Stadium Preview: Part VII

Posted November 1, 2011

What originally fueled the B4B idea was to visit each major league baseball stadium across the country. Now that our dreams will become reality beginning in 2012, we will want to share our greatest experiences with followers of our journey. We’ll report on fan devotion, best concessions, most memorable park moment in history and video blogging each 7th inning stretch the B4B crew will sing along to all season. We really want our readers to experience each stadium along with us.

Over the next few months, the B4B blog will be providing previews of each major league stadium. We will give some historical background, along with plenty of pictures. We would love to get fans perspective on each park as well, so please provide feedback on your favorite stadium on facebook and twitter. Our posts will take us from the oldest stadium all the way to the brand new Marlins Stadium. We hope you enjoy.

Rogers Centre

The Toronto Blue Jays play at the Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome. I don’t know about you, but I think SkyDome is an awesome name for a baseball stadium. It sounds so space-agey, and using “Sky” in the name makes me think it must be colossal and futuristic. But alas, Rogers Communications shelled out some cash for the naming rights, and here we have the seventh oldest stadium in the major leagues named for a media conglomerate in Canada.

The Rogers Centre opened in 1989 and is currently home to the Blue Jays and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Other tenants have included NBA’s Raptors until their arena was built, and NFL’s Bills, who have an arrangement to play 8 home games there:

Toronto Blue Jays (MLB) (1989–present)
Toronto Argonauts (CFL) (1989–present)
Toronto Raptors (NBA) (1995–1999)
International Bowl (2007–2010)
Buffalo Bills (NFL) (2008–present)

The story behind how the idea for the stadium in Toronto came about is gold. It’s pure Canada. According to the Wikipedia page, the idea for an enclosed stadium came following the Grey Cup in November 1982 at the outdoor Exhibition Stadium. The Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League Championship game. It’s pretty much the Super Bowl, except it’s only watched in one country and Nickelback is the halftime performer every year.

Well, in Canada in November, predictably, the weather is unpredictable. The game was played terrible rain and snow, and the crowd spent most of the game seeking shelter. The “washrooms were overflowing, which was on the whole a bad experience for the fans,” according to the website. The following day, tens of thousands of Canadians rallied at Toronto City Hall chanting “We want a dome!” Politicians listened to the crowd, and after a few years of planning construction began in 1986.

A site near the CN Tower and a major transit hub was picked. The Blue Jays began play on June 5, 1989 with a loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. Fred McGriff hit the first home run in the new stadium, and only reason that is notable is because McGriff’s nickname was Crime Dog. Earlier this baseball season, there were rumors that the Blue Jays had been using a fan to steal signs, so many opposing teams use more complicated signs to avoid any chance of this happening. The stadium currently seats 49,260 for baseball.

The Rogers Centre is noted for being the first stadium to have a fully retractable motorized roof. The stadium also has a 348-room hotel, The Renaissance Toronto Hotel, with 70 rooms overlooking the field. The inward-looking rooms have regular two-way windows, which apparently has lead to some awkward and inappropriate moments for patrons at the hotel with a stadium full of people watching them. You can only imagine.

A blog post about the Rogers Centre wouldn’t be complete without some Fun Facts taken from the Rogers Centre website:

In 1992, Rogers Centre set the World Record for the greatest number of Hot Air Balloons in an enclosed area – 46 inflated Hot Air Balloons on the field!
If one were to line-up all the hot dogs served at Rogers Centre in one year, the hot dogs would cover the distance of 3,241 stolen bases.
They say “milk does a body good.” Rogers Centre can hold a lot of milk for a lot of healthy people. It would take 1,56 billion litres of milk to completely fill Rogers Centre. Thirsty anyone?
Eight 747 planes or 743 Indian Elephants or 516 African Elephants can comfortably fit on the Rogers Centre field when set in baseball mode.
A 31-storey office building can fit inside Rogers Centre when the roof is closed.

If only all of the other stadiums had facts as fun as these. B4B is very excited to see a game at the Rogers Centre. We’re hoping the roof is open because that just makes baseball more enjoyable. We’ll be sure to have our passports, but let us know on facebook or twitter anything more we should know about Toronto and the Rogers Centre.