Over And Dome With: So Long To The Concrete Convertible

 Reports are saying that Rogers Communications, owner of the Toronto Blue Jays, has decided to level the Rogers Centre (née Skydome) in order to build a proper ball park and (no doubt) exploit the lands around the dome for real estate development. No dates have been announced, but plans are said to be underway.

If so, it will mark the end of one of the most celebrated episodes of sport and misspent money in the long history of Muddy York.

Ironically it was a football game— not a Blue Jays game— that spurred the building of the retractable domed stadium. Toronto’s Xanadu had its birth in the Rain Bowl Grey Cup Game in 1982 as Ontario premier Bill Davis, Toronto comptroller Paul Godfrey and assorted Toronto grandees sat in a miserable downpour at the old Exhibition Stadium as Edmonton won its fifth straight Grey Cup Game. (The loss extended the losing Argos’ winless streak for the Cup to 30 years.)  

Abysmal field conditions were often a feature of Grey Cup games as they rotated across the country. But for the people who ran Toronto, getting drenched had lost its lustre. Dreaded Montreal had the roofed Olympic Stadium down the 401 while Hogtown was still playing in a ramshackle remnant of the Ex. The Rain Bowl was galling enough to move plans for a domed stadium into the Urgent file.

It was resolved that day that Toronto needed a proper ballpark for the Argos and Blue Jays. One that would be the envy of not just Montreal but also of MLB. It would remain an outdoor facility, they promised, using the roof sparingly for only the worst weather conditions. 

That’s how I found myself seven years later as part of the CBC Toronto broadcast crew in May, 1989, doing our show as the palace of sport with its Rod Robbie convertible top was set to open. Seams leaked, unlaid carpet was everywhere. Cold draughts swept down the corridors. No matter. 

It’s hard to exaggerrate how excited Toronto was to be in the big time, stadium-wise, Many came just to see this marvel of the fully retractable motorized roof built on the railway lands. No more freezing winds from the Mistake On The Lake. No more cold metal chairs in April that were like a microwave on a hot summer’s day. Forget that costs exceeded its unlimited budget or that the roof stayed on more than it came off. 

It was Big Time. Hell, they had a hotel in left field and a restaurant in dead centre. Now that’s class.

The problem was that, in trying to be a multisport facility, Skydome was neither a baseball park nor a football stadium. It lacked as a concert venue, too. The seats raked away too quickly, the symmetrical dimensions were boring compared to Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park, the upper deck was miles from the field. 

Skydome (no articles, please) only looked impressive when all its approximately  55,000 seats were filled. Half or a third full, it was cavernous and cold like Montreal’s cement locker The Big Owe.

Perhaps the most damning indictment was that no one copied Robbie’s technology. The Skydome retractable-roof idea was passed over in favour of the open-air designs such as Camden Yards or lighter, less obtrusive roofs that didn’t leave occupants in dank lighting reminiscent of WalMart. For a city that often has a small-man syndrome it was a slap in the face. 

In the early days, when the Blue Jays won two World Series and the Argos sported Rocket Ismail, none of this mattered. Then the home teams floundered, the NBA expansion Raptors played in something resembling an aviary before getting their own building. Suddenly everyone was looking at how the public had paid $510 million ($1.1 B in today’s money) for a glorified airport hangar.

The Ontario and Toronto governments sought to get some return on their huge investment. After all the sane solutions failed, the government dumped its white elephant to Labatts for 10 percent of its original costs.  Labatt soon sold the Skydome and baseball team to Rogers, while the Argos were reduced to friends-and-family before  finally escaping to BMO Field.

Skydome, miracle of engineering, became Rogers Centre, miracle of deficit financing. The Blue Jays 2015-17 playoff revival briefly launched a nice nostalgia jag. But the writing was on the wall once the team realized it couldn’t keep a real grass surface alive in the sterile confines. 

Rogers understood the lesson of MLSE, owners of the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Argos and TorontoFC, which had created a condo community around the Scotiabank Arena. There is gold in them thar’ hills at the foot of the CN Tower. 

So the new park will have a footprint smaller than that of Rogers Centre, flanked by real estate, restaurants and shopping concourses. Even if the ball team sucks there is the experience of going downtown to be where it’s happening. Which, let’s face it, might as well be the Toronto city mission statement.

Be where it’s happening. Skydome/Rogers Centre is no longer happening. Bring on the wrecking ball. 

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx