Stray Kids is coming to Toronto. But where is the stadium they're performing in?
Stray Kids is slated to make their Canadian debut in 2025. But one question looms in the background...
Last week, I—along with thousands of fans—queued to buy Stray Kids tickets.
With the band slated to make their first-ever Canadian tour stop, tickets for the show sold quickly. And as of writing, the show is more than 95 per cent sold out. (Though to be frank, hundreds of those tickets have since popped up on the resale market).
Many of my peers gleefully exchanged excitement over the news of seeing one of the biggest K-pop groups come to Toronto. But at the same time, there was an elephant in the room.
Rogers Stadium, the venue Stray Kids is set to perform in, is still in the midst of being constructed.
And considering that the band is slated to play in Toronto on June 29, 2025, that means Rogers Stadium only has eight months to get built.
Naturally, there has been a lot of reaction among Stray Kids fans, known as STAYs. Many expressed they were concerned about the risk of buying tickets for a show that might get cancelled, noting Toronto’s historically slow progress around construction projects.
(An image of the proposed Rogers Stadium)
Adding to the confusion, others didn’t read the fine print and thought the show was taking place at the Rogers Centre instead. It’s an easy mistake to make, after all. The Rogers Centre, formerly known as the SkyDome, is home to our major league baseball team the Blue Jays and is the venue Taylor Swift just played six sold out shows in.
Then on the other end of the spectrum, there was also just a lot of misinformation. Claims circulated social media feeds that the Rogers Stadium was built just for Stray Kids, after Live Nation Canada president Erik Hoffman told Billboard Canada that the new venue was inspired by a major artist who was going to bypass Toronto on their world tour because they couldn’t find dates that worked.
Many went on to believe that artist was Stray Kids, as K-pop was also mentioned as a reason to build a new stadium. Though in reality, Coldplay and Oasis had already announced and sold tickets to shows at the Rogers Stadium before the Stray Kids tour dates became public. But by then, screenshots—rather than news links— had already made their way all over the web with thousands of shares.
As someone who works in local news, it is funny how information of a soon-to-be built stadium in Toronto quickly made the rounds online amongst K-pop fans (many of them across the border). Two of my worlds were suddenly colliding!
That being said, I will be remiss to say that people are not wrong in being skeptical about this new venue. It is true that construction—especially transit projects—can take a painfully slow time to get built in Toronto due to red tape and bureaucracy.
But given that Toronto also remains a rapidly developing area with many new condo projects being built yearly, the city has also proved that it can move fast on projects when there is a will and a way.
So in my quest to find answers about Rogers Stadium and the feasibility of constructing it in a short timeline, I went down a rabbit hole.
Here’s what I discovered.
(Rogers Stadium seating chart for Stray Kids concert)
What is the Rogers Stadium?
The Rogers Stadium—again, not to be confused with the Rogers Centre—is slated to open June 2025. It is run by Live Nation Canada, and is set to be a 50,000 capacity outdoor stadium at the Downsview lands.
The land is owned by Northcrest Developments, which is leading the redevelopment of the site where this stadium will be on.
The stadium is open-air and won’t be operational during colder months.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: The stadium is also a temporary venue, and will eventually be repurposed into a new neighbourhood with housing.
What is a temporary venue, and why build one?
A temporary concert venue is built for a limited time, and will then be demolished to make way for other developments. Given that these venues are not permanent fixtures, it also will not require the same materials or infrastructure to get built.
There are multiple reasons why such a venue would be needed.
The first answer is to meet the demands of a major city that is a concert destination in Canada. The venue will create jobs, and is expected to inject $80 to $100 million dollars into the local economy.
Another reason in the long term, is that the venue can also attract people to come to the area and get to know this side of the city better.
As someone who frequently goes to concerts, I definitely see the value of having another stadium in the city in the long run. But at the same time, housing also remains a major issue for Torontonians.
Have temporary venues been done before?
Temporary venues have indeed been done before, and on tight deadlines.
The Paris Olympics is one recent example, with its equestrian arena, Champs-de-Mars Arena and Eiffel Tower Stadium built specifically for the event.
The Qatar World Cup in 2022 also used shipping containers as a key element of a pop-up stadium built for the event.
Adele, who had a 10-concert residency in Munich, also used a temporary venue to house her fans. Her concerts saw more than 700,000 fans over the course of those 10 days.
And on a local level, Toronto has also turned around venues quickly on tight deadlines. According to Toronto Star, Budweiser Stage (previously known as Molson Amphitheatre) was built between August 1994 and May 1995. Five months into its construction, R.E.M became the first band to announce that they would perform at the new venue, which meant builders were on a very tight deadline to finish it.
So is the Rogers Stadium’s June 2025 deadline feasible?
According to a statement sent to me by a Live Nation Canada spokesperson, people shouldn’t feel too worried about the state of the Rogers Stadium before Stray Kids takes the stage.
“We are confident Rogers Stadium will be fully ready for the first shows,” it read.
“Building a temporary, seasonal stadium is a proven venue model, having been successfully executed for numerous events around the world.”
As mentioned earlier, major acts like Oasis and Coldplay have also confirmed shows at Rogers Stadium. The latter is set to play one week after Stray Kids.
Considering this, it would be quite a costly move should the stadium be delayed further than its June 2025 deadline.
Stray Kids is no doubt cutting it close with the June 29 concert date. But from what experts and venue owners are saying, the construction of a temporary venue is not impossible.
So let’s cross our fingers and look forward to a great show. After all, wouldn’t it be great to see Stray Kids be the first act to perform there?
What I’ve been listening to:
This new chapter for the Blackpink girls is so refreshing! Jennie and Lisa are slated to play Coachella in 2025, while Jisoo continues to focus on her acting ambitions.
That said, Rosé, has by far exceeded my expectations in terms of her solo music.
“APT” featuring Bruno Mars is such an earworm and easily one of the best songs of the year. But on the other end of the spectrum, Rosé’s latest hit “Number One Girl” is one that speaks to everyone’s deepest insecurities. It’s raw and refreshing to see this side of one of the biggest K-pop stars in the world. Can’t wait for the release of Rosé’s debut studio album Rosie on December 6.
Also to add to your playlist, this interview Rosé did with New York Times’ The Daily, which was just as real and honest.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Accountability is important to me, so please address corrections and concerns by sending me an email at bunnipopnewsletter@gmail.com. Continue the conversation by following bunni pop on Instagram, TikTok and Threads.