Toronto Guide
Toronto
The Rogers Centre (SkyDome)
Telephone: 416/341-2770
Website: www.rogerscentre.com
Price: $13.50
Next door to the CN Tower stands the Rogers Centre, formerly the SkyDome, which is home to two major Toronto sports teams – the Blue Jays baseball team and the Argonauts, of Canadian football fame. The stadium seats 53,000 and is used for special events and concerts as well as sports. Opened in 1989, it was the first stadium in the world to have a fully retractable roof, an impressive feat of engineering with four gigantic roof panels mounted on rail tracks taking just twenty minutes to cover the stadium's eight acres of turf and terrace. The SkyDome was much touted by the city at the time, but the end result is really rather ugly and when the roof is closed the stadium looks like a giant armadillo. Guided tours (call for schedule) – only worth it only if you're sticking around for a sporting event – last an hour and begin with a fifteen-minute film about the stadium's construction. The ensuing walking tour takes in a dressing room and a stroll on the playing field.