Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
Encyclopedia : O : OL : OLY : Olympic Stadium (Montreal)
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The park opened for baseball on April 15, 1977, with the Philadelphia Phillies beating the Montreal Expos 7–2. The Expos played their home games at the stadium from then on, except for 13 games played on the road in 1991 due to structural problems with the stadium and 22 home games played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico in each of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Their final home game was a 9–1 loss against the Florida Marlins on September 29, 2004. At the time, it was "hailed" as the worst active venue in Major League Baseball, tied for that "honour" with the Minnesota Twins' Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.
Nicknamed "The Big O", the stadium was designed to be a very elaborate facility and was to feature a retractable roof, which was to be retracted by a huge 556 foot (approx. 169 1/2 metres) tower — the tallest inclined structure in the world, a foot taller than the Washington Monument, and the sixth tallest building in Montreal. The Olympic swimming pool is located under this tower. Designed by Paris architect Roger Taillibert, the park was very expensive, with the total cost of the stadium being over C$1 billion. The city of Montreal only completely paid off this debt in 2006. Due to its extremely high cost, the stadium has also been dubbed The Big Owe. The then-mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau, is remembered for saying, in a speech announcing that Montreal would host the games, "The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby." This now-famous quote is often parodied by residents.
Problems plagued the stadium from the time it opened for the Olympic Games. 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 roof and only a small portion of the tower built for a number of years. Both the tower and the roof, made of over 60,000 feet (approximately 18,500 meters) 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 was occasionally torn in heavy winds.
The roof is only 52 metres (171 ft) 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.
Olympic Stadium was remodeled in 1991, with 12,000 seats being removed for Expos games. On September 8 of that year, support beams snapped and caused a 55 ton concrete slab to fall on to an interior walkway. No one was injured, but the Expos had to play their final 13 home games on the road. The following season in 1992, the retractable roof concept was abandoned in favour of a new permanent cover roof. This fixed roof was removed (for repairs) in May 1998, turning the park into an outdoor stadium for the season. 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 the Olympic Stadium for good. Yet again a new permanent roof was installed for the 1999 season and has remained on the park since, however even this roof has proven less than reliable, as structural breaches have occurred during the winter months (due to snow and ice accumulation). A fourth replacement roof is being considered as of March 2006.
In addition to the Expos, the park was home to the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes for a number of years, but they now use the Percival Molson Stadium of McGill University. The stadium is, however, still used for the team's last regular season game and for all playoff games. 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. The stadium also has various other multipurpose uses: indoor exhibitions, monster truck shows, and so forth (excluding winter months, due to safety issues with the current roof in place). In 2005, 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.
The stadium is directly connected to the Pie-IX metro station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro.
Olympic Stadium was extensively featured on the final episode of The Amazing Race: Family Edition, when teams spent part of a leg in Montreal.
Olympic Stadium also hosted the 1982 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
Trivia
The Olympic Stadium has been fully paid off as of June 30, 2006. [link]See also
External links
- [Ballpark Digest visit to Olympic Stadium]
- [Ballparks.com]
- [Baseball Reference]
- [Baseball Library]
- [Régie des installations olympiques (Government of Quebec)]
- [Google maps]
- [Olympic Stadium datasheet on Images Montreal]
| Montreal landmarks | |
|---|---|
| Buildings | Biodome | Biosphère | Centre Bell | Canadian Centre for Architecture | Montreal Casino | Complexe Desjardins | Montreal Forum | Grande Bibliothèque du Québec | Habitat '67 | Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral | McCord Museum | Montreal Science Centre | Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica | Olympic Stadium | Palais des congrès de Montréal | Place des Arts | Place Ville-Marie | Redpath Museum | Saint Joseph's Oratory | Tour de la Bourse | Underground City | World Trade Centre Montreal |
| Neighbourhoods | Chinatown | Old Montreal | Old Port | Quartier international de Montréal |
| Nature and Parks | Jardin botanique de Montréal | Mount Royal |
| Islands | Île Bizard | Island of Montreal | Île Notre-Dame | Nuns' Island | Saint Helen's Island |
| Transportation | Montréal-Mirabel International Airport | Montreal Metro | Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport | Windsor Station | Central Station |
| Preceded by: Jarry Park 1969–1976 | Home of the Montreal Expos 1977–2004 | Followed by: Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium 2005– |
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