TORONTO (CP) - The owners of the Toronto Blue Jays have bought SkyDome for $25 million, a fraction of the domed stadium's original price tag.
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Toronto's SkyDome is shown in this 1996 file photo. (CP Archive/Scott Macdonald)

"A very fair price," Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of the Jays, acknowledged at a news conference Monday. "We're not inheriting any debt whatsoever," he added. Rogers Communications is buying SkyDome from Sportsco International, a Chicago-based group of investors that bought SkyDome out of bankruptcy court in April 1999 for about $80 million.

The 50,000-seat venue opened in 1989 at a cost of $600 million, mostly funded by taxpayers.

"Now everything from parking and concessions to buying tickets to the building itself will all be in the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays themselves," said Godfrey.

Godfrey said the team is looking at a new artificial playing surface and a new Jumbotron screen among changes aimed at a "better in-game experience."

Naming rights now belong to Rogers. Godfrey said no decision had been made yet on that, but acknowledged the issue will be looked at.

The Jays now finally join the other 29 Major League Baseball clubs who operate their stadiums. Control of SkyDome gives the Jays better access to stadium revenues from parking and concessions, among other sources.

Godfrey said the stadium purchase will also allow them to pursue other entertainment options, such as concerts, to fill the building.

The sale is expected to close in December. And the price is right. The Jays paid star first baseman Carlos Delgado $19.7 million US last season, which translates into some $23 million Cdn.

The ball club, meanwhile, inched closer to profitability last season. The Jays will likely post an operating loss of somewhere between $7 million and $8 million for 2004 - boosted by league revenue sharing, a higher Canadian dollar and a slimmer payroll.

That's less than half the near-$18 million the club lost in 2003.

The Jays' financial improvement came as the team's on-field performance skidded. The team finished with a disappointing 67-94 record, placing it last in the AL East, after an 86-win season in 2003.

Off the field, the loonie is proving lucky for the Jays. The Canadian dollar traded at 84.59 cents US Monday morning, which is significant for the Jays since player salaries are paid in American dollars. The company can now buy U.S. greenbacks to reduce a foreign-exchange loss on salaries paid next season.

SkyDome, meanwhile, will lose the Toronto Argonauts as a tenant when the CFL club moves into its new 25,000-seat outdoor stadium for the 2006 season.

When SkyDome opened in 1989, it was the envy of the baseball world - a state-of-the-art facility that continually packed in more than 50,000 fans a game. The Jays broke baseball records with more than four million fans per season in '91, '92 and '93.

Last season the Jays drew 23,455 per game, its highest average in five years.

As it turns out, SkyDome was among the last of its kind. Baseball moved back to more traditional-looking stadiums - such as Camden Yards in Baltimore, Jacobs Field in Cleveland and The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas - and multipurpose facilities gave way to specialty stadiums.


What a pity.. Once a state of the art building, the skydome has depreciated from $600 million (funded by taxpayers) to $25 milllion. :sleepy: Maybe now with Rogers as owners they can spruce up the place to make it more baseball friendly. I think Rogers needs to make the stadium more open and less closed in like the concrete prison it is. Possibly some standing areas for fans to walk around during the games offering unique vantage points or even lookout decks from the 500 level to see the skyline / waterfront.

Ha! They got a good deal! Got to hand it to Rogers, even if he were to demolish it and build condos or something, he would still probably come out with a huge profit. I wonder if there would have been a better thing to do with $600 million in taxpayers' money?

talk about a bargain, only 25million...this is good news though, after years of neglect hopefully some money gets put into the place...and i think the Jays will recieve extra revenue that they didnt get before because the money went to Sportsco.

after years of neglect hopefully some money gets put into the place...

Fat chance of that happening but who knows :???:

^Maybe new turf and a new jumbotron, but I don't expect anything more than that. Rogers are notorious cheapskates. They expect us to win games by cutting payroll. They've cut payroll every year from the ball club and I don't think this money is going towards the building.. more likely in the pockets of old scrooge Ted Rogers.

This is great news and I expect Rogers to make upgrades. Hopefully they lower the price of food too.

Kind of scary how much of a bargain that is. Too scary.
Smart buy on Rogers behalf though.

^ Hopefully, they'll have more innovative ideas as to do what to do with the skydome... I wouldn't mind if they found a better use for the building and send the blue jays back to the outdoor ballpark at CNE.

This is great news and I expect Rogers to make upgrades. Hopefully they lower the price of food too.

Was that sarcastic? ;)

well... personally i dunt think i have much faith in rogers... it seems since they bought the jays... things really went towards the downside

Rogers already owned some of the Dome, I think...

This is great news and I expect Rogers to make upgrades. Hopefully they lower the price of food too.
.... And after the NHL lock out, Leaf ticket prices will drop!
:jk: :hahaha: :laugh: :hilarious

Im serious about lowering the food prices. They're absolutely ridiculous as it stands now. I was at a game and bought a veggie burger...the place selling said they didn't have cheese, but I could go to one of the regular concession stands and get a slice for $1.50...$1.50 FOR A SLICE OF PROCESSED CHEESE!. I think the previous owners, of course, wanted to milk it for all it was worth. I think the Blue Jays will realize that providing more affordable food pricing will make the overall package a lot more enticing.

And remember...I said lower the prices, not make them dirt cheap. Even if they lowered them by 20% they'd still be very expensive.

$25 million for a building I (and the rest of Ontario) paid 600 million for? That's some deflation there for ya. I guess whatever it takes to get the Jays back in contention. Things are looking up: the annual loss was halved to $7 million, and the attendence was the highest in five years.

I'm not sure that prices are that different from other stadiums. Not that I'm saying it's a good deal or anything, but they're in it to screw you over. Most people are there to watch the game anyway, not to eat the gross food.

