Fans, councillor call for better crowd control at newly opened Rogers Stadium

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Fans who attended the inaugural concert at Toronto’s new Rogers Stadium on Sunday night are calling for better crowd control after some say it took up to two hours to exit the venue.

With performances set to take place throughout the summer at the 50,000-capacity open-air venue in North York, concertgoers say the stadium needs a different strategy to manage the throngs of people coming in and out of shows.

Shannon Spencer, who attended a concert by the K-pop group Stray Kids on Sunday evening, says the crowd came to a standstill at the end of the night as stadium staff were letting people out “in batches” and funnelling them toward nearby Downsview Park station.

With limited parking on site, fans were encouraged to take public transit, with rides from the stadium offered for free from Downsview Park TTC and GO Transit stations.

But even with extra trains departing after the concert, Spencer says the stations were congested and ill-equipped to have thousands of people passing through at once.

Others voiced complaints on social media about long wait times leaving the stadium and hours-long journeys to catch a train or a bus back home.

Councillor James Pasternak, whose ward includes the Downsview area where the stadium is located, said he heard complaints of a “surge of crowds” leaving the stadium at the end of the concert, as well as long lineups for security and bathrooms and limited access to water.

There were also concerns over high noise levels from residents close to the stadium, the councillor said.

“We want this to be a teaching moment where we can fix some of the problems,” Pasternak said.

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Spencer said she heard of people standing in line for over an hour to fill their water bottles at the free water refill stations, and said she worried it could put people at risk in hot weather.

She alerted medical staff three times as people around her were fainting when trying to leave the stadium, she said.

When Spencer returns to Rogers Stadium next week to see the British rock band Coldplay, she plans to leave the concert at least 20 minutes early to beat the crowds rushing out of the venue, she said.

“It’s quite annoying because I paid a lot of money to see the whole show, but I have to do a trade off: Do I want to get stuck in this situation again, or do I ensure I get home at a good time and be safe?” she said.

Pasternak said he’s meeting with Northcrest Developments, which owns the land, and Live Nation Canada, the venue’s operator, on Wednesday morning to discuss possible solutions.

Live Nation Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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