Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:06 on 2019-03-23 Permalink Reply  

• Ephraim 09:08 on 2019-03-23 Permalink

  Looking for someone actually surprised by this news….

• Frankie 12:28 on 2019-03-24 Permalink

  It should be demolished, although the disruption it would create in the area during the demo, not to mention all that concrete, rebar and everything else in there ending up in landfills, would be an environmental mess. Maybe sell off pocket size chunks of it for 10 bucks a piece? What’s an extra 10 bucks to finally own a piece of something you have been paying for for decades?

• Faiz Imam 13:34 on 2019-03-24 Permalink

  Honestly, there are so many markets, fairs and festivals that we could use that space for. Unfortunately under the current system the rental costs are prohibitive, but from what ive’ read, a key part of the renovations is to make it much easier to rent the floor or a small part of the stadium.

  Given how much of a winter city we are, i’m always surprised we don’t make better use out of what is the biggest climate controlled volume of space in the city.

  Hopefully once it gets renovated, we can come up with more community events and such to make use of it in the winter months.

• dhomas 15:20 on 2019-03-24 Permalink

  @Frankie: The Big O has been paid off since 2006. It’s time to put the tired “Big Owe” trope to rest. The total cost was just shy of $1.5 billion (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Stadium_(Montreal) ). We spend a whole lot more elsewhere (the Turcot alone is costing almost $4 billion, plus whatever overages they can tack on).
  I only wish they would make better use of the space.

• Kevin 11:44 on 2019-03-25 Permalink

  We’re still spending at least $30 million each year on annual maintenance, plus hundreds of millions every few years on roofs.

  And now they want a billion dollars to renovate it, after which it will remain, as always, unsafe to use in winter.

  Stop throwing good money after bad and let it die.