TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are expecting to play at an open Rogers Centre for the first time this year during their upcoming June 4-9 homestand amid ongoing work to replace the retractable roof’s outer layer.
Construction on the white membrane began during the off-season and has been phased to allow opening during the summer months.
Poor weather in Toronto has largely made the issue moot to this point, but with temperatures in the high teens expected for this week’s games against Boston and San Diego, playing with the roof open is a realistic possibility for the first time.
By the time the New York Yankees arrive for the start of a three-game series June 4, followed by a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks starting June 7, enough progress will have been made to allow the roof to be opened.
The work, planned before a falling chunk of ice from the CN Tower punctured a hole in the roof last April, is slated to continue through the summer and finish in late 2019.
The earliest the roof has ever opened for a game was April 16, 2002, when the game-time temperature was 27 C. Last year, the first game with the dome peeled back was May 9 on a 17 C day, after late May openings the previous two years.
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