funny after i answered you yesterday I was watching the news last night and there was a feature on this....during the weather segment...about how even in winter the construction is going ahead and has the stadium all lit up at night. As for updates...check here...seems the south end roof is nearly built and close to being lifted into place. http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...ns-m-s-mlse-gensler.8777/page-56#post-1075687
noticed on my drive by this morning that the cranes seem to have moved to the south end....would expect the big lift to occur some time soon!
The CFL benches are side-by-side? I never realized that. Not that I ever paid attention to it, but every CFL game I've seen, I think the benches are on opposite sides. Hey, gotta make that extra revenue with the fieldside seats, I guess.
They have side by side benches at McGill Stadium in Montreal as well. That is the only other CFL stadium that does that.
Big hint on who they are going after in their marketing is the placement of the family zone! Nothing says "stay away families" more than designating the worst seats in the house (for that sport) as the family zone.
A lot of teams designate the cheap seats as the "family" section. If you are a dad buying 4-6 tickets for a game, they better not be the top-priced seats in the house or it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event.
They don't have to be top priced....just not stuck beyond the end line in the lower bowl........they are not even the cheapest tickets...just towards the cheaper end of the scale.....as Pete the Crazy One notes...the only designation will be there is no booze......and I would think that would be reason to move the (one, remember) family zone section to a slightly higher priced area as you are not going to be milking booze money out of them
That really leaves only 227 or 205(or 204?) - the northernmost sections of the east and west upper decks. No way they put them near the 'Fan Zone' a.k.a. cheap seats for rowdy folks - in the south. I'd be very surprised if they allocated anything better seats wise.
Grass issue at BMO Field w/ CFL (plus more stadium porn pics) http://www.torontosun.com/2016/02/05/bmo-fields-grass-guys-feeling-the-pressure http://www.torontofc.ca/post/2016/02/05/protecting-pitch-bmo-field
http://www.torontosun.com/2016/02/03/bmo-field-renovations-nearing-completion-in-toronto There will be some temp seating in place for TFC games.
Article says the temp seating is about a 1000 seats. I thought the old stand was over 2000? Wonder where the difference will be made up? I hope some sort of permanent retractable seating is in the cards for phase 3.
Kurt Larson tweeted me last week it was about 1,800 so if there is 1k temp seating then capacity is only down 800 from last year....there were two "sellouts" last year May 10th home opener and August 29 against Montreal....both with announced crowd of 30,226...so losing a net 800 seats in the North End leaves you with 29,426.....not far off of 30k and not really hard to find somewhere else to squeeze 'em in somewhere.
bunch of new pics from a poster over at www.urbantoronto.ca right here BMO Field Renovations | ?m | ?s | MLSE | Gensler
Argos released their schedule today. Overlaying it with TFC's I doubt there will be too much of an issue with turnaround/pitch quality. Aside from the shortest gap being 6 days...and an average of 8 days post Argo games before TFC plays.....a very large number of TFC's games occur after another TFC match as opposed to an Argo game. Keep in mind, this is about as bad as it can get because after this year, presumably, TFC can play a few home matches before the 1st weekend in May.
Not to get ahead of any team's efforts, but what is the window for the CFL post-season? Are there potential conflicts with the MLS season or post-season?
I would imagine that both leagues would/could just work that out. CFL post season starts one week after season....with 2 games on Nov 13 (Sunday) between the 2nd and 3rd seeds in each conference....following week is the conference finals. No team can host both of those games (so max 1 CFL playoff game to worry about)....on November the 27th the Grey Cup Final is in Toronto.
On ground sharing Hull City and rugby league side Hull FC share a pitch. The grass is 100% natural. Wigan Athletic and Wigan Warriors Rugby League FC share a pitch. Watford and Saracens Rugby Union share a pitch, union being a lot harder on pitches than rugby league The secrets are not to cut the grass before rugby games and a great drainage system which stops rugby players from tearing the pitch up. This is what happens when you don't have great drainage. Unfortunately it's at my bloody team's stadium.