RealGM

Apparently this was in a weekend paper. I don't do the fish wrap thing anymore so can't verify. I'm liking the Alomar statue.

And much of the same will be on his plate for 2016, the Jays’ 40th anniversary season, with $250-$400 million Cdn budgeted for upgrades.
The monies are earmarked for roof improvement, suites upgrades, fixing the exterior of Rogers Centre, exploring the ability to have real grass grow inside the dome, concourse improvements, new seats, renovating the now-dormant Hard Rock Cafe, and erecting a statue of Jays Hall of Famer Robbie Alomar outside the building.

http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/rogers-centre-renovations.23794/

I'm all for the Robbie statue!

I like the suggestion in that link to change the name of the building to "Rogers Skydome" and also to replace the Ted Rogers statue with a player. But then we don't really have one single iconic player. Alomar is our first HOFer but he arguably had his best years after Toronto. A Joe Carter statue of this pic makes the most sense: http://cdn-jpg.si.com/sites/default/files/si/dam/assets/13/10/09/131009162807-joe-carter-05123368-single-image-cut.jpg

-Grass field obviously
-I'd like to see the field dimensions be more unique instead of the cookie cutter look. Some distinguishing features around the stadium in general.
-Get rid of the fifth deck OF seats and make it standing room.
-Upgrade all the seats and use varying shades of blue
-Definitely add brick accents to the exterior.

Hopefully the upgrades won't mean we're stuck with the Dome for 25 more years, though.

Too bad we couldn't get an entirely new stadium.... don't get me wrong, I loved the Sky Dome, I think it's unique we are the only MLB team with a retractable roof but it is getting old.

getting grass in there should be Shapiro's #1 priority.

i like alomar and everything but of all the jays why is he getting a statue?

Boogie! wrote:i like alomar and everything but of all the jays why is he getting a statue?

Probably because he's in the HOF as a Jay. Only other guy likely to do that is Halladay.

Boogie! wrote:i like alomar and everything but of all the jays why is he getting a statue?

He was our best player on a championship team and he's the only player to have his Jersey retired in the Sky Dome. He's also in the HOF.

So who else would deserve such an honor?

Shouldn't the money be used to invest in a new stadium instead of prolonging the life of the old one?

The money would also be better spent on ponying up for Price.

At a minimum, there needs to be real grass.

Reduce the amount of bright blue in the stadium, it's really ugly. That seems like a lot of money to dump into the Skydome vs building something new though. Grass shouldn't even be a question, it HAS to happen.

LOL $250M - $400M in renos considering Rogers spent only $25M to buy the SkyDome in 2004.

Damn...If only I found that 1 more investor in my group to buy it back then

Some very nice stadiums have been built for around $400M US in the last decade. That said, the Dome is in a great location already, and would cost a lot to tear down. And it's only 25 years old. Like it or not, we're probably stuck with it for another 25 years at least (unless we win an Olympic bid and a new Olympic stadium is built), so I'm happy to hear Rogers is ponying up for a major renovation.

I like the plan for an Alomar statue. I'd hope it would be him with arms raised after hitting that home run of Eckersley. While they're at it why not tear down that Ted Rogers statue/abomination.

My overarching goals for the renovation would be to get some natural light into the stadium even with the roof closed (would be ideal if parts of the roof could be made transparent) and add more traditional decor (e.g. brick facades instead of concrete, less blue in seating, walls, etc.). Not sure how feasible any of this is architecturally.

Instead of changing to grass, put assphalt and allow fans to bring their pets to the game, they play outdoors anyways when roof is open.

Why not build a new Stadium?

Only thing I really want is a change in dimensions of the field (which would cost them almost nothing)


Move the bullpens to the corners of the OF (Where the Cleanup crew runs in from)

Use the Current back wall of the Bullpen as the the homerun boundry.

Move the CF Wall behind the facing of the first deck

Have some weird angled walls in LCF and RCF.

And1Skip wrote:LOL $250M - $400M in renos considering Rogers spent only $25M to buy the SkyDome in 2004.

Damn...If only I found that 1 more investor in my group to buy it back then

Perhaps that is why skydome sold for so cheap. No way the city can justify $250-400M public money upgrading 10-15 years down the road from the time being sold (2004).

