The early reviews are in.
The new Rogers Stadium near Downsview Park opened Sunday night with a concert from the K-pop group Stray Kids, attended by 50,000 people. The stadium, located at the former Downsview airport, had been eagerly watched for weeks, with faraway glimpses posted to social media by anxious fans speculating it wouldn’t be ready on time.
It opened. Whether it was ready was in the eye of the beholder.
The Live Nation venue is a “nightmare,” on Reddit. “Awful experience,†.
“Everyone who came to the concert was basically treated as guinea pigs,” said Azalee Nunez, 23, who attended the concert with a friend.
As the Star reported, getting to the venue was challenging for some. A 632-space parking lot at Sheppard West subway station was full by 4:30 p.m., three hours before the performance was scheduled to begin, and the venue’s ride-share spot — itself a 12-minute walk from the nearest gate — was flooded with cars.
Nunez took the GO train from Vaughan with her mother, Shirley, and when they arrived at Downsview, there were “no signs at all,” Shirley said.
Inside the venue, Nunez said washrooms were tight and small, with large gaps in the stalls. Tamar Herman, a music journalist from New York who attended the show, said she’s never seen washroom lines as long as they were Sunday.
Nunez said her cousins, also at the concert, waited in line for over an hour to refill their water bottles.
A video taken after the concert shows huge crowds standing still, trying to get to the exit. Nunez said multiple people fainted on the way out, with concert goers yelling to get the attention of staff.
Getting out of the venue took so long that Nunez missed the last GO train and had to take TTC home instead.
Herman left before the final song of the encore, because she “knew it would be hellish getting out.” But the Uber she called — supposedly eight minutes away — barely moved for 20 minutes because of traffic.
She ended up walking to a relative’s house nearby, hiking through grass and weeds with little idea of where she was going.
One Reddit user said that, “on the flip side, the vibes were immaculate.â€
The trip on TTC was smooth in and out of Downsview, they wrote, and while the venue was “definitely difficult to navigate†because it was so large, it was “definitely doable.â€
The TTC and GO Transit will be free this summer for up to 90 minutes after each Rogers Stadium show, as the city and province hope to ease the transportation pressure on the surrounding neighbourhood.
“We are holding our breath for Sunday night,†James Pasternak, city councillor for Ward 6 York Centre, told reporters last week. “This is a neighbourhood that is not used to 50,000 people coming in. Even if you have 50 per cent or 70 per cent coming by transit, you’ll have tens of thousands of cars.â€
One fan the Star spoke to inside the venue said the set-up wasn’t perfect, but it worked.
“Honestly, for the first time, it’s pretty OK,†said Mikus Peirhas, a 21-year-old ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½nian. “The first time, there’s going to be problems. It’s not — pardon my French — a s—-show as I thought it would be.â€
Live Nation did not immediately respond to the Star’s request for comment.
Clarification — June 30, 2025
This article has been updated to clarify the location of the new Rogers Stadium.
With files from Hayden Godfrey
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