Hundreds of fans were streaming out of Rogers Stadium on Monday evening even before British rock band Coldplay took their final bows, trying to get out ahead of transit gridlock as organizers promised improvements to crowd control at Toronto’s newest outdoor venue.
Transit and venue staff were holding signs and guiding people on their way out of what the band’s frontman Chris Martin called “this weird stadium” earlier in the evening, thanking the crowd for everything they “had to go through” to attend the show.
After the venue’s inaugural concert last Sunday, some attendees said it took up to two hours to exit the stadium as the site and transit services seemed ill-equipped to handle the large crowds.
Live Nation Canada, which operates Rogers Stadium in the city’s north end, said it was “making adjustments” ahead of Coldplay’s four-night stint, such as adding more signage, lighting, staff and water stations to improve the fan experience.
The 50,000-seat open-air venue will host the British rock band between Monday and Saturday.
The stadium’s exit routes were being reconfigured, the operator said, to disperse crowds to all three nearby subway stations and mitigate crowding at the Downsview Park station, which also serves GO train passengers.
The Toronto Transit Commission said it would add more staff to its Downsview Park and Wilson stations on concert nights, while Metrolinx only said it would “closely monitor” GO train ridership levels for events at the stadium.
Earlier on Monday evening, thousands of people arrived early to find staff directing them from the subway to join long lineups for entry.
Many fans, like Rebecca Lukowski, who attended the inaugural concert, also complained about the venue’s lack of accessibility.
“They were not prepared,” Lukowski told CBC on Sunday.
Maria Strachan, who is going to watch Coldplay on Tuesday and Saturday, said she was “shocked” to hear people’s experiences at Rogers Stadium.
“I’m trying not to dwell on all the negative aspects of the publicity that has been going around about the new stadium. I’m trying to stay positive, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t just a little bit concerned about some of the safety aspects,” Strachan told CBC News on Sunday.
Strachan said the decision to have the Coldplay concerts at Rogers Stadium doesn’t make sense.
“If you’re visiting from out of town, there are no hotels around there. There are no restaurants, so you have to make your way back downtown. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense,” she said.
“I don’t understand why we couldn’t have these shows at the Rogers Centre because it is sitting empty every night that Coldplay is playing.”
Barb Lucas, who arrived from Oshawa, Ont., said ahead of the event that she was “terrified” after hearing about the long lines for bathrooms, limited water and swaying grandstands at the stadium’s first concert.
At the end of the concert, she said she would plan to stay in her seat until the crowds filed out to avoid congestion.
“I thought this was at Rogers Centre,” she said, referring to the similarly named stadium in downtown Toronto.
“Had I known it was here, we wouldn’t have been going.”
Brian Ellis, who drove four hours from Detroit, said he booked his accommodations right beside the Rogers Centre, thinking the concert was at the downtown venue.
Instead of being steps away from the venue as planned, Ellis drove about 25 kilometres to the Sheppard West transit station parking lot and then walked for half an hour to get to the Rogers Stadium gates.
“It’s interesting how far you have to walk to get in this place,” he said.
But fans such as Emilio DeAngelis, who travelled from Quebec City, said he was embracing the large crowds as part of the experience.
“It’s Coldplay. It’s normal that there’s a lot of people,” he said.
Pedicab drivers blaring Coldplay hits from speakers sped between the gates and nearby parking lots transporting fans who didn’t want to brave the long walk to the venue entrance.
One driver said it would cost $20 per person to ride in one of the yellow cabs to the venue gates from a parking lot less than a kilometre away.
For some fans, the ride proved to be worth the price.
“Get us as close to the gates as possible. This is ridiculous,” one woman said as she climbed into the back of the pedicab and sped toward the entrance.
Inside the venue, fans lining up for water were being redirected to other areas, where additional water stations had been set up as promised. Hundreds of people stood waiting for a chance to buy merchandise.
Ticketmaster sent an email to Coldplay ticket holders ahead of the show advising them that cellular reception at Rogers Stadium gates “will be limited as this is a large-capacity venue.”
Coun. James Pasternak, whose ward includes the area where the stadium is located, met with Live Nation Canada, landowner Northcrest Developments and Toronto emergency services last week to discuss possible solutions.
Pasternak told CBC News that there was a “really strong determination” by the teams to fix the issues raised by concertgoers.