Where exactly would the new stadium go? There is no room in the downtown core to build another stadium and the builds would be slower due to winter. It's in the perfect spot, close to all public transit and amenities. Not to mention the CN tower directly beside it is awesome.

duppyy wrote:

Boogie! wrote:i like alomar and everything but of all the jays why is he getting a statue?

He was our best player on a championship team and he's the only player to have his Jersey retired in the Sky Dome. He's also in the HOF.

So who else would deserve such an honor?

I know they're not about to look at WAR, but Olerud and Devon White were very close over 92/93. He was one of many good players on those teams.

But looking at the big picture, it seems pretty unfair to single out Alomar in a group that includes equals (in terms of contributions to the franchise, not individual greatness) like Stieb, Carter, Delgado, and Doc. By the way, Doc is likely a HOFer too starting in 2019.

Hoopstarr wrote:

duppyy wrote:

Boogie! wrote:i like alomar and everything but of all the jays why is he getting a statue?

He was our best player on a championship team and he's the only player to have his Jersey retired in the Sky Dome. He's also in the HOF.

So who else would deserve such an honor?

I know they're not about to look at WAR, but Olerud and Devon White were very close over 92/93. He was one of many good players on those teams.

But looking at the big picture, it seems pretty unfair to single out Alomar in a group that includes equals (in terms of contributions to the franchise, not individual greatness) like Stieb, Carter, Delgado, and Doc. By the way, Doc is likely a HOFer too starting in 2019.

I'm not sure how it's unfair, somebody has to be the first in that list right?

But if you asked me who the Jay's best position player of all time was I would say Alomar without hesitation. Then you add in the fact he was immensely popular here, he's in the HOF, he played on 2 WS winning teams and he was a huge part of the Jays packing 50,000 fans into the dome every game when Jay's fan support was at it's peak I'm just not sure who else deserves a statute?

Doc is the Jays best pitcher of all-time but he just retired recently and through no fault of his own the Jays never made the playoffs during his stay and fan support was pretty low. He'll get one eventually but shouldn't be first.

Alomar also arguably hit the most important homerun in Franchise history (yes, over Carter's WS winning hr). Jays were never able to get over the hump of the ALCS until Game 4 of the 1992 ALCS 9th inning 2-run shot over Eckersley to put Jays up 3-1 of the series. That gave them the confidence to eventually win it all in 1992 and 1993. The idea of the statue was to use that image of Alomar with his hands up after he hit the homerun. (edit: i mean he tied it in the 9th and Jays eventually won in the 11th but still - confidence was soaring after that)

Alomar went into the hall of fame as a Blue Jay. When Halladay gets inducted as a Blue Jay, he should get a statue too.

The_Hater wrote:

Hoopstarr wrote:

duppyy wrote:
He was our best player on a championship team and he's the only player to have his Jersey retired in the Sky Dome. He's also in the HOF.

So who else would deserve such an honor?

I know they're not about to look at WAR, but Olerud and Devon White were very close over 92/93. He was one of many good players on those teams.

But looking at the big picture, it seems pretty unfair to single out Alomar in a group that includes equals (in terms of contributions to the franchise, not individual greatness) like Stieb, Carter, Delgado, and Doc. By the way, Doc is likely a HOFer too starting in 2019.

I'm not sure how it's unfair, somebody has to be the first in that list right?

But if you asked me who the Jay's best position player of all time was I would say Alomar without hesitation. Then you add in the fact he was immensely popular here, he's in the HOF, he played on 2 WS winning teams and he was a huge part of the Jays packing 50,000 fans into the dome every game when Jay's fan support was at it's peak I'm just not sure who else deserves a statute?

Doc is the Jays best pitcher of all-time but he just retired recently and through no fault of his own the Jays never made the playoffs during his stay and fan support was pretty low. He'll get one eventually but shouldn't be first.

My point is basically this: why not all of them? It's not necessarily about commemorating the best, but the most important figures in a franchise's history. The majority of teams have multiple (http://www.sbnation.com/2013/9/12/4717256/major-league-baseball-ballpark-stadium-statues). The White Sox even have a mural with Joe Crede ffs. We've got a rich history so I say include them all in some way. There could be a 92/93 mural with Cito and major players on those teams. Another mural could feature the 80s greats like Cox, Bell, Barfield, Key, Fernandez, and Moseby. And then statues of Alomar, Carter, Delgado, Stieb, and Doc. The last three didn't win with us but served the team for 12+ years and came up through the system. I think they're all equally important and there doesn't have to be a "first".