Residents and city officials in Montreal are slightly less than enthusiastic about a nearly $1B proposal to replace the roof on the city's aging Olympic Stadium, often referred to as the "Big Owe" for all the money the facility has swallowed up since it was built back in 1976.
Build in 1976, the original stadium took nearly three decades to pay off and has since become a bit of a money pit. The price tag on the most recent renovation is estimated at around $870 million (Canadian), and the project would take nearly four years to complete.
“It would probably be the first time we spend such an amount of money for a roof in a stadium that is currently empty,” said Nicolas Gagnon, Quebec director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
According to Bloomberg, the stadium has hosted professional soccer games, concerts and exhibitions, but Taylor Swift recently declined to bring her Eras Tour to the venue on account of the facility's poor condition.
Booking the facility during the winter is a gamble: Events cannot be held in the venue if there are more than three centimeters (1.2 inches) of snow.
Officials have been reluctant to tear the stadium down, because estimates for such a project came in at around $2 billion (Canadian).
“It doesn’t make sense when compared to the costs of dismantlement for similar structures in North America,” he said. In New York City, for example, tearing down the original Yankee Stadium in 2010 only cost around $25 million.
Officials now say the $729 million (Canadian) contract that was signed to replace the stadium's roof will be worth it, contending that over 10 years, the venue could bring in up to $1.5 billion (Canadian) in revenue through tourism and more frequent events.
Alexandre Lotte, 26, a resident who has lived next to Olympic Stadium all his life, still hopes something can be worked out to save the stadium.
“I know the roof is expensive and that there is a crisis,” Lotte said. “But at the same time, it would be such a shame if we had to demolish the stadium and think that as a society, we can’t even take care of it.”
