Aerial view of Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Que.
Montreal's Olympic Stadium is a testament to the optimism and profligacy of the 1976 Summer Olympics. The province of Quebec seems inclined to give it a second life by paying for its third roof, at a cost of $300-million. It should think again.
Problems have plagued the stadium since it opened for the 1976 Games. It was only paid off in 2006, after costing well over $1-billion, many times more than promised. A large concrete block once fell from its façade.
The first roof was delivered 11 years late, never retracted properly as promised, and its Kevlar material ripped soon after being installed. Failures of the second roof to withstand more than eight centimetres of snow buildup mean that the stadium is largely unusable for four months every winter; events between December and March can only proceed with the permission of the fire department.
The Big O's anchor sports tenants, meanwhile, have decamped: baseball's Expos to Washington, D.C., and football's Alouettes to the more intimate confines of downtown Percival Molson Stadium.
And yet the stadium's dance card is getting emptier. For the rest of the year, it only has four events confirmed (although others are planned): two motorsports events, a trade show and a celebration for the canonization of Brother André. From 2004 to 2006, it hosted, on average, public events for 101 days a year but from 2007 to 2009, that had dropped to just 62 event days.
A new roof, say the proponents, would attract more events. But is it worth another $300-million, the price tag set by SNC-Lavalin (currently the sole bidder) for the 25-year upgrade and maintenance project?
The roof is just one of the behemoth's problems. It is too far from downtown Montreal to attract the most lucrative convention crowds who expect a suite of hotels and restaurants nearby. And it is too big to function as an intimate conference centre.
To its credit, the Olympics Installation Board, the agency that runs Olympic Stadium for the province, has added a protection to ensure that this fix goes better. If the project goes ahead, it will release some of the money only upon satisfactory completion of the project.
But at some point governments have to restrain themselves from throwing good money after bad. The stadium is already 35 years old; for around the same price, a whole new stadium could be built. Olympic Stadium is a brutal, if not brutalist, part of Montreal's past. Instead of being resuscitated at massive taxpayer cost, it should live out its sunset years as a facility for occasional public events, and as an enduring monument to excess and error.