Rogers Centre

Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose stadium located Canada. It is near to the northern shore of Lake Ontario. The original and the former name of this stadium was “Skydome”. In 2005, Rogers Communications purchased this stadium and renamed it as Rogers Centre.

This stadium has different seating capacity for different sports events. For football, its seating capacity is 31,074, which can be extended to 52,230. Whereas, for baseball, it provides a capacity of 49,282.

Rogers Centre is a home stadium for Toronto Blue Jays since 1989. It was also a home for Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League from 1989 to 2015.

This stadium also served as a home for the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association from 1995 to 1999.

History

Rogers Centre was opened on June 3, 1989. The construction cost of this stadium is around $570 million.

It was designed by architect Rod Robbie and structural engineer Michael Allen. Its construction was done by lead contractor EllisDon, a construction company of London, Ontario. This stadium is first of its kind with sturdy dome shape design and moving roof.

The construction of the stadium was started in October 1986 and it lasted about two and a half years until May 1989.

For naming the stadium, a contest was held in 1987 where ballots were offered for people to submit their suggested name and 12,897 different names were received out of which four names, "Towerdome", "Harbourdome", "SkyDome" and "the Dome" were shortlisted.

Major Matches

As Rogers Centre is a multi-purpose stadium, many high-profile matches of different sports categories were held in this stadium.

It has hosted 1991 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the 1991 American League Championship Series. The 1992 World Series and the 1993 World Series were also played in this stadium.

Rogers Centre was the original home for the basketball team named Toronto Raptors, who played from November 1995 to February 1999. This stadium has also hosted many major matches of Soccer, Football, and Wrestling.

Recent Matches

In 2016, Rogers Centre opened its roof for the first time in Blue Jays history during the American League Wild Card Game against the Baltimore Orioles.

In 2015, the opening ceremony and the closing ceremony of the 2015 Pan American Games were held at this stadium.