The City of Toronto has issued an “order to remedy an unsafe building” to the owners of the Rogers Stadium concert venue, which was severely damaged by this week’s storm, with only 12 days before a scheduled AC/DC concert.
Area Councillor James Pasternak said no one is allowed on the property at the moment, and the operator must get a third-party engineer to report on the measures that must be taken to make the building safe to occupy.
“The damage to the north stands is quite significant. They have collapsed. And it is a major operation to clear the rubble and restore it,” Pasternak told CTV News in an interview.
“They have to clear the damage and see what went wrong and report back by the 8th of September, and they haven’t got much time. And then at that point there’s recommendations for further actions,” he said.
Pasternak said he couldn’t rule out that the stadium could be fixed in time for AC/DC to play on September 16—but said it was getting less likely.
“They have to rebuild those northern stands based on the requirements of a third-party engineer to study safety strategies. That is not something you do on the back of a napkin,” he said.
The concert venue was built as a temporary, five-year structure just last year in Downsview Park and is not to be confused with Rogers Centre, which is the downtown building formerly known as the Skydome.
It was hit hard as what is being called a 100-year storm pounded Toronto earlier this week, flooding highways and prompting multiple warnings from Environment Canada as commuters braved high winds and rain on the way home.
“I’ve seen a utility pole snapped in half as if it were a matchstick. I’ve seen trees that were 60 years old knocked right over. Heavy fences blown over like they were paper mache,” Pasternak said.
The storm cut a path through Northwest Toronto that also wrecked an aviary of the nearby Toronto Wildlife Centre, while people and birds were still inside.
“The winds really whipped up—crazy high winds, hail, the building started to flood, and the windows started blowing in,” recalled Natalie Karvonen, the centre’s executive director.
She said five pigeons who were almost ready for release were accidentally released by a cage being blown down—and hopes they will be okay.
As for Rogers Stadium, the operator, Live Nation, said in a statement, “Our teams are continuing to assess the extent of the damage. We will provide more information as it becomes available.”
Concertgoers haven’t received any update from LiveNation, said Rick Harrison, who bought four tickets and is trying to sell two of them. He said he hoped that no update was good news for the concert going ahead.
“Some kind of communication other than nothing would be appropriate from an organization that you’ve spent thousands of dollars on,” Harrison said in an interview.
Scott Friedman of Ticket Talk said that notwithstanding the scale of the destruction, it is not uncommon for unforeseen events to derail concerts, and promoters usually have backup plans.
He said it’s most likely the concert would be postponed to next summer or moved to another LiveNation venue. If it’s cancelled, Ticketmaster and other ticket exchanges should process refunds.
He said the damage reminded him of when Hurricane Milton took the roof off a Tampa Bay stadium, though he said this venue is not an enclosed building but a set of risers.
“It looks like tremendous damage, like one riser has been picked up and moved over to the next,” he said.
“Since it is a pop-up venue, perhaps they can bring in a new set of bleachers and have the concert on schedule. But it may be more extensive than that, he said. My biggest guess, if I had a crystal ball, would be that it is going to be postponed to next summer,” he said.
A spokesperson for Live Nation Canada said the safety of its employees, fans, artists and vendors is “always paramount for any part of our operations.”
“Rogers Stadium operates under extensive operational oversite and undergoes a rigorous safety inspection process administered by City officials. Our engineers have been working with the City of Toronto from the beginning of this project and continue to do so,” Live Nation Canada said in a statement.
“Wednesday’s storm was a severe and significant weather event that City officials have deemed a ’100-year storm’. The inspection, assessment and remediation of structures affected by significant weather events, like a red-level storm of this nature, is a standard process, and we remain engaged with the City as that work continues.”
