B.C. Place’s facelift is “nearly complete” with a month to go before the FIFA World Cup in Vancouver, including the installation of a grass playing surface, according to Gemma Karstens-Smith of the CP. Work was still underway at B.C. Place on Friday, with “blacked-out fences shielding onlookers from much of the activity.” Peeking through the building’s vast windows, people “donning hard hats and fluorescent vests could be seen walking the concourse.” Outside, large metal barriers were “being erected around two parking lots across the street.” In recent months, “three new elevators have been added, a new scoreboard has been installed, and locker rooms have been upgraded.” And a temporary grass playing surface is replacing the venue’s artificial turf. BMO Field in Toronto had a “successful dress rehearsal” Saturday when Inter Miami beat Toronto FC 4-2 in MLS play. Some 17,000 grandstand seats were “used for the first time” as a record crowd of 44,828 took in the action. The addition of the extra sections was required to lift BMO Field past the 40,000 minimum capacity required by FIFA (CP, 5/11).
OTHER FIXES: In Toronto, Francine Kopun reports the Amsterdam Bridge on Toronto’s waterfront, which has been broken and boarded up since 2021, “will be repaired as part of the city’s beautification plan” for the World Cup. The repairs are part of a “long list of fixes and improvements being taken by the city to improve the way it looks” in advance of the tournament, which kicks off June 11. The repairs include “filling potholes, planting trees and sprucing up public washrooms in parks.” The agency that manages and develops the city’s real estate portfolio CreateTO spokesperson James Wattie mentioned that the total cost of the project, which “primarily involves replacing the former lift span with a newly engineered fixed link,” will be $1.24M (TORONTO STAR, 5/12).
