As Montreal reflects back on the 1976 Olympics, held 50 years ago this summer, one enormous hunk of the Games’ legacy continues to generate headlines — and punchlines — over its legendary flaws and money-sucking voracity.
Yes, the Olympic Stadium is the (white) elephant in the room.
Its ballooning costs gave it one of its many nicknames: the Big Owe. The cavernous concrete structure has been a money pit many Montrealers love to hate.
It has also been a lemon. The initial retractable roof wasn’t installed until more than a decade after the Games closed and never worked properly. It was so ill-suited to Montreal’s winter climate that it had to be replaced in 1998.
The second suspended Kevlar roof was so prone to tearing, even the slightest buildup of ice and snow posed a safety hazard — and prompted embarrassing emergency closures during major events.
So despite being such an iconic landmark, the Big O has often been an empty shell, especially after the Montreal Expos decamped in 2004.
A little over two years ago, the Quebec government faced a Faustian choice: Spend even more money to repair the Olympic Stadium, or pay an even higher price to knock it down.
Tearing it down would have been complex and cost-prohibitive, and would have left an ugly scar beside the Biodôme, Planetarium and the Centre sportif du Parc olympique, which just underwent its own $105 million worth of emergency renovations after a mysterious fire in 2024 caused major smoke damage.
So the Coalition Avenir Québec government made the decision to fork over $870 million to replace the roof and technical ring.
That’s a heck of a lot of money in a province where infrastructure needs are astronomical, be it for roads, bridges, hospitals, sewers or water mains.
But between that and a hole in the ground, it seemed the wiser choice.
Montrealers were given the impression that if they’d just absorb one more hefty bill, they’d finally get a viable stadium that might start to generate some economic spinoffs for a change.
Like many renovation projects, however, that wasn’t quite the case.
A large hole in the Olympic Stadium’s roof in 1999. John Kenney / Montreal Gazette
Fast-forward two years, and the Quebec government announced this month that it will now undertake an overhaul of the stadium’s interior, including the stands, seats, VIP boxes, concessions, bathrooms and walkways.
The thinking is basically: While spending this much fixing the roof, why not go the distance to bring the rest of the place up to modern standards?
As much as it rankles, this does make a certain amount of sense.
The move is being cheered by the business, tourism and sports communities. Major League Soccer had warned not sprucing up the inside of the stadium could drive CF Montréal out of the city. And promoters blame the lacklustre site for Montreal missing out on so many premium events, like Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
Even if this does sound a bit like a shakedown, it’s better to retool the inside sooner rather than later, so it doesn’t prolong the closure of the Big O beyond 2028, when the new roof is supposed to be complete.
But some fresh irritants are giving people déjà vu — and they have every right to be skeptical.
The most glaring problem is the government hasn’t yet revealed the budget for this subsequent work — or even a rough estimate. The justification for the omission is to avoid tipping its hand while preparing a call for tenders.
But this lack of transparency doesn’t do much to earn trust. By the time the new seats and toilets are installed under the new roof, taxpayers could well have dumped another billion dollars into the Big O. But no one knows for sure.
The government has signed off on more construction and expenditures before having a chance to see whether the renos now underway will pay off. It’s a bit like splurging on a new designer sofa before knowing if the incorrigibly leaky ceiling has been properly fixed.
Also worrying is that those behind the project seem to be getting swept up in the hype. La Presse reported there have been preliminary talks about diva Céline Dion performing a concert for the grand reopening.
Tantalizing though that prospect may be, no one should get ahead of themselves, given the stadium’s track record of disappointment (and bad acoustics). This wouldn’t be the first time good intentions have been reduced to an expensive joke in the past half-century.
For better or for worse, Montrealers are stuck with the Big O.
To make the most of this massive piece of sports infrastructure, replacing the roof and bringing the inside up to snuff are the least worst options.
But after all this time and money, Montrealers deserve a stadium they can not only use, but be proud of — rather than a monument to waste and incompetence.
They also need reassurances that this spending spree of Olympic proportions will one day draw to a close.
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I started at The Montreal Gazette in 2000 as an intern. Since then I have covered the National Assembly and courts, worked on the assignment desk and written editorials, before debuting as city columnist in 2017.
ahanes@postmedia.com