|
|
| Location | Toronto, Ontario |
| Opened | 1959 |
| Closed | May 28 , 1989 |
| Capacity |
43,737 |
| Owned By: |
City of Toronto |
|
Dimensions:
Left
Left-Center
Center
Right-Center
Right
|
330 ft.
375 ft.
400 ft.
375 ft.
330 ft.
|
was a
Stadium that formerly stood on the
Exhibition Place grounds in
Toronto, Ontario . Originally built for
Canadian Football and other events, the stadium was reconfigured in the mid-
1970s , and served as the home of the
Toronto Blue Jays Major League Baseball team from
1977 -
1989 . It also served as the home of the
Toronto Argonauts Canadian Football team from
1959 -
1988 . The stadium hosted the
Grey Cup game twelve times over a 24 year period.
Stadiums had stood on the site since
1879 , but a massive reconstruction took place in the late
1950s , building a large grandstand on one side of the field, and temporary stands on the other. When reopened in
1959 , the stadium sat 25,303.
The stadium was rebuilt again in the 1970s to allow the expansion Toronto Blue Jays to play at the Ex, building additional seating opposite the large grandstand now in left field on the first base side and curving around to the third base side. It was apparently the only major league baseball stadium where the bleachers were covered but the main grandstand was not.
Because of the large field needed for
Canadian Football and the vaguely horseshoe-shape of the stadium, many of the seats down the right field line and in the bleachers in right-center were extremely far from the infield and faced each other rather than the action. Relatively close to
Lake Ontario , the stadium was often quite cold at the beginning and end of the season - the first game played there on
April 7 ,
1977 was the only major league baseball game ever played with the field covered entirely by snow. A
1984 game had to be cancelled due to high wind - the only such game in modern history in the major leagues. Because of these problems Exhibition Stadium was only intended to be a stop-gap measure until a
Domed stadium could be built closer to the downtown. The decision to build a retractable roof stadium - the first in
North America - along with engineering and cost questions meant that SkyDome (now
Rogers Centre ) was not completed until
1989 . Conditions at the stadium lead to another odd incident that first year, on
September 15 Baltimore Orioles manager
Earl Weaver became frustrated with field conditions, and in a move right out of the
19th Century , pulled his team off the field, garnering a forfeiture for the Jays.
Exhibition Stadium lay mostly dormant over the following decade, except for the occasional concert or minor sporting event. It was demolished in
1999 and the site became a parking lot. A few chairs from the stadium can be found on the northwest corner.
On
October 26 ,
2005 , the
City Of Toronto approved a $60 million (
Canadian ) to build
A New 20,000 Seat Stadium in the same spot where the old Stadium once was. The governments of
Canada and
Ontario will combine for $35 million (Cdn), with the City paying $9.8 million (Cdn), and
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment paying the rest, plus the runoff costs. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment will get the naming rights of the new stadium, and will have a
Major League Soccer team in the new Stadium by
2007 , speculatively named
Inter Toronto FC . The Stadium will also hold the 2007
FIFA World Youth Championship along with other cities in Canada.
