Montreal: Olympic Stadium

Overview

Amenities: It's nothing special,but it isn't bad either. The concourses are pretty wide, and the food is plentiful and sold by French names. Views are pretty good in the rounded bowl, and it is interesting as the bowl extends in center far past the outfield wall. The stands are angled in in left and right to make an interesting bleacher area. Upper deck seats are rarely sold, but lower deck views are pretty good. The scoreboard is excellent. It is in center, and it is bright and displays lots of information.

History: Olympic Stadium was built for the 1976 Olympics. It was to be a retractable roof stadium with a capacity of 80,000, which would be made smaller for the Expos, which began here in 1977. The retractable roof never worked right, though, and the tower that was to support it was not finished until several years after the parks' opening, and it went way over budget. By 1999, the Expos had installed a permanant blue roof.

Location: Unfortunately, this park was built in a very French section of Montreal, although there are some nice parks nearby. Most fans came on the subway to the game, and there was a subway stop under the stadium, which meant most fans never got to see the area around the stadium. With such small crowds, the subway wasn't usually even crowded.

Atmosphere: They were small crowds, but they were fun, loud crowds. The cheap plastic seats made great noise makers if you slammed them up and down. The Expos did a nice job of condensing all the fans into one area, which made the crowd seem larger. Most fans were English speakers.

Aesthetics: I enjoyed this park. It was such a breath of fresh air from all the retro, with its futuristic look. Inside, the deep blue roof and the yellow seats make this park seem huge, deep, and actually somewhat inspiring. The bright green astroturf was also somewhat refreshing.