Gallagher: A Rogers Centre reno, Populous will try to 'Make it Right'

January 6, 2022

Gallagher: Will Jays renovations contain padded seating?

By Danny Gallagher

Canadian Baseball Network

Can we see new seats that will be comforting for the back and bum? We hope so.

How about padded foam seats?

To coincide with the growth of a dynamic, talented major-league club, the Toronto Blue Jays are embarking on a major renovation of their Rogers Centre digs.

The trade publication VenuesNow was the first to report the Jays will renovate Rogers Centre in a project that will cost upward of $250-million, although no timetable has been set as to when the retrofit will commence.

The Jays, likely citing sheer economics, have decided to redo its downtown facility at 1 Blue Jays Way instead of tearing it down and building a new one, a scenario that was bandied about in 2020.

VenuesNow reported the Jays selected the renowned sports-stadium architectural design giant Populous of Kansas City, Mo., to design the project. The general contractor will be PCI Contracting.

Populous is synonymous with ball-park renos.

Formerly known as HOK Sport Venue Event, a subsidiary of HOK Group, Populous designed the Jays recent upgrades at TD Ballpark, their minor-league grounds in Dunedin, Florida. When Joe Carter was playing left field for the Blue Jays and lost a ball in the lights above the grandstand, the HOK crew was in Toronto the next day. A few years before when George Bell had trouble seeing the ball, Bell was blamed for bad fielding.

If you look around the major leagues, most renovations at ballparks such as Wrigley Field, Anaheim Stadium, Marlins Park in Miami, Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City were drawn up by Populous.

“We design the places where people love to be together,’’ the Populous website says.

Sahlen Park in Buffalo, home of the Jays’ triple-A club, and NBT Stadium in Syracuse are among the minor-league facilities designed by Populous.

If indeed a new stadium is built in Montreal to accommodate a new franchise there, you can bet that Populous will very likely have its hands in the pie.

The president and CEO of PCI Contracting is Jason Hendricks, who was an Expos’ 13th-round pick in the 1998 June amateur draft. He played several seasons in the minors before getting involved in business. The outfielder spent two seasons in the Montreal chain: at class-A Vermont and class-A Cape Fear playing in 137 games.

PCI Contracting’s specialty, according to its website, is “value-added repositioning of existing buildings.’’

The Rogers Centre sits on Canada Lands Company property that is zoned exclusively for a stadium.