Editing Autostade

{{Short description|Canadian football stadium at Quebec}}
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{{refimprove|date=January 2017}}
{{original research|date=December 2011}}
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{{Infobox stadium
| stadium_name = Autostade<br>''Automotive Stadium''
| image = File:Autostade Montreal Aerial 1966.jpg
| image_size = 220
| caption = The Autostade in 1966
| location = 
| opened = 1966
| surface = Grass (1966–1976)
| owner = 
| capacity = 33,172
| construction_cost = 
| tenants = [[Montreal Alouettes]] ([[Canadian Football League|CFL]]) (1968–1971, 1973-1976)<br>[[Montreal Olympique]] ([[North American Soccer League (1968–1984)|NASL]]) (1971, 1973)
| architect = [[Victor Prus]] and [[Maurice Desnoyers]]
| demolished = late 1970s
}}
The '''Autostade''' (the [[English language|English]] name '''Automotive Stadium''' was rarely used) was a [[Canadian football]] [[stadium]] in the [[Victoriatown]] neighbourhood of [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]] that stood at the north-west corner of the [[Cité du Havre]] sector of the [[Expo 67]] site. It was the home of the [[Canadian Football League|CFL's]] [[Montreal Alouettes]] from 1968 to 1976, except for a brief period in 1972 when the team returned to its previous home, [[Molson Stadium]].

== Design and financing ==
The Autostade was built in preparation for the 1967 [[World's Fair]], [[Expo 67]] as a venue for several events including the World Music Festival and the Rodeo Show. It was designed by architects [[Victor Prus]] and [[Maurice Desnoyers]]. With a [[seating capacity]] of 33,172,<ref name="CFLdb">{{citation|title=Autostade in Montreal|url=https://stats.cfldb.ca/stadium/autostade|work=CFLdb |access-date=14 December 2016}}</ref> the stadium is best remembered for its odd shape: to allow the stadium to be dismantled and re-erected on a new site if required, the architects employed a segmental structural system comprising 19 independent but linked pre-cast concrete grandstands, each 40 seats wide, arranged around the central field.

The stadium was financed by donations from the five major auto manufacturers in Canada at the time: [[American Motors]], [[Chrysler]], [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]], [[General Motors]], and [[Volvo Cars|Volvo]], hence its name.

== History ==
From the start, the new stadium was configured for [[Canadian Football League|CFL]] [[Canadian football|football]] use. The first CFL game played at the Autostade was the 1966 Eastern final between the [[Ottawa Rough Riders]] and [[Hamilton Tiger-Cats]], held on November 19.  The Rough Riders would have hosted the game, but [[Lansdowne Park]] was undergoing extensive renovations at the time. Ottawa won the game 42-16. This game also marked the first use of the single-shaft "goose-necked" field goal posts in the CFL (which has become the norm in professional football since; the NFL and NCAA later adopted those model goalposts the next year).

It was originally planned that Montreal's new baseball team, the [[Montreal Expos]], would play home games at the Autostade as well for at least their first two seasons.<ref name=mmibbfu>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2GsjAAAAIBAJ&pg=7397%2C5146058 |work=Milwaukee Journal |title=Montreal mapping its baseball future |date=May 29, 1968 |page=14, part 2}}</ref> However, the city was unwilling to pay the cost of adding a dome, thought to be a must because of Montreal's often bitterly cold springs and falls. The Alouettes demanded steep rent payments in order to let the Expos share the stadium.  Even without these factors to consider, since the Autostade was owned by the federal government, there were some doubts that the city even had the authority to renovate it.  Instead, the Expos opted to use [[Jarry Park Stadium|Jarry Park]].<ref name=GazetteJarry>{{citation |last=Blackman |first=Ted |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=y4Y1AAAAIBAJ&pg=860%2C1677825 |title=Drapeau's late grand slam saves ball club |work=Montreal Gazette |date=1968-08-09 |access-date=24 January 2015 |page=22}}</ref>

Following its use in Expo 67, the gaps between the sections were filled in preparation for the Alouettes' [[1968 CFL season|1968 season]]. However, the stadium was considered by many to be located too far from downtown (a complaint that would be echoed years later regarding [[Olympic Stadium (Montreal)|Olympic Stadium]]) as well as too cold due to its proximity to the [[Saint Lawrence River]].  As a result, crowds declined rapidly. Despite this, those fans that did attend remember the stadium as having an intimate atmosphere well suited to CFL football.

