cityscape Why Torontonians Want The Rogers Centre (Rightfully) Renamed to SkyDome

Because it has always been the SkyDome in our hearts.

We’ve dealt with the Ted Rogers statue outside the stadium (despite threats to throw it into the lake). We’ve swallowed the cost of overpriced beers at the ball game.

It’s time that fans got a break. We want the SkyDome back.

In an act of pure revolt, Torontonians are flocking to sign a petition to Rogers, demanding it change the name of the Rogers Centre back to SkyDome. At the time of publication, the petition had more than 13,000 signatures.

Started by Change.org user Randy Rajmoolie, who is a TTC bus driver by day, the petition says Rogers disappointed fans, who chose the name SkyDome in a public contest in 1987, by changing the stadium name to the Rogers Centre in 2005.

“Why did they have to change it? What was wrong with a name that we loved and that symbolized important moments in our city’s history?” Rajmoolie writes.

Rajmoolie started the petition in June. But it was only in early April, following a BlogTO April Fool’s Day joke, when a Change.org employee contacted Rajmoolie to promote the petition in advance of the Blue Jays home opener. The promoted petition gained traction online and likely has more supporters than “Rogers Centre” ever did.

The SkyDome opened on June 3, 1989, to spectacular fanfare. It hosts more than 3.5 million guests every year.

Many SkyDome lovers have a lot of feelings about the petition, and have taken to social media to voice their discontent for Rogers’s act of corporatization.

Rogers has not yet commented on the petition.