After a large-scale, multi-year, $300 million renovation, the Blue Jays hope to transform Rogers Center from feeling like a cavernous ballpark to a traditional ballpark that will appeal to casual and dedicated baseball fans alike.
The Blue Jays provided the first glimpse of the upcoming changes Thursday when they unveiled new details and the first artist renderings of the stadium’s first significant renovation in more than 30 years. It is expected to take place over the next two to three years.
The privately funded plan promises to dramatically transform the Rogers Center from “a multipurpose stadium into a more important experience for our fans, but also for our players,” Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said during a presentation at the media
“When we finish these two or three years, more than $300 million will be invested in the renovation of this building, which is really not an isolated investment, but a continuation of the investment that was made in the development complex of players. that continues to be done in player personnel and hopefully continues to be done over the next five days, into the next offseason and beyond as we continue to build our championship core and head into this World Championship, which is the ultimate goal here,” Shapiro said. .
The renovations will be limited to the interior of the building and will focus on modernizing the fan experience in the stands, including improving the view so that every seat faces the action, bringing fans closer together on the field and players, introducing more social and congregation areas. and upgrade player facilities at field level. The club announced its intention to upgrade the 33-year-old stadium in the heart of downtown Toronto earlier this year, but will now only release the scope of the project with more regular updates until its completion.
“When we think about an engaging fan experience, something that creates something for everyone who wants to come to a game, not everyone wants to watch a game the same way,” Shapiro said. “We don’t have that diversity of fan experiences. There’s a reason to come here and it’s for baseball fans or fans who might be excited for us to win, but we don’t have some of the best bars, some of the best family spaces, no we have great spaces. for our fans to come together, to interact with the players, so trying to solve that challenge is also something we’ve done.”
The renovation will take place in multiple phases over the next two to three seasons, the club said, so as not to disrupt the baseball season. The upgrades will affect the main fan areas, including the seating sections in the 100 Field Level, the 100 and 200 Field Level, the 500 Level and the Player Benefit Field Level.
“When the fans come into the building next year, sit in these seats and the seats below, with the Canadian flag unfurled on the field behind us, it will be a very different sight, a dramatically different view and a stadium different,” Shapiro said. . “But that’s just going to be the beginning. Then it’s going to be the next offseason or two when we overhaul the whole lower bowl and really turn this stadium into a stadium.”
The first phase of the project will begin this offseason and is expected to be completed in time for Opening Day 2023. Initial changes will include the creation of social spaces with patios, railings, bars and gazebos on the field of 100 and 200 levels. levels that will include food and beverage options.
The bullpens in left and right field will be raised and underneath there will be an area for the relievers to prepare for the game. The bullpens will be surrounded by new grandstand seating and viewing areas to increase interaction between fans and players. Some 100 tiers of seating will be moved to new outfield walls to bring fans closer to the field and eliminate the dead space now under the outfield seats.
The club has not yet shared details on the new field dimensions or fence heights, but Shapiro said they will include unique angles and dimensions. However, after consulting with its research and development and analytics departments, the team does not expect the changes to the field to significantly alter its neutral competitive nature, meaning it will not favor the batsman or launcher
“It’s going to affect individual games, it’s going to affect individual hits, and in that first year, we might say, ‘oh, that ball could have been a home run last year,’ but over the course of the season, and the hundreds of balls and thousands of balls in play, it’s not going to have an impact on the results,” Shapiro said.
In right and left field in the 500 level, the seats will be removed and replaced with two standing-room-only, non-ticketed social decks with the idea that one will have a family focus while the other will have a more casual focus. party atmosphere to cater to all fans. All seats on the upper deck, which are original from 1989, will be replaced with larger and more comfortable seats.
At field level, the players’ family room, players’ weight room and staff locker rooms will be renovated in the first phase with more extensive renovations in the future phase to further modernize the facilities.
The players’ families were also consulted about what they wanted to see in a family room.
Future plans for the lower bowl, including pitch-level premium seating areas and social spaces, as well as club and player facilities are still ongoing. They are scheduled to be completed during the 2023-2024 offseason.
“We’re going to create best-in-class premium (seating), which, frankly, we have almost no premium (seating) in this stadium that’s up to the standards of modern sports, whether it’s arenas, stadiums or stadiums,” Shapiro said. .
The Rogers Center opened in 1989, first called the SkyDome, as a multi-purpose stadium and its retractable domed roof was considered a technical marvel at the time. But soon after it opened, baseball’s trend shifted away from multipurpose stadiums and back to classic stadiums, such as Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, which opened in 1992.
Today, the Rogers Center is one of three remaining multipurpose stadiums in the major leagues, along with Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland, California. The Canadian Football League no longer plays Rogers. Center, so the club can move toward a more focused baseball experience.
Since its opening, the Rogers Center has never undergone a large-scale renovation. Looking ahead, a new stadium will eventually need to be built in Toronto, and Shapiro acknowledged that it’s only a “mid-term solution” that will buy the team 10 to 12 years until the club has to make a long-term decision. fix, whether that means tearing down and massively renovating the Rogers Center or rebuilding a stadium in a potentially new location.
“This is an extremely complex project and something we hope to undertake when we finish it immediately,” Shapiro said.
In preparation for this renovation, Blue Jays leaders researched and toured ballparks and arenas in North America and Europe for inspiration. A key element was modernizing their space for the present, while anticipating future trends to ensure it didn’t quickly become outdated.
The Blue Jays have once again partnered with renowned stadium architecture firm Populous to lead the design of the project after the team was satisfied with their work on the player development facility in Dunedin, Florida .
(Plays courtesy of Blue Jays)