The only [[Grey Cup]] contest at the Autostade was played on [[57th Grey Cup|November 30, 1969]], between the [[Ottawa Rough Riders]] and [[Saskatchewan Roughriders]]. Due to fears about [[FLQ]] [[terrorism|terrorist]] activities, the CFL had 300 [[police]] officers in full riot gear on standby just in case anything got out of hand, but there were no incidents. Ottawa's [[Russ Jackson]] and [[Frank Clair]] both ended their Hall of Fame careers with a 29-11 win over Saskatchewan. This game was featured in the 1969 movie ''[[Deux femmes en or]]'' and is chronicled in TSN's 2012 documentary series of films "Engraved on a Nation".

Crowds remained small for the next two seasons. The 1971 CFL All Star Game attracted little attention, and the Alouettes ownership decided to return to [[Molson Stadium]] in 1972, hoping to increase profitability. The plan backfired, with attendance below 15,000 a game, and the team returned to the Autostade the following year.<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite news |last1=Gilbert |first1=Doug |title=ALs back to Autostade in '73 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P4MuAAAAIBAJ&dq=ALs+back+to+Autostade+in+%2773&pg=PA27&article_id=1775,6876903 |access-date=28 January 2022 |work=The Saturday Gazette |publisher=The Montreal Gazette |date=24 February 1973 |page=27 |language=en}}</ref> The stadium fell into disuse after the Alouettes moved to Olympic Stadium following the [[1976 Summer Olympics]].

In 1978, the city of [[Thetford Mines]] paid $350,000 to acquire five of the 19 original bleacher sections, transport them to the city 143 miles (228 kilometers) northeast of Montreal, and reassemble them on the site of the city's former minor league ballpark.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Viquez |first=Marc |date=2019-05-03 |title=A Stadium Reborn in Thetford Mines |url=https://www.stadiumjourney.com/news/a-stadium-reborn-in-thetford-mines/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=Stadium Journey |language=en-US}}</ref> The balance of the Autostade was demolished in 1979, but the reconstructed stadium (now known as Stade des Caisses Desjardins) has hosted amateur baseball and softball since construction was completed in 1980. In 2010, the Thetford Blue Sox, a semi-professional baseball team in the [[Ligue de Baseball Senior Élite du Québec]] began play in the stadium.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Viquez|first=Marc|title=A Stadium Reborn in Thetford Mines {{!}} Stadium Journey|date=3 May 2019|url=https://stadiumjourney.com/news/a-stadium-reborn-in-thetford-mines/|access-date=2020-08-25|language=en-US}}</ref>

In May 2005, the [[Montreal Impact (1992–2011)|Montreal Impact]] soccer club had announced that they would be building a new stadium near the former location of the Autostade (now a parking lot and transformer station). The Impact later changed their plans, and broke ground on a new stadium in Olympic Park in the spring of 2007 which opened as [[Saputo Stadium]] in 2008.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{Montreal Alouettes}}
{{Grey Cup}}

[[Category:Canadian Football League venues]]
[[Category:Defunct Canadian football venues]]
[[Category:Defunct soccer venues in Canada]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Montreal]]
[[Category:Expo 67]]
[[Category:Le Sud-Ouest]]
[[Category:Montreal Alouettes]]
[[Category:North American Soccer League (1968–1984) stadiums]]
[[Category:Sports venues in Montreal]]
[[Category:World's fair architecture in Montreal]]
[[Category:Soccer venues in Montreal]]