"... to reduce the concrete look of the stadium" from Godfrey.


4 words:
national foot
ball league

If I was rich I would spend the $25 million on SkyDome and make it my house - today's National Post shows you a home you could buy in Forest Hill for the same price. Skydome has what I call a big screen tv ready to watch.

Turn Skydome into a CONDO Retail Complex! Rogers could make trillions!!

.. well we know that we can stick a 31 storey tower in the heart of the mid-field and let them choose when the roof is open.

mite be kinda strange living next to the CN Tower.

Maybe convert the Skydome to a shopping plaza and in mid field we build the world's tallest building. Next to CN Tower, it would not look strange.

How 'bout a nightclub... open the roof to pump up TO's nightlife!

How about...

Maybe this will mean lower ticket prices next season!

They should just convert it into a football (real football - European one) stadium.
WIth all the immigrants in Toronto from around the world, especially those from Europe, South America, etc - who watches American baseball/football anyways? Nobody.

Haven't caught a game in my life. But if some football team played at SkyDome, I might just go.

That did happen, in the summer, for two days, liverpool played and they even put down real grass.

^Well evidently there were (and STILL ARE) loyal Jays fans, I am one of them. We set MLB attendance records year after year in the years leading to and during the World Series years. Everynight 50,000+ fans. FIFTY THOUSAND. That place was packed. If we have a competitive team, the fans will return.

Now how realistic is this? Slim to nil. Rogers is perhaps the cheapest, most frugal person on the face of the planet. He comes in and starts cutting payroll year after year whilst teams like the Yankees and Red Sox have skyrocketing payrolls (150 mill + each- They could buy 6 skydomes every year LOL). He expects us to compete with AAA type players.

The fact is that Rogers has no understanding of the game. He gives the GM the simple mandate to cut payroll and that's it. Unless some miracle occurs or we have a change in team ownership, the Jays will continue to fall further down the standings year after year and fans will continue to leave the park.

There's some incredibly jaded people in here.
You do have to remember that rogers has lossed an incredible amount of money since purchasing the Jays....once the team starts making money, you'll see the payroll start to grow again.

As for letting Delgado walk....let him. The future of our team is in Wells, Halladay, Rios, and some outstanding players coming up from the farm team. When the team won 86 games a couple of years ago, people were really expecting too much out of this team last year. Truth is, the Jays got most of those wins in the 2nd half when they were well out of a playoff spot and the majority of teams they played down the stretch were sub .500.

They won't begin to make money unless the team starts winning. This requires at least a respectable payroll. Fans aren't interested in paying large sums of money to watch a growing / losing team. Some revenus can come from advertisers but now Rogers will need to pay for the fees associated with the building. With fewer fans some of the advertisers may decide to pull out and from here, it's just a downwards spiral.

After years of neglect (Building and team) and losing the fans have decided to abandon the team.

Rogers made a critical mistake in hiring the tandem of Godfrey and J.P. Ricciardi. These guys are dirtbags. John "Scrooge" Godfrey and J.P. "Pinocchio" Ricciardi". Ricciardi is excellent in hiding his secret motives. Cutting payroll here and there while saying the team is improving while really we are getting substantially worse. You could say that most of our players were injured last season, but at the beginning of the season, everyone was healthy and still we had a horrid record. You know these two are no good when you look at the mangerial position. We get a new manager nearly every year. Now we have John Gibbons who has had 15 days of previous major league experience. The bullpen is a disaster- blowing 30+ games last season and we have no closer.

Rogers is pure evil.
Godfrey is pure evil.
J.P. is pure evil.

***J.P. MUST GO***

***J.P. MUST GO***

***J.P. MUST GO***

***J.P. MUST GO***

The jays are actually very close to turning a profit...and with skydome under their wings, they will probably making some serious dough in the future. The payroll isn't going down this year, actually it's going up to $53 million so it is going up slowly. Attendance did go up last year despite a huge decline in performance compared to the year before. And don't say it's because of how the team performed in the previous year that caused that spike. Truth is, the 2003 season attendance was severly skewed because of all the $1 dollar ticket and SARS promotions and packages. Last year attendance went up with season tickets remaining relatively the same....but more came out to the park even though the team had a horrid start. The Jays do expect attendance to continue to climb now that they control the concessions, the promotions, the confirmed addition of fieldturf and with a very good chance of a replacement to the jumbotron.

However, as for the onfield team and J.P., why don't you join www.bluejayway.ca and voice your opinons there. There would be many people that would agree and harsly disagree. :)

I've joined that before and I got razed... LOL. I frequent the bluejays.ca forums. Everyone on bluejayway are super optimists...They can only see the facades put up by Rogers and Co.

I think people forget that Rogers are the ones who gave Delgado his $68 million 4 year contract that just expired. I don't think they're frugal, but they have had massive losses (as Lucky 24 has stated) that they had to cut.

That said, they're kind of out of excuses at this point...losses are almost gone, they now own the stadium and the dollar is doing very well. No reason why they couldn't raise the payroll. I thought Rogers was going to be a great owner for the team and I still think they will...but my mind may change if they refuse to increase the payroll by any meaningful amount in the next couple of seasons.

I also don't care for Riccardi (and by extension, the Jays and Rogers) complaining that more people are needed at the games for higher revenue, so they can increase the payroll and be more competitive. The logic is kind of bizzare. There aren't many businesses (or any for that matter) that could get away with blaming the customer for the sad performance of the team. If they want more people to come back they're going to have to improve the quality of the product on the field, ultimately. You've got to spend money to make money.

Great Discussion Here!

With respect to tearing it down and building condos...I'd rather have the dome in our skyline pics. Hopefully things will turn for the best interest of Toronto enthuisiasts.