U2 Concert: Should Blue Bonnets have been an all-purpose stadium?

By Mike Cohen

Do you remember a time in this city when the Expos and Alouettes were playing to empty seats at Olympic Stadium and the soccer Impact was toiling at a makeshift home at the Claude Robillard Centre in Ahuntsic? The Expos pursued a downtown stadium, but ended up being bought out by Major League Baseball and relocated to Washington. After being bumped from a Big Owe playoff date in 1997 the Alouettes moved to McGill’s Percival Molson Stadium and never left, reviving pro football here in the process. As for the Impact, team president Joey Saputo’s family built their own $15 million stadium — Saputo Stadium — two years ago.

Well before all of this occurred the Montreal Hippodrome on Decarie, affectionately known as Blue Bonnets, was operating with moderate success with live harness racing and off track betting. Personally I always felt this was the ideal site for an all-purpose stadium for all three of the aforementioned franchises, specifically because of its ideal central location. The announcement last week that U2 will be back in town next July for one or two concerts brought all of these thoughts back. The rock group will pay $3 million to construct a temporary stadium which can house 80,000 fans a night.

“We did look briefly at  Blue Bonnets but realized that the commercial value of the land and the politics involved would not work in our favour,” Alouettes president Larry Smith told me last week, noting that the announcement of the July U2 concert brings  back some great memories.
“The interesting fact about the U2 story is that we had less than a week to find a place to play. The second was that part of the stadium at McGill was condemned and we were lucky to get Rona, one of our sponsors, to lend us a tarp to cover the condemned stands. We never talked publicly about it and at the end of the day McGill has worked out perfectly for the club as our home stadium.”

And what about the Expos? “We really believed in the concept of a downtown stadium, “ former Expos minority owner Mark Routtenberg told me last week from his winter home in South Florida. “Some of the partners did mention the Blue Bonnets property as a possibility. But it was all very informal.”

Dance Auditions: The CTV So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD) Canada crew will be back in Montreal this weekend as local auditions for the 2010 season take place Saturday Nov. 28 at the Palais des Congres Viger Hall. Host Leah Miller, judge Jean-Marc Genereux and judge/choreographer Blake McGrath will be in town. Montreal area dancers have performed significantly well in the show’s first two seasons, with Nico Archambault winning the 2008 title and Jayme Rae Daily finishing fourth this year.

When I reached him last week in Toronto McGrath said how impressed he is with the dance talent that comes out of our city. “Ballroom dancing is clearly very popular in Montreal,” he says. “It shows in the auditions. Dancers from Montreal are versatile and well trained.” McGrath said that any dancer who is currently sitting on the fence about possibly auditioning should make it their business to be there. You must be aged 18 to 30 (as of Nov. 14) in order to qualify. “It is a great experience whether you make it or not,” McGrath says. “Some of our dancers have auditioned one year, not made it, but returned the following year and gotten to the top 10.” Go to www.dance.ctv.ca for all of the details.

Item of interest? e-mail mcohen@thesuburban.com, call 514-484-1107, ext. 307 or fax 514- 483-7213.