Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the on deck circle during a spring training game at TD Ballpark, in Dunedin, Fla., on April 3.Mark Taylor/The Canadian Press
With a newly svelte Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in tow, the offseason arrivals of third baseman Matt Chapman and right-hander Jose Berrios should ensure that the Toronto Blue Jays are better, if not necessarily bigger, when they open the regular season at home on Friday.
But as a team that missed the playoffs by a single game while enduring a nomadic existence that weaved through three “home” stadiums in 2021, and with an eye on a deep postseason run this time around, club ownership decided to upgrade the mod cons over the winter, as well as the on-field talent.
And so, for the first time since Frank Catalanotto, Vernon Wells and Alex Rios patrolled the Rogers Centre outfield in 2005, the Blue Jays will be playing under a brand-new video screen, one that now completely dominates the façade of the in-stadium hotel.
At a total of 8,076 square feet, the main screen itself is 47-feet high with two sets of wings that jut out either side, framing the windows of the hotel rooms. The lower wings are mounted into the remaining space from the old Sightlines restaurant – directly above the outfield standing area – and combine with the width of the main screen for a span of 258 feet.
Completing the makeover, video ribbons stretch all the way around the façade of the 300 level, totalling 1,334-feet long. And all of it offers 1080p high-definition resolution – 2.5 times as good as last year’s scoreboard – allowing the Blue Jays greater ability to customize the in-stadium experience.
So whether it’s a replay of the latest Guerrero home run, the profile of the pitch he hit or his at-bats on the day alongside his season stats, the fans in the stadium will be able to absorb it all with just the swivel of a neck.
It’s a marked improvement from the audio-visual display of the past 17 years, one that had become the oldest in major-league baseball.
“It gives us more real estate to show you more information at the same time,” Mike Christiansen, the director of technical production, said from his production studio on the 300 level.
“So as opposed to having to change from one piece of information to another piece of information … now we can keep everything up all the time.”
The scoreboard wasn’t the only thing to receive an offseason changeup, though. With the spotlight firmly on a Blue Jays team entering the new season with division title – if not World Series – aspirations, the club decided to overhaul the illumination system, too.
The old setup, installed in 2011 and powered by a back-end system that had been in place since the building opened as SkyDome in 1989, was replaced by a state-of-the-art Musco lighting system featuring 532 LEDs and more than 2.5 kilometres of fibre-optic cable. The new beams provide a more consistent light while using one-third of the energy of the older system, with multiple modes depending on whether the roof is open or closed, as well as the time of day.
Paul Zuschlag, the senior manager for facility maintenance, says the new colour-changing LEDs – the Blue Jays are the second club in Major League Baseball after the Miami Marlins to employ the technology – give the organization “infinite” scope for events. He references running a rainbow light show through the crowd for the annual Pride Night game, or red-and-white displays for the traditional Canada Day game, but the technology also allows batters the potential to customize a light display to accompany their personalized walk-up music.
And the team is also promising something special for this season’s predicted festival of offensive fireworks – the Blue Jays led the majors in home runs last year with 262.
“For a home run, we’re working on a celebration which involves some, you know, twinkling of lights,” Zuschlag said.
With the Rogers Centre about to undergo a major renovation, in which the lower bowl and concourses are expected to be completely gutted and rebuilt over the next two winters, the team got something of a head-start this off-season.
Team president Mark Shapiro has made little secret of his desire to bring some of the world-class amenities and player-development facilities that the team has at its spring-training base in Dunedin, Fla., to Rogers Centre. But until now, the extent of the team’s baseball development facilities in Toronto was a cramped batting cage just west of third base that was only barely fit for the purpose.
However, with permanent turf installed at Rogers Centre last year, the team no longer needs storage space to store rolls of turf in the event of a concert, so things were moved around behind the scenes to open up more space. The result is an expanded 9,000-square-foot training facility, featuring three individual batting cages, as well as meeting rooms and a player lounge.
Rogers Centre is introducing new food at the concession stands, too, including a Canadian burger with bacon and cheese curds, and a stand with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. And beer drinkers will have a bigger choice of suds, with three new breweries in the stadium.
With the bricks-and-mortar, as well as the audio-visual, preparations complete, the focus now turns to the players. Having played just 36 games north of the border over the past two seasons because of COVID-19, the onus will be on the playing staff to make Rogers Centre feel like home again.
Coming off a 9-6 record in a shortened spring training, the real work begins Friday as the Blue Jays welcome former teammate Marcus Semien and his Texas Rangers to town for a three-game set.