Leaving first show at Toronto’s new Rogers Stadium was a ‘nightmare’: concertgoer

With performances set to take place throughout the summer at the 50,000-capacity open-air venue in north Toronto, concertgoers say the stadium needs a different strategy.

Fans who attended the inaugural concert at Toronto’s new Rogers Stadium on Sunday night are calling for better crowd control after some say it took up to two hours to exit the venue.

With performances set to take place throughout the summer at the 50,000-capacity open-air venue in north Toronto, concertgoers say the stadium needs a different strategy to manage the throngs of people coming in and out of shows.

Shannon Spencer, who attended a concert by the K-pop group Stray Kids on Sunday evening, said the crowd came to a standstill at the end of the night as stadium staff were letting people out “in batches” and funnelling them towards nearby Downsview Park station.

With limited parking on site, fans were encouraged to take public transit, with rides from the stadium offered for free from Downsview Park TTC and GO Transit stations.

But even with extra trains departing after the concert, Spencer said the stations were congested and ill-equipped to have thousands of people passing through at once.

Others voiced complaints on social media about long wait times leaving the stadium and hours-long journeys to catch a train, bus or Uber after the concert.

It took Autumn Halvorsen more than an hour to get out of the stadium after Sunday’s concert. Then she had to walk another 20 minutes to a spot where she could catch an Uber as drivers kept cancelling rides, which she believes is because the venue can’t be accessed easily by car, she said.

“It was just kind of a nightmare,” she said.