Stade Olympique Olympic Stadium The Big O
Facility Statistics
Location	4549 Avenue Pierre de Coubertin Montreal, Quebec H1V 3N7
Broke Ground	April 28, 1973
Opened	July 17, 1976 (Olympics) April 15, 1977 (Baseball)
Surface	AstroTurf (1977–2003) FieldTurf (2004)
Owner	Régie des Installations Olympiques (Government of Quebec)
Construction Cost	C$ 770 million
Architect	Roger Taillibert
Tenants
Montreal Expos	1977–2004
Montreal Alouettes	1976–1997
Seating Capacity
Baseball	43,739
Football	56,245
Dimensions
Left Field	325 ft / 99 m
Left-Center	375 ft / 114 m
Center Field	404 ft / 123 m
Right-Center	375 ft / 114 m
Right Field	325 ft / 99 m
Backstop	53 ft / 16 m

Stade Olympique (English: Olympic Stadium) is a multipurpose stadium located in Montreal. It hosted ceremonies for the 1976 Summer Olympics and was the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Montreal Expos from 1977 until the franchise was moved to Washington, DC at the end of the 2004 season. The park opened for baseball on April 15, 1977, with the Philadelphia Phillies beating the Montreal Expos 7–2. The Expos played their home games at the stadium from then on, excepting 13 games played on the road in 1991 and 22 home games played at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico in each of the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Their final home game was a 9–1 loss against the Florida Marlins on September 29, 2004. Montreals Stade Olympique. ... This article needs cleanup. ... April 28 is the 118th day of the year (119th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 247 days remaining. ... 1973 was a common year starting on Monday. ... July 17 is the 198th day (199th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 167 days remaining. ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Canadian dollar, CAD or C$, is the unit of currency of Canada. ... The Washington Nationals is a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Washington, D.C.. It relocated to Washington from Montréal, Québec, Canada after the 2004 season. ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Montreal Alouettes (French, Alouettes de Montréal) refers to a team in the Canadian Football League based in Montreal, Quebec. ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Please visit and contribute to the Montreal Wikiportal See and add to this ongoing discussion about English Names in Montreal {{Canadian City/Disable Field={{{Disable Motto Link}}}}} Motto: Concordia Salus (Well-being through harmony) Ville de Montréal, Québec, Canada Location. ... The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... MLB logo Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in professional baseball in the world. ... The Washington Nationals is a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Washington, D.C.. It relocated to Washington from Montréal, Québec, Canada after the 2004 season. ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 15 is the 105th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (106th in leap years). ... 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ... The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... The Washington Nationals is a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Washington, D.C.. It relocated to Washington from Montréal, Québec, Canada after the 2004 season. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Hiram Bithorn Stadium is a baseball stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ... San Juan is the capital city of Puerto Rico. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Florida Marlins are a Major League Baseball team based in Miami, Florida, USA. They are in the Eastern Division of the National League. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Nicknamed "The Big O", the stadium was designed to be a very elaborate facility and was to feature a retractable roof, which was to be retracted by a huge 556 foot (approx. 169 1/2 metres) tower—a foot taller than the Washington Monument, the tallest inclined structure in the world, and the sixth tallest building in Montreal—located outside of the stadium. Designed by Paris architect Roger Taillibert, the park was very expensive, with the total cost of the stadium being over C$1 billion. Due to its extremely high cost, the stadium has also been dubbed The Big Owe. A foot (plural: feet) is a non-SI unit of distance or length, measuring around a third of a metre. ... The metre (or meter in American English), symbol: m, is the basic unit of distance or length, in the International System of Units. ... Washington Monument The Washington Monument is a large white-colored obelisk in the center of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built as a memorial to George Washington, the first President of the United States and the leader of the revolutionary Continental Army, which won independence from the British... This is a list of the tallest skyscrapers in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada as of April 2005: 1000 de la Gauchetière : 205m/673ft, 51 stories - 1992 1250 René-Lévesque : 199m/653ft, 47 stories - 1992 Tour de la Bourse : 190m/623ft, 47 stories - 1964 Place Ville-Marie... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Roger Taillibert is a French architect, notable for designing the Parc des Princes in Paris and the Stade Olympique in Montreal, Canada. ... The Canadian dollar, CAD or C$, is the unit of currency of Canada. ...

Problems plagued the stadium from the time it opened for the Olympic Games. The 58,500 seat stadium was not fully completed in time for the games due to strikes by construction workers. Both the tower and the roof, made of over 60,000 feet (approximately 18,500 meters) of kevlar, were not completed for over a decade, and it was not until 1988 that it was possible to retract the roof. The 65-ton roof then proved difficult to retract, and was occasionally torn in heavy winds. Kevlar, also known as Twaron and poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide, is a synthetic fibre that is five times stronger than steel, weight for weight. ... 1988 is a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The roof is only 52 metres (171 ft) above the field of play. As a result, a number of pop-ups and long home runs hit the roof since play began, necessitating the painting of orange lines on the roof to separate foul balls from fair balls.

Olympic Stadium was remodeled in 1991, with 12,000 seats being removed for Expos games. On September 8 of that year, support beams snapped and caused a 55 ton concrete slab to fall on to an interior walkway. No one was injured, but the Expos had to play their final 13 home games on the road. The following season, the retractable roof concept was abandoned in favour of a permanent cover. The fixed roof was removed in May of 1998, turning the park into an outdoor stadium for the season. A new permanent roof was installed for the 1999 season and has remained on the park since. 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... 1999 is a common year starting on Friday of the Common Era, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

In addition to the Expos, the park was home to the Canadian Football League's Montreal Alouettes for a number of years, but they now use the Percival Molson Stadium of McGill University. However, the stadium is often still used for the team's playoff games. The stadium also has various other multipurpose uses: indoor exhibitions, monster truck shows, and so forth. Among its options for the future of the stadium, the Quebec government is known to be studying its demolition, a project that would cost a further $500 million and be very technically complex. [1] In 2005, the FieldTurf surface was sold for $1 million (Canadian) to the BC Place domed stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia which is being used by the CFL B. C. Lions. The Canadian Football League (CFL; French: Ligue Canadienne de Football) is a professional league located entirely in Canada that plays Canadian football. ... The Montreal Alouettes (French, Alouettes de Montréal) refers to a team in the Canadian Football League based in Montreal, Quebec. ... Molson Stadium (Officially known as Percival Molson Memorial Stadium) is a football stadium at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, research-intensive, non-denominational, co-educational university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar and is the current year. ... BC Place Stadium is Canadas first domed stadium. ... This article refers to the city in British Columbia, Canada. ... The British Columbia Lions are a Canadian Football League team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. ...

The stadium is directly connected to the Pie-IX station on the Green Line of the Montreal Metro. Montreals underground city (French: La Ville souterraine) is the well-known underground city complex in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Pie-IX Pie-IX is a station on the Montreal Metro Green Line. ... The Green (Line 1) line is one of the four lines of the Montreal metro. ... Place-Saint-Henri station The Montreal Metro is the main form of public transportation within the city of Montreal and was the second metro system to be built in Canada, opening 12 years after the Toronto subway. ...

Stade Olympique (DigitalGlobe picture)

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External links

• Ballpark Digest visit to Olympic Stadium
• Ballparks.com
• Baseball Reference
• Baseball Library
• Régie des installations olympiques (Government of Quebec)
• Google maps