Demolition of Montreal's Olympic Stadium will be expensive, but experts question the $2 billion price tag

Quebec's tourism minister said it would cost $2 billion to demolish Montreal's Olympic stadium, but that estimate raises questions because other North American cities have demolished stadiums for hundreds of millions of dollars less.

Caroline Proulx earlier this week proposed a relatively inexpensive plan to spend $870 million to replace the unstable and dangerous roof of the stadium built for the 1976 Olympics. Due to the fragility of the roof, this place cannot host games and exhibitions for half a year – events are canceled if the snow is more than three centimeters.

But for years, Quebec politicians have argued that continuing to maintain the stadium, even if its roof has never functioned since its completion in 1987, is a more sensible option than getting rid of the concrete behemoth east of the city. – The end.

“It's certainly more than I've ever heard of stadium demolition,” said Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, who specializes in sports economics.

For example, the domed soccer stadium in Atlanta, Germany, was replaced in 2017 at an estimated cost of $1.6 billion to demolish and build.

“It seems interesting that you can build a brand new stadium in Atlanta and tear down the old one for the same price as tearing down the one in Montreal,” Matheson said.

The cost of demolishing a sports field can vary. In 2017, an Ontario company received $2.1 million to demolish Regina's 33,350-seat soccer stadium; other hacks were more expensive. In Washington, the Robert Kennedy Memorial Stadium will be demolished in 2023 at a cost of 20 million US dollars, according to local media.

In New York City, demolition of the original Yankee Stadium cost about $25 million, according to The New York Times, but the city will spend another $25 million to turn the site into a park.

A 2009 report commissioned by the provincial agency that manages Montreal's Olympic Stadium put the cost of the demolition at up to $700 million, or about $965 million adjusted for inflation.

According to the report, one of the factors driving up the cost of the demolition is that the Olympic stadium cannot be detonated with explosives. Because the stadium is made of prestressed concrete, he said, controlled explosions could send concrete blocks flying hundreds of meters, raise a cloud of dust, and cause a shock wave that could damage the adjacent zoo and the subway tunnel below. .

The report, prepared by engineering consulting firm Seguin Ingenierie, also ruled out wrecking with a wrecking ball. The company behind the report, later renamed Genius Conseil, ceased commercial operations in 2014, a year after its president told a public inquiry about collusion and kickbacks in provincial government contracts. In 2020, he agreed to pay $300,000 to settle bid-rigging charges brought by the federal government.

Daniele Malomo, a professor of civil engineering at McGill University, said the cost of demolition could not be estimated without a comprehensive assessment, but he said the use of prestressed concrete would make the job more difficult.

“The problem with demolishing something like this is you can't cut through the concrete,” Malomo said in an interview.

Prestressed concrete is less likely to crack and more resistant to bending, but energy is released if the rebar wire inside it is stretched and the concrete shears, he said. “It acts like a bomb.”

Reducing the voltage and removing the armature wires would be a lengthy process, he said.

Bruno Massicotte, a professor of civil engineering at Polytechnique Montreal, said the infrastructure under the stadium, such as the subway, would prohibit the use of explosives. “The uniqueness of this structure necessarily increases costs compared to other types of stadiums,” he wrote in an email. “But no justification was provided for the $2 billion.”

In addition to the cost of dismantling the stadium's 12,000 concrete components, the $2 billion estimate includes $158 million for inflation, $168 million for “minimum site rehabilitation” and $80 million to rehabilitate nearby roads after 20,000 trucks, Parc Olympique said in an email. . and 30,000 times during hacking.

The most expensive stadium demolition in North America after Montreal is likely to be in Houston, Texas, where the estimated cost of demolishing the Astrodome is approximately $80 million. There, community members received state heritage status for what was the world's first domed stadium when it was built in 1965.

James Glassman, founder of the Houstonian preservation group, said many Houstonians have fond memories of sporting events or concerts at the stadium, which has become one of the city's few historic landmarks.

But with major league teams from the National Football League and Major League Baseball once calling the stadium home — the NFL left town in 1996, and MLB has played in a new stadium since 1999 — community organizations are trying to find creative ways. new use for the structure, he said.

“Once he's gone, it's gone for good, so be careful, it's easy to get into demolition fever, but who's paying to tear it down? Who benefits? What's going on in its place? If the place is needed for something. otherwise, there's a compelling reason, but if so if not, it's not a terrible decision to let him stay,” Glassman said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 10, 2024.