A day after visiting Tiger Stadium and Comerica Park in Detroit, I made my way to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for the day. I had one main agenda for the day, the Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball. Ever since I began my tour of the MLB stadiums, I always imagined that Rogers Centre would be the last one that I would visit given its geographical location to the other 29 stadiums. Rogers Centre was stadium number 13 of the 30 active that I would be visiting in order to complete the circuit. Before going into the experience, let me provide some quick history of the stadium.
Rogers Centre, originally known as Skydome is a multi-purpose stadium located in Toronto, just steps from the famed CN Tower. Before the Rogers Centre, the Toronto Blue Jays played nearby at Exhibition Stadium from 1977 - 1989. Given that the ballpark was an outdoor stadium located relatively close to Lake Ontario, problems arose over the years where weather played a major factor through-out the season, most notably the only major league game played with the field covered entirely in snow on April 7, 1977, the Jays first game there. Following many ill fated weather plagued events, the demand came for a domed stadium closer to downtown Toronto. After years of searching for a new site, one was located at the base of the CN Tower near Union Station, a major Canadian railway yard.
The Rogers Centre finally opened on June 3, 1989 with the first baseball game held on June 5th. It was the first major North American sports stadium with a fully functional retractable roof. According to the tour guide, the roof is made up of four retractable panels, the last one in a stationary position which takes 20 minutes in length to fully open. The stadium is one of two remaining MLB ballparks still using an artificial field, other being Tampa Bay and the only one without a dirt infield. Also unique to Rogers Centre is the Renaissance Hotel that is located within the stadium that includes 348 hotel rooms, with 70 of them overlooking the field.
Prior to the game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim later that day, I took a brief tour of the stadium for a price of $16.00. The Rogers Centre stadium tour begins at Gate 4 only a few feet from the base of the CN Tower. Our tour guide, Kayla quickly ushered the three of us into the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre to begin the tour. The first stop on the tour was just shy of the right field foul pole at the end of the first base line. Rogers Centre holds the distinction of being the only MLB team to not have the traditional foul pole in favor of yellow mesh nets. These nets were created so those sitting in that part of the ballpark wouldn't have an obstructed view of the game.
While making our way through the area containing the suites, Kayla went into detail about the origins of the Rogers Centre and how the name was chosen for the original name, the Skydome. Chosen as part of a province wide "name the stadium" contest in 1987, the Skydome was chosen from 150,000 entries from 12,897 different names. Eventual winner, Kellie Watson, was drawn from a barrel containing over 2,000 entries that contained the name "Skydome." For winning the contest, Kellie was awarded with lifetime seats behind home plate including concerts.
During a brief visit to the media center and press box, Kayla shared several interesting facts about Rogers Centre including its playing field and rotating seats. Depending on which event will be at the stadium, whether baseball, football, soccer or a concert, the lower seating bowl can be reconfigured to accommodate the event. Beneath the seats is a track that can quickly transform the Rogers Centre from a 49,000 seat baseball stadium to a 53,000 seating capacity for football games. While learning about the seating capacity, the grounds crew was just below us hard at work getting the playing field ready for that evenings game. Much to my surprise, I didn't expect to see a grounds crew hard at work preparing the field at 11:30am for a 7:00pm game. Sure, I have been to many ballparks, but never have I seen work commence this early for a game. The Rogers Centre holds the distinction of having the only MLB pitchers mound that can be stored below the playing field and doesn't contain real dirt until it's placed on it prior to the first pitch.
Our last stop on the tour was the playing field that took us behind the center field wall and into the spacious outfield. The playing field, like Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay is the only one to use an artificial surface and the only one without a dirt field. To reduce the amount of time converting the field, a roll-based Astroturf was installed prior to the 2010 season. Rogers Centre previously used FieldTurf from 2005 - 2010 that took about 40 hours to remove for concerts.
If you plan on eating while at the game, there are plenty of options including your standard hot dogs, burgers and peanuts stands located through-out the stadium. Located near Gate 5 is a family friendly food stand containing everything from pizza to burgers, sandwiches and many more options. Do you prefer to eat before or after the game? The area between the Rogers Centre and Air Canada Centre provides several options including sports bars, Subway, Mexican, pizza and a pita restaurant that specializes in Schwarma wraps.
ROGERS CENTRE FACTS:
Home to the NBA's Toronto Raptors from 1995 - 1999
1992 and 1993 MLB World Series
WWE WrestleMania VI in 1990 and WrestleMania X8 in 2002
UFC 129 on April 30, 2011 that set a UFC attendance record of 55,000 seats after the previous number of 42,000 were sold-out on the first day
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