Final Rating of the Rogers Centre

Curb Appeal/Architecture

As you approach the Rogers Centre, prepare to be greeted by the majestic CN Tower piercing the sky like a giant needle. But the stadium itself? It’s like a massive marshmallow lost in a sea of concrete, giving vibes of a hockey arena rather than a baseball stadium. Inside, recent renovations have injected a bit of architectural and artistic style, turning bland concourses into spots worthy of a second glance and even hanging out with family and friends for some fun before or during the game. With the additions of the Outfield District, the Corona Rooftop Deck and a few other places throughout the ballpark, the Rogers Centre may salvage some points for the architectural factor. We will give it two points for curb appeal (mostly for the CN Tower photobomb) and four points for inside architecture.

Score: 6

Surrounding Area

When it comes to the surrounding area, we will score this on a few factors. Is the area generally safe? Are there bars/restaurants or other attractions? Is everything within walking distance?

Outside of the Rogers Centre and directly adjacent is the CN Tower. The CN Tower is a tourist attraction that is one of the tallest buildings in the world. Going to the top can give you world class views of the city and is a must do for anyone visiting Toronto. Also in the same area is the Ripley’s aquarium. We did not go here but we probably would have if we had more time.

Other than the CN Tower and Ripley’s aquarium, there are a few bars and restaurants within the area. Directly across Bremner Boulevard is St. Louis BBQ Bar & Grill. You can also visit the Sportsnet Grill inside the attached Toronto Marriott hotel. Other restaurants that caught our attention were the Keg Steakhouse + Bar, Rodney’s Oyster House and if you want something more lowkey, there is always Boston Pizza. Places to grab a brew are the Pint Walk, the Rec Room and the Steam Whistle Brewery. All of these places were recommended to us but did not get a chance to visit them. All are within walking distance of the Rogers Centre.

As far as safety goes, at no point did we ever feel unsafe in the area surrounding the Rogers Centre. We even circled the area at 11pm on a non-game day to take photos and no one bothered or even looked at us. There wasn’t anything to worry about.

Even though there are some cool places in the area, the area directly around the Rogers Centre does not really win any style points with its appearance. The CN Tower saves the image of the immediate area around the Rogers Centre but not much else.

Score: 7

Prices (Tickets/Concessions)

We get most of our tickets on TickPick. They offer no fees so the price you see is what you pay. TickPick is not responsible for the prices as they are set by the seller, but TickPick gives you a deal rating. That way, you can gauge if you are getting ripped off. Therefore, the ticket price score will be based on TickPick. Obviously, we understand that certain factors will make prices vary like opponent, day, time, weather, etc. We paid about $80USD per ticket to sit where we thought was front row in the outfield. It seemed like a decent deal but we now believe that these are overpriced. We say this because it was not actually the front row, there were two rows in front of us. Also, the scoreboard wasn’t visible from our seats. While we still got an amazing view of the game, the scoreboard is a main feature and access to it should available for all fans, regardless of seating location. In addition, they were playing the Colorado Rockies, who are not a super popular team or one that is playing particularly well.

On the contrary, food, beer, and souvenirs did not really break the bank. All of these are purchased in CAD. Since there is currently a favorable exchange rate for USD-CAD, prices were manageable. We don’t want to give away exact prices because we want to play a cool “Price is Right” style game with you all on Instagram in the near future. We spent a total of $117.85USD in concessions and souvenirs at the Rogers Centre. For that price, we got a Schneider’s hot dog, a poutine hot dog, peameal on a bun, two craft beers, an OK Blue Jays Rum Punch, two bottles of water, a pretzel, Oreo churros, a baseball with the Blue Jays logo on it, a sharpie marker, and a program. I would have to give the stadium prices a great score. Craft beers were about average to below average prices. Outside of the ticket prices, the cost of a Jays game was pretty reasonable. However, keep in mind that we are rating the prices compared to other stadiums. Almost everything can be found for cheaper prices outside the stadium. You are also paying for the convenience of having everything inside the stadium, all in one venue.

Score: 9

Food

Obviously, we can only rate the stadium on the food that we have tried. We try to have the specialty items at each ballpark. Overall, we give the food at the Rogers Centre a neutral grade. The Schneider’s hot dog was a juicy winner as it was plump and flavorful.

