Could B.C. Place Become the Next Big Owe?

Lately, Montreal’s stade olympique and Vancouver’s B.C. Place have been taking on an uncanny resemblance to one another.

On January 5th, a fierce storm punched a hole in the inflatable roof of B.C. Place. The repairs, which will involve patching over the massive tear in the fabric, have been estimated at $25 million.

The repair job brings to mind the repeated repairs to the roof of Montreal’s Big O stadium, or the Big Owe to which it is more commonly referred. The much-maligned stadium was constructed for the 1976 Summer Olympics Games and played host to the Montreal Expos until 2004, but now is used for little more than monster truck shows.

The Big O was originally forecast in 1970 to cost $120 million but the final tally for the building surpassed $1.47 billion. This bill was finally paid off by the city of Montreal on December 19, 2006, over 30 years after the construction of the monolithic finned monstrosity.

B.C. Place is a more beloved stadium than the Big O ever was (in part, this is because the Big O was largely paid for by a special tax levied on all tobacco sales after 1976…not a popular move in Quebec!). Yet, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games will thrust B.C. Place on to the world stage in a colossal way and projected repairs to the building in advance of the opening ceremonies could soar well into the millions, making the home of the B.C. Lions football team into another financial sinkhole of Olympic proportions.

CBC Story on the B.C. Place Dome Collapse:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2007/01/05/bc-dome.html?ref=rss

Photo of the B.C. Place Roof:
http://www.nowpublic.com/bc_place_roof_collapse_0