Olympic Stadium: the cursed history of the roof of one of the most beautiful stadiums in the world

We will have a brand new roof for the Montreal Olympic stadium in 2027. It is a considerable investment, we are told, to waterproof the roof of our beautiful stadium once and for all.

This sports infrastructure still cost us the tidy sum of six billion dollars, it’s not a bad idea to take care of it.

A REVIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THIS CURSED ROOF

Did you know that for nearly 40 years, between 1930 and 1967, the City of Montreal tried five times, without success, to hold the Olympic Games? At the end of the summer of 1967, while Expo 67 had drawn worldwide attention to the Quebec metropolis, the tireless Jean Drapeau, mayor of Montreal, indicated to the Canadian Olympic Association his intention to ask again once to be the host of the next Olympics, that of the summer of 1976. In December 1969, Mayor Drapeau officially submitted his city’s candidacy. Six months later, we declare victory! The International Olympic Committee, meeting in Amsterdam, announced that Montreal would win the Games ahead of the cities of Moscow and Los Angeles.

Mayor Drapeau wants to build an emblematic stadium while ensuring that the amphitheater becomes the home of the Expos and the Alouettes after the Olympics. The model of the stadium designed by one of the greatest architects of his time, Roger Taillibert, is unveiled in the spring of 1972. The future 70,000-seat stadium will have a retractable roof which, supported by a gigantic mast, will be able to open or close depending on weather conditions.

In April 1973, excavation work began on the Olympic Park. The first pillars were cast on site and began to take shape at the end of the summer of 1974. We didn’t have a minute to lose, there were only two years left before the opening of the Games, but the multiple pitfalls linked to construction, including two major strikes, raise fears of the worst. More and more experts believe that the stadium will never be completed for the opening of the Games in July 1976. To speed up construction, on November 20, 1975, the Bourassa government created the Régie des installations Olympiques (RIO) and took over the succession of the City of Montreal so that the stadium is delivered on time.

As we know, the RIO will succeed in its bet, the installations will be ready on time and on July 17, 1976, the Games of the XXI^e Olympiad will be declared open. The problem is that in order to successfully complete the competition areas of the new stadium on time, we had to put the erection of the Olympic tower on hold. No tower, no retractable roof for the Games.

AND THE CANVAS IN ALL THIS?

These 1976 Games were a real organizational success, but they generated a deficit of almost a billion dollars. When the sporting event ends, once the delegations have left, we find ourselves with a big headache. The bill is steep. Many cost overruns now have to be paid for. The successive governments following the event do not seem to be in such a hurry to complete the mast and install the retractable roof.

The Kevlar fabric made in Germany was stored in Marseille and was only repatriated to Quebec in 1982. Afterwards, it languished for years in an indoor parking lot. Eleven years after the Games, construction work on the Olympic Tower is finally finished. You can admire the work of Roger Taillibert and finally install the famous retractable roof. Imagine the emotion felt by those responsible for the Olympic Park on April 16, 1987 when the canvas was put in place. Each opening or closing of the big orange Kevlar roof is an event in itself. At the turn of the 1980s, the Montreal Olympic Stadium was one of the most beautiful in the world. Even though it cost a fortune, it is the pride of Montrealers.

DISASTER

In August 1988, 16 months after the stadium canvas was installed, particularly violent winds tore it apart. A small tear of 5 cm, but another of 40 cm, more worrying. A month later, during a technical maneuver, the canvas cracked again, but this time the tear was several meters long. Subsequently, the breaches multiplied to such an extent that the RIO abandoned the concept of retractability of the roof and fixed it to protect the structure. It’s finished, the roof will remain closed permanently. Unfortunately, even if it remains fixed, the canvas tears again and again. We feel that we no longer really have a choice, we are resigned to investing in giving the stadium a new roof. It is dismantled and replaced with a tensioned membrane made of woven glass fibers covered with Teflon. We are moving away from the initial architectural concept. As improbable as it may seem, the new roof tore off on January 18, 1999. In fact, the stadium designed by Roger Taillibert had not been designed for this type of roof. The risks of the existing roof breaking are so great in winter that the enclosure cannot host large events for a good part of the year.

What we learned in the media is that this year, the 1976 technical ring and the fragile Teflon roof will be dismantled. Within two years, a new technical ring will be built and a new fixed roof will be installed so that we can collectively take full advantage of this stadium which will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary.^e birthday.