Toronto's Rogers Stadium faces crowd control test as Coldplay wraps 1st show
Changes come after attendees at inaugural concert said site, transit services seemed ill-equipped for crowds
Coldplay fans appeared to experience a smoother exit from Toronto's Rogers Stadium on Monday night, after complaints of poor crowd control following the outdoor venue's inaugural show last week.
But a crowd management expert says there's still room for improvement, as some concertgoers left feeling lucky to get out without any major incident.
Leigh Marshall and Adam Archdekin said they felt they felt "herded like cattle" as they were held in the venue for 40 minutes after the show ended.
"They have red lights. It's stop and go," Marshall said.
As crowds leaving the stadium thickened, staff held up the red lights and instructed people to wait inside the venue before they could proceed to transit areas. A green light meant go.
The practice, which operator Live Nation Canada refers to as "pulsing," was also in use at the venue's first show. This time, the operator promised to reconfigure the exit routes so that crowds would be dispersed to multiple nearby subway stations.
While some fans complained about the temporary standstills, the crowd control technique appeared to help prevent overcrowding at Downsview Park, the nearest subway and GO train station, with a limited number of people flowing through at a time.
By 12:30 a.m., transit staff announced the last GO Train of the night had departed. Staff began taking down signs directing fans to the station as the crowd leaving the venue reduced to a trickle.
It appeared to be a significant improvement over the venue's inaugural show last week, when some attendees said it took up to two hours to exit the 50,000-person capacity stadium.
Still, with only two ways out, Marshall and Archdekin said they worry about future concertgoers having a difficult time.
"It has the makings of a disaster," said Marshall.
Live Nation Canada said it was making changes
After complaints that the site and transit services seemed ill-equipped to handle large crowds, Live Nation Canada said it was "making adjustments" ahead of Coldplay's four shows this week.
In addition to changing the exit routes, the operator promised to add more signage, lighting, staff and water stations.
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.
Some fans who attended the concert on Monday tried to get ahead of what they expected would be a hellish situation.
Laurie Gatto and Jody McComb said they left partway through the final song. It only took them about 10 minutes to leave.
"I don't think I've ever left a concert early, but I think we've heard so many negative things about this venue that we thought better to leave five minutes before the end," Gatto said while rushing back to her car, which was in a nearby lot.
Gatto and McComb said there were enough bathrooms and signage was clear leaving the venue. Inside, additional water stations had been set up as promised.
During the show, Coldplay's frontman Chris Martin thanked the crowd for going through all "the traffic and the travel and the trains and the waiting" to get to "this weird stadium in the middle of nowhere."
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.
No hotels nearby, says concert-goer
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."
'I thought this was at Rogers Centre'
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.
Fans report long walks to 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.
Additional water stations set up
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.
With files from Tara Deschamps, and CBC's Julia Alevato and Naama Weingarten