Less than eight months after it was first announced, Toronto’s newest venue, Rogers Stadium, is swiftly coming together before its big debut this summer — and Live Nation is in the midst of hiring for the site’s team.
Those keeping tabs on the stadium’s social media will have seen that it has been hosting a series of career fairs this month, with the next one coming up on Wednesday, May 14.
Meanwhile, construction on the 50,000-capacity outdoor venue, the largest of its kind in the city, has been scaling up as we approach its inaugural show at the end of June.
Locals have snapped some sneaky photos of the progress at YZD (formerly the Downsview Airport Lands) and shared them to socials in recent months, some of them showing active chair installation on newly built bleachers more than 20 rows high back in March, when about half of the stadium appeared to be built.
A more recent video, taken from an aircraft during a flyover at the end of April, had a lot of people questioning the project’s timeline, as well as its quality.
At the time, it looked like all of the stands on the 44-acre property were erected, with no stage yet to be seen, but tons of equipment on site.
Comments on the widely shared clip included “looks like Bleachers from Temu” and “even Fyre Festival looked better than this.”
Many seem to be forgetting, though, that the attraction is only meant to be temporary, as YZD is set to be turned into a sprawling mixed-use neighbourhood over the coming decades. And, insiders have said that as of early May, the work is actually ahead of schedule.
“We had been talking to Live Nation about various opportunities, [but] more permanent. But then they came to us last year with an opportunity to do what is now Rogers Stadium because Toronto doesn’t have an outdoor venue to attract the largest bands in the world,” the CEO of Northcrest Developments, which is helming the future YZD redevelopment, said in a Toronto Region Board of Trade podcast earlier this month.
“Rogers Centre is occupied mostly by the Blue Jays… and huge shows need a few days to set up, then they [perform] a couple of nights, then they need some take-down time. Trying to find a week or 10 days in the summer when the Blue Jays aren’t going to be at Rogers Centre, there are very few windows of opportunity.”
Those interested in working at the site, which already has big names like Coldplay, Blackpink and Oasis among 14 events scheduled for 2025, can keep an eye out for hiring events.
The latest such event was scheduled at the Mattamy Athletic Centre at 50 Carlton Street between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14.
Given that this is the third job fair from the stadium this month, expect more opportunities to apply for positions like concession worker, bartender and cook.
K-pop boy band Stray Kids will play Rogers Stadium’s first concert on June 29. Tickets are still available, and range from just over $130 to over a whopping $2,200.
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