There is a meeting tonight to discuss the plans below. The final product looks pretty good. Plenty of light for grass as well with the full roof.
Some additional info a Reddit user found from various tweets: Hybrid grass will be installed New video boards and sound systems Additional washrooms Transition from Argos game to MLS game will take 5/6 days Planning to offer free GO Train passes to season ticket holders Construction starting at the end of this year. Concourse and East stand expansion to be done by May 2015, everything else done by May 2016. No early May games at BMO in both 2015 & 2016 due to construction (will have to schedule games at the SkyDome or start the season with a road trip)
Keeping open space for CNE #TFCLive— biag (@TFCLeafnation) March 6, 2014 Also...... Bob Hunter on the floor Argos done deal at BMO— biag (@TFCLeafnation) March 6, 2014 So people might as well stop complaining because it is happening regardless of what you think/want.
Excellent. Looks fantastic. Exactly what we speculated. I'll wait for better pics of the separate roof, but I feel like it'll work
Wait... that was a legitimate concern? I thought that was just me joking when this was first rumored.
That would be seriously sweet for us attendance nerds. Most leagues around the world have at least 2 teams with big time average attendances that pick up the league average. Right now, we only have Seattle. It would be great to have another consistent 30k+ team.
5-6 days could cause some tricky scheduling during playoffs, since both leagues have playoffs around the same time.
Argos can only ever have one home playoff game a season and it's one of two dates known well in advance - if they host a Grey Cup that would be another - but again would be well known in advance.
I don't understand. The grass repair should need to occur when changing from TFC to Argo config, not the other way around, if I am understanding the grass area the retractable seats will affect.
It's not stated, but I would imagine the grass underneath the stands during soccer games is artificial. That is the easiest way to do it. The 5-6 days is most probably paint related. getting paint off real grass without destrying it is not an easy process.
Yes, and then TFC gets a home playoff game on the same weekend (or the weekend of a late-regular-season Argo game) with 4-7 days notice?
Well Seattle and NER already have that problem, worst case they play a Wednesday and get 3 days between games. Playoffs are already played on substandard surfaces. Also there is a change in the playoffs in 2014 and going forward. The team with the higher seed can choose to go first or not. This might give the league room to resolve such conflicts.
Looks like the Grey Cup weekend could conflict with the semifinal leg 2 - eastern semis and finals would be the prior two weekends. Argos can host one of those dates or none. Here's hoping for that problem
Seattle and NE deal with it by playing on consecutive days with full lines if they have to, and don't have any reconfiguration of the seating to deal with. If the 5-6 day requirement is really about the lines and the moveable seats can be installed quickly, then they can just play soccer with the CFL lines if they have to, and that answers my question. Will give BigSoccer something to melt down about, anyway.
Also the Grey cup will only be in Toronto every 5-8 years. The chance of TFC going that far in such a year is remote enough that they'll deal with when it occurs. The real conflict is the CFL division semi finals and finals on the 2nd and 3rd Sunday of November. These can conflict with earlier rounds. But the solution is simple. TFC plays normally on Saturday, then the Argos play with soccer+football lines on Sunday. Alternatively if the Argos play Sunday they can do their best to clean up by Wednesday or Thursday for TFC midweek.