Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
There is also the issue, if we demolish the Big O, of a metro of over 4 million people and a province of over 8 million being left with a rickety stadium seating 25,000 people mostly on benches (Molson) as its biggest venue. (OK, le Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve can hold over 100,000, but it's not really a sports stadium.)
Even if they wanted to build a decent 40,000-seat stadium from scratch to replace the Big O, it would cost as much as these renos or maybe more.
Look at how much it cost for new stadiums in Winnipeg and Regina.
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So instead of spending another quarter-billion on rebuilding the roof (which as we all know will end up costing substantially more), why not just be done with it and spend that $4000 million on a proper outdoor stadium instead that will last for at least the next 40 years? Sort of a super-NMS/IGF that has say 45,000 seats instead of 33,000, and big enough for an athletics track.
This kind of standard issue stadium will pretty well have Montreal covered for all the football, soccer, athletics and stadium concert events likely to happen there for the next two generations.
Montreal doesn't really need anything bigger since a MLB team will inevitably get a purpose-built baseball stadium anyway, and Montreal won't get higher level football or soccer than what it currently has.