Olympic Stadium (Montreal) - Facts and Figures

Facts and Figures

• At 175 m (574 ft), the Olympic Stadium is both the world's tallest slanted structure and stadium.
• Well over its original budget, the stadium ended up costing $770 million to construct. By 2006, the final cost had risen to $1.47 billion when calculating in repairs, modifications and interest paid out. It took taxpayers 30 years to finally pay off the cost, leading to its nickname of "The Big Owe" (a play on "The Big O").
• The roof is only 52 m (170.6 ft) above the field of play. As a result, a number of pop-ups and long home runs hit the roof over the years, necessitating the painting of orange lines on the roof to separate foul balls from fair balls.
• The Olympic Stadium's foul poles were painted red, while every other baseball stadium uses yellow poles (except Shea Stadium (1964–2008) and Citi Field (2009 – present) home of the New York Mets which have orange foul poles.)
• The Olympic Stadium holds the record for a soccer game attendance in Canada. At the 1976 Summer Olympics soccer final, 72,000 people witnessed East Germany's 3–1 win over Poland.
• A yellow seat on the 300 level commemorates a 534-foot (163 m) home run by Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates. ( It has since been removed to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame)
• The Montreal games of the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup were held at Olympic Stadium on a removable Team Pro EF RD surface that was purchased specifically for the tournament.
• For the first time since the Olympic Games, a natural grass field was installed in the stadium for the Montreal Impact match versus AC Milan on June 2, 2010.
• The stadium features a 101,600-watt public address system
• The main room of the stadium is the largest in Quebec, at 43,504 m2(204,400 sq. ft.)
• The stadium, specifically the Montreal Tower, is also portrayed as 'Picus headquarters' one of the key settings of the game Deus Ex: Human Revolution. That video game was developed by Eidos Montreal, a video game studio based in the city.