Montreal's Olympic Stadium Finally Paid Off

Luckily, I live in a suburb of Montreal and we never had that annoying Olympic park tax. For 30 years Montrealers have been paying and paying and paying. What was sold as a dream turned out to be a disaster and it was Montrealers who have paid ever since. Not only in the pocketbooks but with our image as well.

The Olympic Stadium is in the east end of the city. A section of town that is not exactly a 'go-to' spot among Montrealers. Its usefulness as such is now limited unless there's a massive demographics shift. Though the Plateau is expected to grow I doubt it would have an impact on the Stadium as a viable venue.

Jean Drapeau is the last mayor of this city to have visions of Montreal as a world class city. Traditionally, this is essentially a big town run on a small mentality. Drapeau bucked the trend but it cost us dearly. His pride in the city brought Expo 67 here and eventually the Olympics. Drapeau is an interesting figure in the history of this city.

Unfortunately, the Olympic dream was a nightmare from the start. Outright incompetence and corruption doomed the idea from the start. Poorly conceived and horribly executed, it was a showcase of ineptness along the lines of a Three Stooges sketch. A Parisian architect? What were they thinking? In any event, this is the legacy and bad taste it leaves in the mouths of many Montrealers.

For me, the Stadium is a symbol, a relic of a time when Montreal was important. When it dared to take its place among the great cities of the world. How things change. Don't let its imposing image fool you. It now stands meekly on the landscape of this fair city.

Today, the Stadium is used for all sorts of things. We have to justify the salaries of so many union workers. There's plenty of blame to go around when it comes to the Olympic park spiraling out of control and the unions are among the top. The place crawls with those creeps from the Olympic Installations Board. It reminds me of when you turn over a rock and find all sorts of bugs underneath.

My memories of the Stadium lay strictly with the Montreal Expos. The park wasn't that bad of a place with the roof open during a summer ball game filled with fans. It wasn't the best place but it was tolerable. For a while, I actually lived around the park. It was so sad to see it in that state. When the Expos left town it was the final curtain.

I don't think Montrealers grasp just how much the Expos meant economically to the city. The millions of dollars brought in from traveling Americans had a huge impact that has never been replaced. We fiddle around and spend millions with pointless Aquatic Championships with limited appeal but we couldn't figure out how to make the Expos stay? Talk about having our sports priorities mixed up.

Bitter you say? Partly. But mostly sad. When I see the Stadium I see the broken promises and unrealized potential of a city (heck, country) gone astray.

Enjoy the Olympic Stadium Montreal. Insert scratching hear here.