contact between the ball and the roof as a foul . The stadium also proved unsafe in snowfall and strong winds , so that it could not be used in snowy Montreal when there was snow on the roof. In 1991, the stadium was redesigned and the roof of the hall was significantly increased in a complex construction project; it has not been open since then.

Another problem with the stadium was its under-calculated cost . Originally valued at $ 134 million Canadian dollars (CAD), the total cost actually increased to $ 264 million. The Québec government introduced its own tobacco tax in May 1976 to finance this . Only in November 2006 were the debts paid in full and the stadium fully financed. According to calculations, which take into account the subsequent repairs and the accrued interest, the total costs amount to around 1.5 to 1.8 billion CAD. According to Forbes Magazine, it would be the second most expensive stadium ever built in the world, after Wembley Stadium in London , the construction of which was around 1.2 billion euros.

Problems after completion of construction

Stadium roof, view from the tower

Even after the stadium construction was finally completed in 1987 and the roof was rebuilt in 1991, there are still considerable safety problems with the stadium, most of which still affect the stadium roof. For example, shortly after the renovation work was completed on September 8, a 56-ton concrete part fell on the sidewalk; the stadium was then closed for the time being. In May 1998 the aramid roof was removed and a new roof was installed for CAD 37 million. This blue, opaque roof is still there today.

In January 1999, however, problems arose with this roof too, when an area of ​​around 350 m² on the roof collapsed due to the loads of snow and ice and hit workers working in the stadium. As a result, a dew system was developed under the roof that uses hot water to melt the snow and ice. Nevertheless, more and more cracks appear in the stadium roof, most recently 50 larger and several thousand small cracks per year. The cost of a complete repair, which could only be achieved by replacing the entire roof and redesigning it with a different system, is estimated at CAD 200 to 500 million. The Montreal fire brigade also came to the conclusion that the roof had to be completely renewed in order to be able to guarantee safety even during the winter.

On March 4, 2012, an eight to twelve meter high concrete block fell from the ceiling of the underground parking garage of the stadium to the floor, there were no injuries.

Conversion of the tower to offices

1000 employees of a cooperative bank have been working in the tower since 2020. Seven of the twelve floors in the shaft were transformed into an office landscape by the Montreal architecture firm Provencher_Roy . The architects had to remove a large part of the original concrete cladding in order to improve the exposure of the deep floor plans with a glass facade. The renovation cost 60 million Canadian dollars.

architecture

The design of the Olympic Stadium was based on the appearance of the Australian pavilion at Expo '70 , which also had a tower for suspension. The architecture of the stadium comes from the French architect Roger Taillibert . In addition to the tower, which was supposed to represent the stadium's symbol, the retractable roof, which was one of the first larger in the world to be constructed entirely of plastic , and the velodrome next to the base of the tower were other special features of the stadium's architecture.

The stadium is assigned to modern architecture .

Tower of the Olympic Stadium

The overall appearance of the stadium is shaped by the 175 meter high sloping tower; the angle of inclination is between 23 and 81 degrees, depending on the reference point (the inclination increases with the height of the tower, since the tower has a curved shape). Due to technical problems, the tower was not finished until the Olympic Games in 1976, the unfinished tower stump barely exceeded the height of the stadium. It was not completed until 1987. A cable car transports visitors in glass double-decker gondolas up to the 166 meter high viewing platform. At the top of the tower is the Salon Montréal, which can accommodate up to 240 people.

The tower serves as a mast for the Olympic Stadium in order to hold the fastening ropes of the stadium roof, at the top of which they are bundled.

Biodôme

Biodome, view from the tower

Biodome

The former Olympic Velodrome is also located in the Olympic Park east of the stadium . During the 1976 Olympic Games, it was used as a venue for cycling competitions and judo competitions. It was also designed by Roger Taillibert and after a renovation between 1989 and 1992, it has now been converted into an environmental museum called Biodôme and opened in 1992. It presents the four different ecosystems : simulation of tropical South America, the Laurentine Forest in North America, the ecosystem of the Saint Lawrence River and the two polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctic .

Todays use

Following the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Olympic Stadium was primarily used as a venue for Canadian football , baseball and soccer games and as a venue for larger concerts and trade fairs .

Canadian football

The Montreal Alouettes football team played their home games between 1976 and 1986, when the club initially disbanded, in the Olympic Stadium. After the resumption of play in 1996, the Alouettes stayed two seasons in the Olympic Stadium, but then moved their venue to the much smaller Stade Percival-Molson . After the number of spectators at home games had risen again significantly, it was considered to move the games back to the Olympic Stadium; Instead, it was decided to expand the Stade Percival-Molson in order to increase the number of spectators . In Playoff -Play higher Crowds games have since been transferred regularly to the Olympic Stadium.

