Courtesy Globe and Mail:

Over the past quarter-century, North American sports facilities have undergone a revolution in design, followed by building booms that have swept through every level – from junior hockey and minor-league baseball through the NBA, NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball.

All of which has left the CFL looking a little like the league left behind as it continues to make do mostly with stadiums built for another era.

But after years of Band-Aid solutions to stadium up-keep, the CFL could be on the verge of a construction boom that could change the look of the league and dramatically improve its economics as well.

Five CFL teams – the Montreal Alouettes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Saskatchewan Roughriders and the ownership of a conditional Ottawa franchise – are aggressively pushing plans to build new stadiums or drastically alter and refurbish old ones.

Factor in the anticipated makeover of Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium, which could add a retractable roof to the facility, and a potential redesign of Toronto’s BMO Field to accommodate the Argonauts, and the CFL could be looking at well over a half-billion dollars invested in stadium infrastructure during the next five years.

Many would suggest it’s long overdue.

“This is a league that is primarily driven by ticket sales, so the weakness is when you have older stadiums it’s harder to attract people,” CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said. “You can have a great product on the field, but when people go to a stadium where it’s not a nice experience to be in – the washrooms are gross, they don’t have a seat back, there’s limited parking – then they go down to the street to an NHL game with beautiful suites, great concessions and easy to get in and out of, that creates a hard operating environment for our teams.”

The reason so little has been invested in CFL stadiums over the years comes down to simple economics.

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