By 2011, the memories of an entire generation of Major League stadiums will be obsolete. Tampa Bay, Oakland, Washington, Queens, Florida, and Minnesota will have brand new stadiums. Not to mention the Yankees, but there was never any real complaints from the fans except that the toilets never got cleaned. The era of the cookie cutter stadium will have ended--almost.
There would still be that one Toronto stadium left. The first stadium to have a working retractable roof, the first with a hotel, and the first to hold 4 million fans. And the one that 19 years later is probably cleaner than when it opened, and from the fans perspective inside the stadium, doesn't look half bad either.
But architecturally, nothing has changed and the stadium is very quickly going to be an outcast in the baseball community. In the next five years, there must be talk about building another stadium. Artificial turf, despite the advances in technology is still artificial turf. Players don't like it, fans don't like it, and the Rogers Centre is going to be the only team that uses it.
Since 2005, the renovations made at the stadium have improved the experience (more so in the 100 level) significantly. Rogers has finally manned up to this and that's great...but it's not enough. The Royals, already blessed with a magnificent stadium are funneling in 250 million dollars into drastically improving the stadium.
There have been reports of Paul Godfrey bidding for an All-Star game in Toronto, but with these new stadiums opening up in the next three years, I don't see that as a possibility for a while. So build a new stadium. Do it well, keep the costs down, you can put a cozy 36,000 seat park somewhere by the water, possibly as a centerpiece in a waterfront revitalization project. Torontonians have historically responded extremely well to new stadiums, as seen with the Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre, and BMO Field.
I realize that Rogers may be in the market for an NFL Stadium within the same timespan, but I would hope that something could be figured out, even if it involved a complete overhaul of the Rogers Centre ala Angels Stadium. The cash influx would be significant and it might be a necessary fall back option in the event that the Jays decide to tank, and the idea of selling the team surfaces. Not that I believe that it will happen in the next 50 years.
Just something to consider.