So far, six Gray Cup finals have been played in the Olympic Stadium.

Nine of the ten most crowded games in the Canadian Football League took place in the Olympic Stadium. The attendance record in a CFL game was played on September 6, 1977, when 69,083 spectators attended the game between the Montreal Alouettes and the Toronto Argonauts .

baseball

From 1977 the games of the Montreal Expos were held in the Olympic Stadium, after they were previously located in the Jerry Park Stadium . In 2004 the club was relocated to Washington, DC and has been playing there ever since.

Soccer

The Olympic Stadium was used as the home of the Montreal Manic between 1981 and 1983 . Most of the spectators were counted in a playoff game against Chicago Sting in 1981, around 58,000 people were present.

The stadium was also used as one of the venues for the U-20 World Cup in 2007 . The stadium was sold out in two games, with 55,800 spectators each, these games were the games with the highest number of visitors during the tournament.

The home games of the Montreal Impact, which was newly founded for the Major Soccer League, have also been played in the stadium since 2012 . The previous attendance record for a soccer game between club teams in the Montreal Olympic Stadium was achieved on May 12, 2012 against Los Angeles Galaxy with an audience of 60,860 people . As part of the 1976 Summer Olympics, the game between the GDR and Poland (final score 3: 1) was attended by far more people with 76,000 spectators. During the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada, the stadium served as a venue for the group and knockout stages .

Other events

On September 11, 1984, Pope John Paul II held a youth mass in the Olympic Stadium; around 55,000 people were present.

In addition, some major music concerts were held in the Montreal Olympic Stadium. The joint concert by Guns N 'Roses and Metallica on August 8, 1992, when Metallica's singer James Hetfield suffered severe burns from pyrotechnics at the opening, was particularly well known . In addition, other well-known bands and musicians performed in the Olympic Stadium, such as AC / DC , George Michael , Genesis , The Rolling Stones and Emerson, Lake & Palmer .

See also

• List of the largest football stadiums in the world

Web links

Commons : Montreal Olympic Stadium  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• parcolympique.qc.ca: stadium on the site of the Olympic Park Montreal (English)
• Montreal Olympic Stadium. In: Structurae
• stadiumdb.com: Olympic Stadium (The Big O) (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ekkehart Eichler: Canada: Three Trumps to the East. Der Focus, August 3, 2007, accessed on November 16, 2013 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b} Quebec's Big Owe stadium debt is over. cbc.ca, accessed August 30, 2013 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Ingrid Peritz: Montreal's Million-Dollar Big-Owe: What Went Wrong in '76? The Globe and Mail , January 17, 2009, accessed November 16, 2013 . 
4. ↑ Olympic Stadium. Famous Wonders, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2013 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} Wonders of the World: Olympic Stadium. PBS, accessed November 19, 2013 . 
6. ^ Wembley Stadium - England's expensive football Grail Castle. faz.net, May 25, 2013, accessed November 16, 2013 . 
7. ↑ In Depth: World's Most Expensive Stadiums. Forbes Magazine , June 8, 2008, accessed November 16, 2013 . 
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Rips in Olympic Stadium roof scare away event organizers. CBC News Montreal, July 24, 2013, accessed November 19, 2013 . 
9. ↑ Olympic Stadium's roof ripped 1240 times last year. CBC News Montreal, April 12, 2013, accessed November 19, 2013 . 
10. ^ Montreal's Olympic Stadium roof must be replaced. Firefighting Canada, June 14, 2010, accessed November 19, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Big O roof must be replaced, fire department report says. The Montreal Gazette, June 14, 2010, archived from the original August 10, 2010 ; accessed on November 19, 2013 (English). 
12. ^ Giant concrete slab falls at Montreal's aging Olympic Stadium. The Globe and Mail, accessed November 19, 2013 . 
13. ↑ BauNetz: Concrete for business in Montreal - Olympic tower converted into offices. February 11, 2020, accessed February 16, 2020 . 
14. ^ Desjardins to move into Montreal Olympic Stadium tower. Retrieved February 16, 2020 . 
15. ↑ Parc olympicque Québec: Data and statistics ( Memento of December 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
16. ^ The Tower of Montreal. (No longer available online.) About Montreal Canada, archived from the original July 12, 2013 ; accessed on November 16, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
17. ↑ Tour de Montréal. Emporis, accessed November 16, 2013 . 
18. ↑ About the Biodome. Espace Pour La Vie Montréal, accessed November 16, 2013 .