The Rogers Centre has a unique distinction among major league baseball parks: it’s the only stadium in the major leagues where fans can lay in their beds and watch the game.
Formerly known as the Skydome, the Rogers Centre includes a 348-room hotel (the Renaissance Hotel Toronto) which features 70 rooms facing the playing field. You don’t need Blue Jays tickets to watch the Jays play-you just need a reservation for a field-facing room, which go fast for dates with scheduled home series.
Of course, most fans will want to venture inside to get a look at the Rogers Centre seating. The stadium was the first retractable-roof ballpark in the majors when it opened in 1989 and was considered an engineering marvel. The Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Seattle Mariners have since copied the concept, and retractable-roof parks are being considered for the Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins, among others. Most of those parks try to combine the technology of a retractable roof with retro ballpark features. The Rogers Centre prefers the opposite approach, the baseball equivalent of Disney’s Tomorrowland.
Blue Jays ticket holders can gawk at the largest video display board in North America, eat at a 520-seat restaurant (Windows) overlooking the field, meet with friends at a 300-foot bar (Sightlines) facing the field, or grab a burger at the Hard Rock Café. Oh, and there’s also Toronto Blue Jays baseball.
Of course, one of the primary pastimes for Blue Jays ticket holders is marveling at the retractable roof, which weighs 11,000 tons and works on a system of three panels that slide over each other. It takes just 20 minutes to close the roof, something that happens during games several times per season due to inclement weather. If a game starts with the roof closed, MLB rules require that the roof can’t be opened even if the weather improves. And, if you have a World Series ticket for a game in Toronto, don’t expect to get to see any roof openings. The American League has dictated that the roof remain closed for all postseason games at Rogers Centre. That has an impact on the way the game is played, as the stadium becomes more pitcher-friendly-due to a change in wind direction-when the roof is open.
Blue Jays tickets were extremely scarce after the Rogers Centre/Skydome opened in 1989. Toronto drew a staggering 4,000,000+ fans in 1991, 1992, and 1993. Attendance has dipped since then, dropping below 2,000,000 per season over the past five years.
Capacity: 50,516
Year Built: 1989
2004 attendance: 23,457 per game average; 1,900,041 total
Dimensions: 328 to left, 375 to left-center, 400 to center, 375 to right-center, 328 to right
Hotels Nearby: The Renaissance Hotel Toronto is located inside Rogers Centre
Thrill of victory: Oct. 23, 1993: It is, quite simply, one of the most famous home runs in World Series history. The Philadelphia Phillies held a 6-5 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth in the 1993 World Series. But Toronto got two baserunners, and then Joe Carter popped the only walk-off, Series-clinching home run in World Series history to make the Blue Jays back-to-back World Series champions.
Agony of defeat: Oct. 11, 1991: Blue Jays tickets were on fire in Toronto, as the home team appeared to have the stuff necessary to make the first World Series in team history. But after earning a split in the first two games of the ALCS in Minnesota, the Blue Jays came home to SkyDome and lost 3-2 in 10 innings to the Twins. Minnesota went on to win the ALCS four games to one and capture the World Series title with a victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Blue Jays Ticket Tips: Rogers Centre is perfectly symmetrical. Because it’s a multipurpose stadium, that also means baseball sight lines could be better and much of the stands are well removed from the playing field. The prime seats are in the Premium Dugout section that ring the area between first and third base. But because of the variety of entertainment options, there are multiple unique places-including a Hard Rock Café-to catch the game. There’s a playground behind section 116 for the kids