Poutine, being a staple Canadian food, we had to try it, especially on a hot dog. It was a regular hot dog with cheese curds and gravy on top. While neither of us is particularly fond of gravy, we proceeded with caution but still ate it. It hit all the right taste buds and we actually didn’t mind the gravy either. We were pleasantly surprised.

The peameal on a bun, did however, leave something to be desired. Why they can’t just call it Canadian bacon is beyond us. It was Canadian bacon (peameal) with cheese and grilled onions on a bun. Sounds good right? Overall, it was ok but it was kind of dry and a little cold. It has potential, but could be better.
The pretzel was one of the worst pretzels we have ever had. It tasted stale and was very dry and hard. They should be warm, chewy, and buttery. This pretzel was quite the opposite. While it was entirely possible that it was just that one batch of pretzels, it was still lower quality. The Oreo churros were delicious. They were chocolate churros topped with crushed Oreos and a drizzle of icing on top. They gave you Nutella to dip it in if you so desired. Marc thought they were delicious but Brittny thought it was just ok.

When scoring the food, we took into account the delicious hot dog, the mouth watering poutine, the dry and stale pretzel, the average at best taste of the peameal on a bun, and our opposing opinions on the Oreo churros.

Score: 7

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Beer

Over the course of our few days in Toronto, we were able to at least sample seven of the craft beers. For the sake of scoring, we are going to include the beer that we drank at the Mill Street brewery as those beers are also inside the Rogers Centre.

First, we will go over the beers at the Mill Street Brewpub. We tried five beers here that are inside the Rogers Centre. The first one we will talk about is the Blue Wave. It is a delicious and light dry-hopped lager. The can contains the Blue Jays logo and Mill Street created the beer just for the Blue Jays. It was a very good beer, we could see it being especially refreshing on a hot summer day.

Second, we tried the Original Organic Lager. Brittny was not crazy about it, but Marc liked it. It is not difficult for Marc to enjoy a beer though. Brittny really enjoyed the Haze Phaze IPA. It is a bold IPA with tropical citrus flavors.

Neither one of us are into sours. However, the exception may be the Pineapple Lime Sour. It was delicious and tasted similar to warheads (the old sour candy). Finally, we also enjoyed the 100th Meridian.

Outside of the Mill Street Brewpub, we had two beers inside the stadium. Brittny got the Collective Arts Life in the Clouds and Marc got the Henderson Rush Golden Ale. The Collective Arts was cool because each can had different artwork and the beer was pretty good as well. The Henderson Rush Golden Ale was light and crisp and really enjoyable as well. We are giving the Rogers Centre a decent score for their beer selections.

Score: 9

Fan/Stadium Engagement

This one is tough to grade because a lot of factors can sway this. It can also change from game to game. Ultimately, we are grading this category based on fan involvement in the game we were at specifically. Were they reactionary or into it on their own? Did the stadium try to pump up the crowd? How was the mascot? Were there events in between innings like games or sing along songs?

Imagine a stadium pulsating with energy, fans cheering all game long, and the away team feeling out of place. Now picture the Rogers Centre. Those two statements do not align. We felt that the stadium did try on a few occasions to pump up the crowd with a noise meter or artificial cheers, but the crowd did not rise to the occasion. The fans were more reactionary and cheered when George Springer made a diving catch or Daulton Varsho hit a grand slam. Other than that, they seemed to be doing their own thing.

There were a few games in between innings where people could win prizes. We are not sure of scoreboard messages or anything like that as the scoreboard was obstructed from our seats.

Ace, the mascot was all over the place. He was dancing on the dugouts. He was in the stands with fans and he tried to take as many photos with kids and other fans as possible. Ace is one of the few bright spots in the fan engagement category other than everyone singing along to “OK Blue Jays,” the Blue Jays theme song during the seventh inning stretch. We are going to keep in mind that they were playing the Rockies and not a division rival so we will be a little more merciful in our scoring for this category.

Score: 6

Accessibility/Comfort/Views

One of the first things we noticed as we entered the stadium and walked around each level is the user-friendly layout. Even if it was your first time there, you would appear as a seasoned veteran. You literally just stop on whatever level you want and walk in a circle until you get to where you want. This may seem like nothing but there are some other parks that are more difficult to navigate and you feel like you’re in Vegas where you have to go up and down flights of stairs to cross the street or even just to stay on the strip. The Rogers Centre website lists all of the concessions and the sections that you can purchase them which made everything easy to find.

