Rogers Stadium at Downsview

Developer: Live Nation
  
Address: 123 Garratt Blvd, Toronto, Canada
Category: Commercial
Status: ConstructionCrane(s): 0
Height: ? ft / ? mStoreys: ? storeys
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All valid points but I still wonder if the NFL needs Toronto more than Toronto needs the NFL.
 
And this seems to be fairly close to the subway/GO station so well planned in that regard. And with Oktoberfest coming Northcrest seems to be hitting their stride!

Although Roger’s has said that the venue won’t be used in the winter I wonder if it would be suitable for outdoor hockey games?
 
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rdaner said:
All valid points but I still wonder if the NFL needs Toronto more than Toronto needs the NFL.
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Oh they definitely don't need Toronto.

They are primed to be that first league to make the jump out of Canada/US and overseas.
Whether Mexico City or London, they can do it especially with the limited schedule of games requiring much less team travel.

Though MLB is making a case to expand internationally and Japan would go wild for a Tokyo team, but the 100+ game schedule is an issue to work in only one team there.
 
EBT said:
In no way can this be called a stadium. It is an outdoor concert stage flanked by high-capacity bleachers that can be erected and taken down in mere weeks which is why they say it will be ready for the 2025 concert season.
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Yes, I think some people are making incorrect assumptions from just hearing the name. There’s no chance of the NFL or the Blue Jays (as I heard a guy say on radio this morning) playing at this outdoor music festival site.
 
JMSRead said:
It is interesting, definitely. Michael Grange, who is a good reporter AND works for Rogers, wrote in a recent article that Ed Rogers may pursue the NFL next. There has been seemingly zero momentum on Toronto and the NFL since Tanenbaum/Leiweke/Bon Jovi failed to purchase the Bills (10ish years ago?). But hey, if you have someone willing to buy a team and build a stadium, things can change.
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I suspect these events are connected. This does seem like the most natural place in T.O. for an eventual NFL statidum. Especially with increasing talk, and potential plans, for Line 4 coming west.
 
Can we got a new thread for NFL stadium issues?!

On the topic of the actual project I am also interested in the area adjacent to the stadium that shows numerous temporary structures and meanwhile uses. These areas, in my experience, often get more use and are more interesting.
 
T-Bor said:
I think they could make a go of it, potentially, though it begs the question of why no other existing NFL team owner is skipping the $5B expansion fee and just building a stadium to move a team to Toronto
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Most NFL,owners do not like to build their own stadiums, they would much rather have the taxpayer undertake that task. And I would imagine that their would be pressure to create a new NFL franchise so that the existing owners share on the franchise fee - 5 billion would be a nice year end bonus to share around.

As much as I enjoy the CFL and the Argos, I think the NFL comes one day, ,shortly after the new NFL compatible stadium is announced. In some ways, Downsview would be a good site. But in other ways, not so much. How does the impact of a large stadium setting 75,000 or so impact on the developing community and park uses for the site.

I am also sure that issuing an MZO for a NFL stadium would be right up Doug’s current thinking. I could see him rerouting his new tunnel to pass under the stadium to allow ,easy, access to the 75,000 place car parking area…..
 
I know the thing is temporary, but still: Godspeed to the folks in charge of getting a 50,000-person venue up and running (and permitted) in 11 months.
 
ADRM said:
I know the thing is temporary, but still: Godspeed to the folks in charge of getting a 50,000-person venue up and running (and permitted) in 11 months.
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As mentioned above, I think some are being misled by the not-entirely-accurate "Stadium" name it's being given. It's an outdoor music festival site with a temporary outdoor stage and some temporary scaffolding-type grandstands. For a comparison, the Toronto IndyCar track (including grandstands, trackside suites, all those concrete barriers and fences) has been set up and taken down each year for most of the last 35+ years over the course of about maybe two months. Not as many in recent times, but for its first 10 or 15 years the attendance was allegedly 60,000 or more on race day.

Edit:
https://archive.is/L8HDg
… expected to have seats for 30,000 fans, with the rest standing.
… a removable standard stage at the end, which will allow big-name artists to bring in their own customized stages. (It will neither have the facilities nor the pitch to accommodate a sports team, Hoffman said.)
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https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2024/0...-stadium-downsview-setting-stage-future.57005
It is envisioned as a horseshoe-like structure with seating that can be reconfigured to suit the varying demands of large-scale concerts and events
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Just a guess on my part, but I could see them reconfiguring this temporary set-up to be half of the capacity or less by having the scaffolding stands be smaller and closer to the stage, if and when Budweiser Stage is being rebuilt, so it would be more suitable for a higher number of shows.
just east of the creek said:
... As much as I enjoy the CFL and the Argos, I think the NFL comes one day, ,shortly after the new NFL compatible stadium is announced...
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Again as mentioned above, I'm mystified as to why an outdoor music festival site with some scaffolding stands, to be operated by concert promoters Live Nation, has prompted any talk about football or an NFL stadium (which this is definitely not). Rogers will not own or operate it, they're just the sponsor name. And Rogers has had nothing to do with the NFL for several years now, since the last time a few NFL games were on CityTV or Sportsnet in 2016.

No one is building an NFL stadium on the faint hope that it might somehow attract a team. Even in the unlikely, and most would say objectionable, event that some level of government paid for it as in Nevada, it would have to involve an NFL team owner already agreeing to move into it before construction would start, which isn't happening any time soon, if ever.

Also, I've repeatedly heard and read people express a strange notion over the decades that somehow the CFL and Argos have been what's stopping the NFL from being here. Apart from a questionable and naive possible proposal in 1974,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Football_Act

this has never made any sense. There could be one of them, both (like the NHL and WHA Toronto Toros in hockey), or neither. I suppose it could be argued that a hypothetical NFL team in Toronto could make it more difficult for the CFL to thrive here, but there's no other reason to assume one of them somehow prevents the other from existing.
 
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...was this place that our former Mayor, Mel Lastman was going on about some tech dome or something back in the day?
 
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