Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is completing the first phase of a $99 million renovation of BMO Field that will put its premium amenities on par with NFL stadiums, said Tim Leiweke, the group’s president and CEO.
Toronto FC plays its first regular-season home game May 10, and fans will see an 8-year-old stadium that has grown by 8,400 seats with 17 new suites, two new event-level clubs, and an expanded Rogers Club on the second level along the west side.
Overall, the stadium will have 30,000 seats, making it the biggest soccer-specific building in MLS, with more than 50 suites and about 1,500 club seats.
All premium inventory is sold out for the coming season. Team officials expect the club to be on par with the Seattle Sounders at the top of MLS in total revenue as a result of the upgrades, according to Leiweke.
“We had a vision of trying to create an experience for soccer that is similar in premium to what we see with the NFL,” he said. “We had a goal in mind of trying to grow this club to $50 million-plus one day in total economics, and we’re well on our way.”
The stadium opened in April 2007 at a cost of $57 million. Soon after Leiweke took over Maple Leaf Sports in April 2013, he “respectfully” compared it to a Texas high school football stadium.
“There was still a question mark as to what MLS was going to be when it grew up,” he said. “So there was certainly a lack of premium space, food and beverage facilities and restrooms. We spent a lot of time thinking about the next five to 10 years of growth.”
Plus, there was no roof cover when the stadium opened along the shores of Lake Ontario in a city where summers can often be rainy. “The first year I got there I think it rained 16 of 20 games,” Leiweke said.
For phase two, a roof canopy will be built at a cost of $33 million with new lighting and sound systems built into the structure. Construction will start in early November after the MLS season.
For Leiweke and program manager Icon Venue Group, a firm that has run multiple MLS developments, the roof retrofit is one of its most challenging projects to date. No other professional soccer team in North America has added a roof after the fact to an outdoor facility.
“They’ve done a few of these in Europe, but I think we’re mostly on our own,” Leiweke said. “No one’s ever really tried to do what we’re doing here … not only add capacity but make it more intimate by building the roof in a way that has the structural ability to hoist lights and sound.”
Leiweke leaves the organization in June and won’t be around to oversee the finished product. But when it’s completed by May 2017, with a third phase pending a move to BMO Field by the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, Leiweke sees the Grey Cup and NHL Winter Classics as potential future events.