The seats were wide and generally comfortable for stadium seating. Our row had a little more leg/foot room than most rows, but overall, the seat spacing was average. We did, however, not like that most seats did not have a cupholder. We had to put drinks on the floor or hold them the entire time and you run the risk of someone kicking your expensive drink over or stepping on your food.

The stadium had some amazing views from WestJet Flight Deck, the rooftop areas and other places around the stadium. You can easily see the game from any seat, even in the nosebleeds. Most places are unobstructed but as previously mentioned, we did not like how we could not see the big scoreboard from out seats in the outfield. It made the game much harder to follow as we were even unsure of some of the players that were playing or who was pitching.

Score: 7

Heritage Display

The sweet nostalgia of the past…or not! This is one category that the Rogers Centre struggles with. When we walk into a stadium, we want to feel like a team is proud of their history. Whether they have banners displayed of their past accolades, retired numbers or names, trophies on display, etc. Whatever it is, it is nice to see and offers unique features to a ballpark. At the time of writing, the Blue Jays have won 2 World Series in their history. While they had championship banners hanging from the Raptors (whoops, that’s the basketball team), I mean rafters, in the outfield, it would have been cool to see a trophy display or something outside to brag about your championships when someone just passes by the stadium. They did have the names of Blue Jays Legends on the walls of one of the decks in the outfield. However, having legends like Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar or even Roy Halladay, the only statue outside that depicts a real person is the statue of Ted Rogers. The audience statues were a combination of unique, strange and cool as they were above everyone’s head as they walk. At first that is exactly what they did (went over our heads). We were caught off-guard and were not aware of what we were looking at until we gazed at it a bit longer. It was tough to look for too long because the weather was terrible and there were huge crowds. We believe that they should create a Legends Row and add some statues to pay homage to their legends. While they did have championship banners hanging in the outfield, we feel that they can do much better in honoring their history. C’mon Blue Jays! Get some statues outside and a trophy case.

Score: 5

Unique Features and Amenities

When it comes to unique features and amenities, we are referring to anything that makes the Rogers Centre or a game at the Rogers Centre stand apart from other ballparks. One unique feature would definitely be the view from the hotel rooms of the Toronto Marriott City Center hotel. These are the most amazing views and no other ballpark has anything even close to it. However, this technically shouldn’t even count as it is not part of the Rogers Centre. Unfortunately, outside of the hotel, the unique features fall flat here. While the outfield district is beautiful and unique in its own right, most stadiums have an area similar to the Outfield District.

The elevated bullpens, where pitchers and catchers were positioned at the same level as the fans, separated only by a fence, was a unique feature designed more for the enjoyment of the fans than the players. While fans enjoy the up-close view of the players, visiting teams might not appreciate the more audible heckling and both home and away teams may find it more distracting to have fans right in their faces.

The song played in the 7th inning is unique to the Blue Jays and many fans get into it. The beer is all Canadian beer and you cannot even buy it in the states. They have poutine which is unique to Canada but overall not much uniqueness anywhere else.

Score: 7

Total Overall Score of the Rogers Centre

70

We are rating the Rogers Centre an overall score of 70 based on the 10 categories that we have selected to grade the ballparks on. Here is a list of suggestions that could help the Blue Jays improve the score:

• Add a trophy case with World Series trophies, gold gloves and plaques of past accomplishments. Even if this is adding a Blue Jays museum somewhere, it would be cool to witness them pay homage to their history.
• Honor your team legends with statues outside the ballpark. People like Roy Halladay, Joe Carter, and a few others deserve to be honored and have their legacies preserved.
• Make the scoreboard visible from every seat in the stadium or create a secondary scoreboard.
• Not as big of a deal but figure out a way to safely open the roof while there are people in the stadium. As of right now, if it starts raining during the game and the roof is open, the game has to go to rain delay as they claim it to be unsafe to close the roof with people inside.
• Bring back stadium tours. As of the writing of this blog post, the Rogers Centre website states that the tours have been suspended until further notice. It would be cool to get an intimate behind-the-scenes look at the stadium.