page_title: BMO Field
section_title: Renovations
hierarchical_section_title: BMO Field / Construction / Renovations
caption_attribution_description: English: BMO Field in 2016
context_page_description: BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which is home to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Constructed on the site of the former Exhibition Stadium and first opened in 2007, it is owned by the City of Toronto, and managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The stadium's naming rights are held by the Bank of Montreal, which is commonly branded as "BMO".
  BMO Field was originally constructed as a soccer-specific stadium to serve as the home field of the expansion Toronto FC, and hosted matches during the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup and 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. In 2010, when it was still a neutral-site game, BMO Field hosted the MLS Cup. It has since hosted the 2016 and 2017 finals featuring Toronto FC, under the current practice of giving home field advantage to the side with the better regular season record. The venue has also hosted rugby union, including matches of Canada's national team, and rugby sevens during the 2015 Pan-American Games.
context_section_description: BMO Field originally used FieldTurf rather than a natural grass pitch, which attracted some criticism. A temporary grass turf was laid in August 2009 for a friendly against Real Madrid. Prior to the 2010 season Toronto City Council approved MLSE's request to convert the stadium to natural grass. MLSE paid the $3.5 million for the conversion, and promised to cover all additional costs to maintain the surface. A variety of Kentucky Bluegrass was installed in the spring of 2010, along with a state of the art drainage system and heating system in the field. MLSE spent a further $2 million to expand the north end by 1,400 seats for the 2010 season.  As part of the deal to convert the field to natural grass, MLSE spent $1.2 million adding a winter bubble to Lamport Stadium and $800,000 building a new artificial turf field to replace the community use hours lost at BMO.
  In November 2009, it became public that the Toronto Argonauts were in discussions with the City of Toronto over the possibility of moving from Rogers Centre to BMO Field, potentially as early as the 2010 CFL season. The CFL agreed to study the feasibility of the Argos playing at BMO Field, which was built too short to fit a full length Canadian football field despite the requirement that the stadium be convertible to CFL configuration in the original stadium agreement. According to Tom Anselmi, former executive vice-president and chief operating officer with MLSE, without significant renovations BMO Field could only fit a 100-yard field with 15-yard end zones or a 110-yard field with 10-yard end zones, which is 20 yards shorter than the standard 110-yard field and 20-yard end zones. On December 16, 2009, the Argonauts officially abandoned the idea, after the CFL concluded that the venue was not suitable for Canadian football in its current state.
  Anselmi indicated in 2009 that a second level could be added to the east side stands and extra rows added to the south side stands, which would add an additional 8,400 seats, for approximately $15 million.  Following Tim Leiweke taking over as president of MLSE in June 2013, he began discussing the company's plans for a major renovation of the stadium.  In early January 2014, Leiweke said that next six months would be spent consulting with experts to determine the feasibility of the project.
  As the stadium is owned by the City of Toronto, their consent is required for any modifications.  The City insisted that any renovations included making the playing surface longer to fit a CFL field so it could house the Argonauts, who had to vacate their current home Rogers Centre by the end of 2017 season.  Mark Grimes, Chairman of Exhibition Place's Board, began negotiating with MLSE on the project and said "I think I have Mr. Leiweke's ear in that I am a big CFL fan and that we need to get the Argos on stable ground."  Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly said that "the Argos have got to play there" and that "I think there is a very good chance that they will."  On February 25 Grimes said that a deal was "getting close" and could be reached "in the next couple weeks".  Preliminary plans were released to the public on March 5.
  In addition to making the field compatible for CFL games, the upgrades, which were originally budgeted for $115–120 million, added a new upper deck on the east side, raising capacity from 21,566 seats to 30,000 for soccer, with 26,500 seats in CFL configuration, and is temporarily expandable with additional end zone seating to 40,000 for big events such as the rugby sevens at the 2015 Pan-Am games, NHL outdoor games, Grey Cup, MLS Cup, possible 2028 Summer Olympics or later or a successful 2026 FIFA World Cup by Canada.  The plans called for $30 million retractable end zone seating in the south and a retractable terrace in the north end to ensure that fans aren't farther from the playing surface in soccer configuration due to the longer CFL field, and a roof over most permanent seating areas.  Leiweke promised that soccer playing surface will remain natural grass.  A reinforced hybrid playing surface such as Desso Grass
caption: BMO Field in June 2016, shortly after expansions to raise the stadium's seating capacity was completed.
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