VANCOUVER - Montreal’s Olympic Stadium was built with a retractable roof but it wasn’t complete until a dozen years after the 1976 Summer Olympics.
It was eventually replaced in 1998 by a fixed roof. The original budget was estimated at $134 million but the final bill was more than $1.5 billion by 2006. That’s why it’s known as the Big Owe.
Toronto’s Rogers Centre (the stadium formerly known as SkyDome) opened June 3, 1989 for $570 million and was the first fully functional retractable-roofed stadium in North America.
When B.C. Place Stadium opened June 19, 1983, it was Canada’s first fully covered stadium. It was built on-time, and on-budget for $126 million.
The B.C. Place retractable roof is budgeted at $458 million. Another $105 million of renovations are being conducted. The original budget, announced in January 2009, was $365 million for the whole package. Completion is set for late summer/early fall 2011.
