BC Place getting major renovations

[Brian in Boston]

A quick check of the Parc Olympique website confirmed that event schedule.

[Lee.]

Honestly, though, why are they still bothering with Olympic Stadium? How many events is it used for, annually, other than Alouette playoffs and the occasional concert?

I have a friend who works in event management who has told me that the Olympic Stadium is available for rental from April through November of each year. He pulled-up the venue's 2008 event schedule and found that it currently consists of:

August 22nd-24th: Weekend to End Breast Cancer

September 14th: Montreal Marathon finish site

September 20th: Supercross de Montreal

October 17th-19th: Salon de l'Auto

November 1st: Monster Truck Spectacular

November 23rd: Grey Cup 2008

November 29th & 30th: Salon National des Animaux

So, apparently they try to keep it filled with special events.

So in other words, not a whole hell of a lot.

I mean, I understand that these are events that not a lot of other venues can hold, but still. There's not a lot there. Is there not a convention centre that can hold, say, the dog show or the auto show, like in every other city?

[Brian in Boston]

I mean, I understand that these are events that not a lot of other venues can hold, but still. There's not a lot there. Is there not a convention centre that can hold, say, the dog show or the auto show, like in every other city?

Therein is your answer, Lee.

As you point out, some of these events - and others like them - are of such a scale that "not a lot of other venues can hold" them. Therefore, the list of candidates is shrunk and Montreal remains on it. Further, Montreal holds charms as a tourist destination that other candidate cities does not. The list is shrunk even more... and, yes, Montreal remains on it.

On a side note, I know that a lot of film and television production takes place in the Parc Olympique, as well. I nearly booked a commercial last year that was shot n the Olympic Stadium.

Bottom line? The powers-that-be in provincial government have lived with the stadium being a "white elephant" as a sports venue for so long that they are now determined to milk every ancillary dollar that they can out of it by leveraging it in other ways.