Rogers Centre - Stadium Features

Stadium Features

The venue was the first major team sports arena in North America to sport a functional, fully retractable roof (Montreal's Olympic Stadium also had a retractable roof, but due to operational issues, it was replaced with a permanent roof). The roof is composed of four panels and covers an area of 345,000 square feet (32,100 m2). The two middle panels slide laterally to stack over the north semi-circular panel, and then the south semi-circular panel rotates around the stadium and nests inside the stack. It takes 20 minutes for the roof to open or close.

Even though the retractable roof would in theory permit the use of natural grass, in practice it is not feasible since the stadium was designed as a closed structure with a roof that opens, and as such the interior was not intended or built to deal with weather. As a result, the stadium has always used artificial turf. The original AstroTurf installation was replaced with FieldTurf from 2005 to 2010. The FieldTurf took about 40 hours to remove for events such as concerts or trade shows, as it used 1,400 trays that needed to be stacked and transported off the field. Prior to the 2010 baseball season, to reduce the amount of time required to convert the playing field, a new, roll-based version of AstroTurf was installed. Similar to FieldTurf, the current installation uses a sand and rubber-based infill within the synthetic fibres. The Rogers Centre is one of two remaining venues in Major League Baseball using artificial turf (the other one is Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida), and the only one without a dirt infield.

There are a total of 5,700 club seats and 161 luxury suites at the Rogers Centre. The complex had a Hard Rock Café restaurant until December 2009 when the restaurant closed after its lease expired. The Renaissance Toronto Hotel is also located within Rogers Centre, with 70 rooms overlooking the field.

Over $5 million of artwork was commissioned in 1989:

• The Audience – by Michael Snow is a collection of larger than life depictions of fans located above the northeast and northwest entrances. Painted gold, the sculptures show fans in various acts of celebration.
• A Tribute to Baseball – by Lutz Haufschild – located above the Southeast and Southwest entrances of Gate 5.
• The Art of the Possible – by Mimi Gellman – located inside along the north side of the concourse on Level 100. The glass and steel sculpture incorporates the signatures of 2000 builders of SkyDome, and is a tribute to their work. Some of the artifacts found during excavation such as musket balls and pottery have also been included. The brightly illuminated sculpture became an issue to baseball players when the stadium first opened. The bright lights were considered a distraction to batters.
• Salmon Run – by Susan Schelle, located outside by the South East entrance in Bobbie Rosenfeld Park; it is a large fountain that has various stainless steel salmon cutouts.
• Spiral Fountain – by Judith Schwarz.