S k y D o m e

Sky Dome is the world's greatest entertainment center. It's a host to wide variety of sporting spectaculars, concerts, family shows and consumers shows. How big is Toronto's Sky Dome? Well, you could put eight Boeing 747s on the playing field. Or all of Eaton Center. Or a 32-home subdivision. Or the Roman Coliseum. Even with the retractable roof closed, a 31-storey buildings could fit inside the structure. The $500-millions buildings opened on June 3, 1989, after 32 months of construction. On that day, inclement weather forced the developers to prove that the paneled roof could be closed in 20 minutes. The roof runs on a series of steel track and bogies, weighs 11000 tons and is made up of steel tresses covered by steel cladding. The eight-acre stadium offers sports fans five levels of seating and the world's largest video replay screen. More than 50000 people at a time can watch a football or a baseball game, and there is also a 350-room hotel built into the north end of building, with 70 rooms offering a view of the playing field. But the building is much more than a place to watch sporting events under an open roof. There are 23 fast-food stands, 48 beverage outlets, a 430-seat restaurant for quick-service dining, a 300-foot-long bar overlooking the field, the largest McDonnell’s in North America, the Hard Rock Cafe, and a 120-seat movie theater where tours of the building begin.