'Experience is paramount’ at Rogers Stadium, Toronto’s newest music venue
Downsview Park venue opens Sunday with concert by South Korean boy band Stray Kids
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Live Nation Canada apparently took a cue from Field of Dreams when it came to building Toronto’s newest seasonal outdoor music venue — the 50,000-seat Rogers Stadium at Downsview Park.
The venue opens Sunday with a concert by South Korean boy band Stray Kids before hosting two of the biggest British bands in the world — four shows by Coldplay in July and two by the reunited Oasis in August — among others for a total of 14 shows in its inaugural season.
It’s expected to inject between $80 million and $100 million into the local economy.
“I’m so excited for people to see it,” said Erik Hoffman, president of music at Live Nation Canada. “This project, over just about anything else that we’ve ever done, has brought this curiosity factor. When’s the last time we built a stadium? Well, how about when was the last time a stadium was built for music only. It’s never happened (here).”
A tour around the grounds Thursday during a rainstorm — plastic ponchos will be sold on the grounds — showed off the stadium’s impressive blue grandstands, which reach as high as row 54 and can hold 37,000 seats, while general admission and seats on the floor (depending on the show) can handle 18,000 people.
Then there’s the enormous stage measuring 168 feet wide by 72 feet long for the Stray Kids show.
“The beautiful part of this is that we built it from the ground up and we’re a bunch of production and music people who know what it’s like to go into sports (venues) and try to facilitate a concert,” said Live Nation Canada vice-president of operations Nathalie Burri, who conducted the tour.
“And sometimes it’s challenging to fit within the confines of that. So the experience is paramount.”
For fans, that means getting to the venue via three TTC stations (Downsview Park, Sheppard West, Wilson), free TTC and GO Transit rides after concerts throughout the summer courtesy of Live Nation Canada, three separate entrances — the main gate, the Rogers customers and American Express gates — a free Ferris wheel, the Sirius-XM Stage featuring up-and-coming Canadian acts, a new Rogers 5G+ network set up for social media posting and over 600 washrooms.
There is no on-site public parking, but there are pickup and drop-off areas with the gates opening at 4:30 p.m. for most shows followed by an 11 p.m. curfew.
It’s a cashless venue and there are food and beverages available both outside and inside the venue to be provided by Liberty Oak Hospitality. There will be more than 100 concession stands, two 250-seat restaurants, 24 VIP boxes, the 175-seat Birkenstock Lounge and between 40-50 food trucks (including Randy’s Patties) that will rotate.
“We hired 900 people two weeks ago and 80% of them are from the local community,” said Nick DiDonato, president of Liberty Entertainment Group.
“So kids in the area and North York, who are going to be able to walk to work. And most of those people, (this) will be their first job or a summer job and this experience will stay with them for their lives.”
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Right now, Rogers Stadium has a five-year lease to operate within 55 of the 370 acres available at Downsview Park.
“It is temporary,” said Burri. “So everything you see here actually at the end of September is going to come down.”
Beyond that, Hoffman is happy that bands that couldn’t play in Toronto over a lack of availability at Rogers Centre can now come north to Rogers Stadium.
“This project is about filling a large global need for stadium acts,” he said. “These shows, without question — Oasis, Coldplay, System of a Down with Deftones, definitely Blackpink — none of those would have come to Toronto had we not built this. That I can say without question.”
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