Percival Molson Memorial Stadium (also known in French as ''Stade Percival-Molson''; commonly referred to as Molson Stadium in English or Stade Molson in French) is an outdoor

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium in

Downtown Montreal Downtown Montreal ( French: ''Centre-Ville de Montréal'') is the central business district of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The district is situated on the southernmost slope of Mount Royal, and occupies the western portion of the borough of Vil ...

, on the slopes of

Mount Royal Mount Royal (french: link=no, Mont Royal, ) is a large intrusive rock hill or small mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of Downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The best-known hypothesis for the origin of the name Montreal is the hi ...

, in the borough of Ville-Marie. Named in honour of

Percival Molson Captain Percival Talbot "Percy" Molson, MC (August 14, 1880 – July 5, 1917) was a Canadian star athlete and soldier. After an outstanding sports career with McGill University, Molson joined its administration. Molson died fighting in World ...

, and owned by

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, it was the home of the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

from 1954 to 1967 and again since 1998. The stadium is also home to the

McGill Redbirds and Martlets The McGill Redbirds (formerly the McGill Redmen) and McGill Martlets are the varsity athletic teams that represent McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Team name According to Suzanne Morton, a professor of history at McGill, the name ...

of the RSEQ, the

Montreal Royal The Montreal Matrix were an American Basketball Association team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The team's first season was in 2005–06 and their home court was the Centre Pierre Charbonneau. The team was known as the Montreal Royal during ...

of the

American Ultimate Disc League American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, the Selwyn House Gryphons high-school football team and the Canadian Corporate Soccer League, the largest amateur corporate league in Canada.

History

Constructed in 1914 on the slopes of Mount Royal, at the corner of University and Pine (avenue Des Pins), the stadium sat dormant through

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

with the cessation of football from 1914 to 1918. On July 5, 1917, Captain

(1880–1917), great-grandson of brewer

John Molson John Molson (December 28, 1763 – January 11, 1836) was an English-born brewer and entrepreneur in colonial Quebec, which during his lifetime became Lower Canada. In addition to founding Molson Brewery, he built the first steamship and the fir ...

and a

alumnus and sports star who had been instrumental in getting the stadium plan approved, was killed in action in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. His will left $75,000 to the university to help pay most of the total costs for the completion of the stadium. Other individual donors whose generosity built and renovated the stadium were William C. Macdonald and John W. McConnell. Designed by

Percy Erskine Nobbs Percy Erskine Nobbs (August 11, 1875 – November 5, 1964) was a Canadian architect who was born in Haddington, East Lothian, and trained in the United Kingdom. Educated at the Edinburgh Collegiate School and Edinburgh University, he spent ...

, the stadium was officially dedicated as McGill Graduates' Stadium at an intercollegiate track meet on October 22, 1915; it was renamed Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on October 25, 1919 by the university's Board of Governors, in his honour. The Montreal Alouettes played at the stadium from 1954 to 1967 before moving to the

Autostade The Autostade (the 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 wa ...

. An attempted return to the Molson Stadium in 1972 was not successful and the team went back to the Autostade the following season. When the revived Alouettes franchise was forced to move a 1997 playoff game out of

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

due to a U2 concert scheduled for the day of the game, they played the game at Molson Stadium before a sellout crowd, prompting the Als to make it their primary home again the following season. However, all playoff games were played at Olympic Stadium until 2015. Percival Molson Stadium is also home of the Selwyn House Gryphons and the McGill

and rugby teams. The only

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

game played at Molson Stadium was in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

, which was the first time the Grey Cup had been contested outside of Ontario. It also served as a venue for

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, during the

1976 Summer Olympics Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phi ...

. It seated 20,202 and had been sold out for Alouettes games from August 12, 1999 until 2009. A renovation project begun in 2009 increased capacity from 20,202 to over 25,000 before seats were removed in 2014 to reduce capacity to 23,420. The seating capacity was lowered to 20,025 following a reconfiguration prior to the 2019 season. The Alouettes' decision to return to the venue was problematic because the team was being sponsored by the

Labatt Brewing Company Labatt Brewing Company Limited (french: La Brasserie Labatt Limitée) is a Belgian-owned brewery headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1847, Labatt is the largest brewer in Canada. In 1995, it was purchased by Belgian brewer Int ...

and the stadium shared the name of its major competitor,

Molson The Molson Brewery is a Canadian based brewery company based in Montreal which was established in 1786 by the Molson family. In 2005, Molson merged with the Adolph Coors Company to become Molson Coors. Molson Coors maintains some of its Can ...

, though not named for it. Eventually, the team chose to change sponsors and have been sponsored by Budweiser since 2014. In 2004, The Alouettes installed a FieldTurf surface at Molson Stadium replacing the old-style Astroturf.

Renovation

Molson Stadium has been renovated and expanded, adding nearly 5,000 seats in time for the 2010 CFL season. The project to see the smallest CFL stadium increase to a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 25,012 cost $29.4 million. Eleven rows were removed from the south side of the stadium to construct a second tier and add the majority of the new seats, about 3,800. Also, temporary bleachers in the east end-zone were replaced with 1,500 permanent seats, a new section was added to the northeast corner, and 19 new private suites were constructed. The cost of the renovations were shared by the

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

government ($19.3 million), the city of Montreal ($4 million), and

Robert Wetenhall Robert Carl "Bob" Wetenhall Sr. (February 14, 1935 – September 3, 2021) was an American businessman who owned the Montreal Alouettes Football Club of the Canadian Football League from 1997 through 2018. Biography Robert (Bob) Wetenhall was ...

, the Alouettes' owner ($6,023,935).Expansion Project Approved , Montreal Alouettes

Layout

Because the playing surface is surrounded by a running track, the full 65-yard width and 20-yard length of the end zones is not available at the two end lines. However, the full width is available for more than half of each end zone, with the only missing pieces being the relatively small bits off the corners. Since the 2014 CFL season, it is the only stadium in the CFL to cut the corners on the end zones after Edmonton's

Commonwealth Stadium Commonwealth Stadium is an open-air, multipurpose stadium located in the McCauley neighbourhood of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It has a seating capacity of 56,302, making it the largest open-air stadium in Canada. Primarily used for Canadian fo ...

squared off theirs.

References

Media

Percival Molson Stadium under constructionWelcome to the brand new stadium!Alouettes luxury boxes available!

External links