The concerts at the Forum were free?!
I guess it's too late now for me to complain about those scammers at TicketMaster who got me to pay for tickets to free shows.
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LOL, the Forum did typically offer free matinee performances and kids performances (Sharon, Lois and Bram played there often); and many acts comparable to the ones Wonderland runs for free (included with admission).

Sometimes, but not often 'name' performers were also free in the evening, selectively.

But yes, most evening performances, with A-listers were paid ticket events.
 
LOL, the Forum did typically offer free matinee performances and kids performances (Sharon, Lois and Bram played there often); and many acts comparable to the ones Wonderland runs for free (included with admission).

Sometimes, but not often 'name' performers were also free in the evening, selectively.

But yes, most evening performances, with A-listers were paid ticket events.
That's what I recall. I worked there in the mid '80s when the place was hopping and, if on day shift, would often hang around for an evening concert if I fancied the playbill. Families during the day for the play area, restaurants, matinee concerts, Cinesphere, etc. or just enjoying the grass, breeze and shade. Evenings were typically young folks for a concert, restaurants/bars, Cinesphere, or enjoying the grass, breeze and shape in a darker form (!). If the Argos were playing across the bridge, it got really hopping after the game (win or lose - it didn't seem to matter). I even went to a wedding in one of the pods.

It's always going to be a challenge to create a venue that is active in all seasons unless they put a dome over the whole thing. Any structure that is enclosed will eat up real estate and raise the cost that is going to have to be recovered; the government has already decreed that it needs to run without operation subsidies and if the private section operates it or part of it, they will expect a return.

I think it's a bad of a sad statement that everything these days has to be a theme park.
 
That's what I recall. I worked there in the mid '80s when the place was hopping and, if on day shift, would often hang around for an evening concert if I fancied the playbill. Families during the day for the play area, restaurants, matinee concerts, Cinesphere, etc. or just enjoying the grass, breeze and shade. Evenings were typically young folks for a concert, restaurants/bars, Cinesphere, or enjoying the grass, breeze and shape in a darker form (!). If the Argos were playing across the bridge, it got really hopping after the game (win or lose - it didn't seem to matter). I even went to a wedding in one of the pods.

It's always going to be a challenge to create a venue that is active in all seasons unless they put a dome over the whole thing. Any structure that is enclosed will eat up real estate and raise the cost that is going to have to be recovered; the government has already decreed that it needs to run without operation subsidies and if the private section operates it or part of it, they will expect a return.

I think it's a bad of a sad statement that everything these days has to be a theme park.

You're so young at heart; I sometimes forget you were working Ontario Place when I was barely a toddler, LOL
 
The concerts at the Forum were free?!
I guess it's too late now for me to complain about those scammers at TicketMaster who got me to pay for tickets to free shows.
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The building it was staged in was way cooler than that *Mullet Amphitheater that was built in it's stead...

*Note: Now known as Bubba'weiser Stage. /sigh
 
I am very aware of what it was but we can't look to the past and expect what gets built today is going to be like it. Things come with a cost gone are the free concerts at the ampthaterare, gone are the days where you can have a playground like they used to have. Unfortunately no matter what the public or people on this board say Ontario place isn't going to be like the Ontario place people remember from their childhood.

I'm not requesting that OP be rebuilt exactly like it was at its peak as you seem to be implying. I think the most logical approach to revitalization is to take the ideas and elements that made it so popular in the first place (which have been discussed in this thread) and create modern, innovative versions of them as well as adding new ones that it lacked previously. Aside from the pods and cinesphere, we have a giant blank slate to work with. The potential is enormous with the right vision.

Oh and let's actually maintain it this time, mmmmkay?
 
I'm not requesting that OP be rebuilt exactly like it was at its peak as you seem to be implying. I think the most logical approach to revitalization is to take the ideas and elements that made it so popular in the first place (which have been discussed in this thread) and create modern, innovative versions of them as well as adding new ones that it lacked previously. Aside from the pods and cinesphere, we have a giant blank slate to work with. The potential is enormous with the right vision.

Oh and let's actually maintain it this time, mmmmkay?
One thing Ontario Place did wrong was not to add new and improved attractions. If it is the same each and every year, people get tired of it.
 
The concerts at the Forum were free?!
I guess it's too late now for me to complain about those scammers at TicketMaster who got me to pay for tickets to free shows.
View attachment 337583
That concert was back from the 90's so maybe at that time they charged for Forum concerts but when I went back in the 70's/80's the shows were free with admission. I know because I saw many of them. I remember seeing Sly And The Family Stone along with Anne Murray, K C And The Sunshine Band and the Captain & Tennille. They were all evening shows I believe. I worked at Ontario Place (only for 1 Summer) when I was 17, so I got free admission and saw all kinds of free concerts.

This site has a list of concerts at the Ontario Place Forum starting back from 1970 and I remember going to lots of them and never paid to see any of the shows at the Forum.
 
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One thing Ontario Place did wrong was not to add new and improved attractions. If it is the same each and every year, people get tired of it.
The one big thing they did wrong was take away the attractions they had and let the place go down hill from neglect. This does not happen by chance.

Check this quote from the Toronto Star.

“Ontario Place has been a drain on the government treasury for many years . . . it’s no longer sustainable,” Chan said at a Queen’s Park news conference.

“The park does not draw enough people to its gates to keep it sustainable in its current form,” Duncan told reporters.

However, the documents obtained by the Star show Ontario Place attendance in 2011 actually rose 89 per cent over 2010 levels. They also show revenues from rides, ground admissions, concessions and retail sales and Cinesphere tickets also increased dramatically last year.



Importantly, the documents indicate the park was on track to operate at a break-even point by 2015 — just three years from now.


These secret documents article makes some interesting reading. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/edi...ents_tell_a_story_of_success_not_failure.html
 
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I'm not requesting that OP be rebuilt exactly like it was at its peak as you seem to be implying. I think the most logical approach to revitalization is to take the ideas and elements that made it so popular in the first place (which have been discussed in this thread) and create modern, innovative versions of them as well as adding new ones that it lacked previously. Aside from the pods and cinesphere, we have a giant blank slate to work with. The potential is enormous with the right vision.

Oh and let's actually maintain it this time, mmmmkay?
EXACTLY!!!
 
The one big thing they did wrong was take away the attractions they had and let the place go down hill from neglect. This does not happen by chance.

To be fair the water slide needed and Wilderness Adventure rides were liability issues if left upright and unattended. Can you imagine if the park was abandoned and someone jumped off the water slide?

They also needed ongoing upkeep.
 
Here it comes.
They are bringing in Tory too, so this isn't any old re-announcement. Gird your loins.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is set to make an announcement this morning about the future of the former Ontario Place theme park.
Ford will appear with Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod and Toronto Mayor John Tory.

 
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Here it comes.
They are bringing in Tory too, so this isn't any old re-announcement. Gird your loins.




Well, there's an expression you don't hear every day.....
 
From Globe: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-three-companies-chosen-to-revitalize-ontario-place/
... Live Nation, which runs the performance venue at Ontario Place, will have an expanded role ...
...They are bringing in Tory too, so this isn't any old re-announcement...
I'm waiting to hear what this is all about. Does the mayor's presence mean this will somehow involve Exhibition Place? The "performance venue" (Budweiser Stage) is already there, so I don't know what else Live Nation would be doing.
 

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