It was a raucous opening night at Rogers Stadium last month.
Light strobes flashed across the crowd during the performance from Stray Kids. Song after song blared through the venue’s speakers for hours. Fans leaped, jumping up and down to the beat of the drum. Concertgoers flooded the gates once the show ended, looking to find a way home.
But the bleachers? Some say they swayed, causing fears for their safety and dampening their experience.
Melanie Farenzena, who was at the concert with her daughters, felt uncomfortable when they were climbing up the stairs from the ground level. The stairs felt shaky and creaked with every step. It was so loud that her daughter, who is hard of hearing, mentioned it to her as well.
“It was really nerve-wracking because there was a lot of people in the stands,” she said of the June 29 concert. “It was pretty shaky, and a lot of people in our row were really complaining about how nervous they felt.”
When they arrived to their seats in section 110, row 24, they immediately worried about a collapse. One of her daughters even said she wished they had floor tickets instead.
That distress continued during the concert, too. As fans jumped and stomped in rhythm, they felt grandstands sway. At one point, Farenzena grabbed the woman next to her, thinking they were about to fall.
“It’s a group that we’ve loved since 2017, before they even really debuted. We’ve been obsessed,” Farenzena said. “The experience in the bleachers really tainted our taste of Rogers Stadium. I wish it was at Rogers Centre, where we would have felt more safe.
“I did not feel safe at all.”
Despite concerns from attendees, the bleachers are designed that way on purpose, a Live Nation Canada spokesperson told the Star. Following the same proven system used at the Super Bowl and North American Formula 1 events, according to the venue’s operators, the grandstand system is designed to flex and absorb crowd energy.
“This movement is expected and normal,” a Live Nation Canada spokesperson said.
Before, during and after each event — including back-to-back Coldplay shows Monday and Tuesday — the plans for the system are developed and reviewed by engineers, the spokesperson added. The structures are also reviewed by the city, with inspections by building officials.
How are bleachers at Rogers Stadium designed?
Rogers Stadium likely uses a modular scaffolding system, according to Western University structural engineering professor Maged Youssef, offering several advantages. It’s scalable, lightweight and fast to deploy and adjust.
A modular scaffolding system — often used by other venues worldwide — is designed using vertical standards, horizontal ledgers and diagonal braces that lock together in a grid.
But there are concerns. One is perception. To spectators, the system can look flimsy or temporary, which may cause anxiety. Another is structural. If the scaffolding isn’t assembled correctly, it can experience fatigue over time and joints may loosen, reducing stability.
“It’s not a complicated design,” he said. “For a good structural engineer, it’s a simple design.”
Movement from jumping fans creates what’s known as dynamic loading, Youssef said, where the forces on the structure shift rapidly. If the bracing isn’t properly designed to handle it, the bleachers may sway or feel unstable.
“The standards have a limit to the movement that we design for,” he said. “The movement should be small, where people shouldn’t be concerned.”
The foundation for the Rogers Stadium bleachers sits above ground, Youssef said, with the soil stabilized by convection. This is cost-effective and allows for easier installation and removal, he adds, but if water gets into the soil or the convection wasn’t done correctly, it can lead to uneven loading due to the differential settlement between posts.
Although Youssef hasn’t seen Rogers Stadium in person, he believes the bleachers were likely built correctly based on what he’s seen online. Still, he said the venue should bring in an independent engineering inspection if concertgoers report serious safety concerns.
“With the size of the venue and the number of the people using it, technically we need to do this, and ethically, we need to do this,” he said.
“We need to guarantee it’s safe and viable for people.”
Fan says there should be swaying warnings
Farenzena and her daughters drove nine hours from Sault. Ste. Marie, Ont., for the Stray Kids concert. Halfway through, they thought about leaving their seats.
After seeing other concertgoers push past security to watch from the floor because they were concerned for their safety, they planned on following suit. However, others were denied and her 11-year-old daughter pleaded with her to remain where they were.
“Mom, I just want to stay,” she recalled her saying. “If we crash, we crash. If we don’t, we don’t.”
For most of the concert, the family remained seated. They had spent $600 on the tickets, and at the time, Farenzena worried it had all been a waste.
But after reflecting, her perspective shifted.
“We spent all this money … and we felt unsafe,” she said. “But it’s an experience of a lifetime. I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again. In the end, I don’t think it was a waste.”
Knowing how the stadium was built now, Farenzena said she would go back for another concert. But in the future, she hopes the venue announces that may feel swaying in the bleachers — that way, everyone can have a good time.
“I think a lot of people, including me and my three girls, would have felt a little more comfortable,” she said. “It would have been a lot better.”
