August 30, 2000 - The grand opening ceremonies were held recently for the Mustang's new stadium. Named TD Waterhouse Stadium - and already dubbed "The Exchange" - the event gave a bunch of local bottom feeders a chance to strut their stuff. But while the likes of the Premier, the University's President, London's Mayor, etc. spoke to the media and themselves, the real people who were there lined up to get into the new facility. Your webmaster was among them.

My overall opinion of the stadium can be summed up in one word - nice. It's not great, not fabulous, but nice. I, along with many others, had the opportunity to tour the building, walk on a tiny piece of the turf and sit in the west stands. Here are my comments and feelings on what I saw.

Since the stadium construction was not yet complete when I toured it, some of the deficiencies noted below might actually have been rectified by the time the Mustangs actually start playing football there on September 16.

The Turf

Let's start with the most obvious item - the new artificial turf. The powers-that-be chose, for a variety of reasons, to go with the latest version of Astroturf. During the opening, we were able to walk on a bit of it in the north endzone. (Why they didn't let us onto more of it I'll never know. If you can play football in the rain and snow, surely a few people walking on it wouldn't hurt.) It feels nice with lots of padding but … rug burns here we come. Of course, as with all turf, it's not nearly as nice as grass.

And, as with all multi-use facilities, we have about a dozen different lines on the field. Well, actually it's only three, white for football, yellow for soccer and red for field hockey. But when you add the big purple "W" at mid field and the two large and very ostentatious TD Waterhouse logos at either side, it starts to look very cluttered. A very far cry from what we are used to at Little Stadium.

But, with all this clutter, one thing was conspicuously absent - hash marks. The field had no hash marks between the yard lines. If this remains the case - remember the stadium was not finished when I toured it - it will make spotting the ball difficult for the refs, but mostly for the fans in the grandstands. Let's hope this changes.

The Grandstands

Speaking of grandstands, lets talk about them for a moment. At the time of the tour, only the west side stands were "completed" so we can't comment on the east side stands. It's clear however that the grandstands have been laid out much as they were in Little stadium. The west stands are higher and contain the press boxes while the east ones are the poor cousins. It's likely that the University's policy of segregation will continue with the students banished to the lesser grandstand and forced to look into the sun and face the west winds.

Both grandstands are constructed of all metal - steel for the supporting structure and aluminum for the seating. It was difficult to tell how roomy they will be as there were no seat numbers (let's pray they figure that one out before opening day) but it was clear that there will be a lot more leg room between rows. Also, unlike many grandstands, the area under the seats is enclosed preventing the wind from whipping through and things from falling to the ground below. I've heard some say that the metal seats will be more comfortable than the old wood ones at Little. This may be true but one thing's for sure, there will be a lot of cold butts later in the season.

The box seats that were in Little Stadium have been combined into one section in the centre of the grandstand. These seats are plastic and coloured purple. Of course, they are located in the best section of the grandstand so as to please the people who occupy them - you know, the ones who are there to be seen and don't really care about the game. Oh, by the way, they are coloured purple.

The Lighting

One of the nicer features of this new facility is the lighting. Although I am a fan of day games, the odd night game that the lighting will allow should be fun. In addition, the lights will help on those dreary fall days, especially in the playoffs after we return to standard time.

Unless adjustments have been made in the interim, there appears to be a problem with the lighting however. The light banks on the east side of the field, located behind the grandstand, are significantly closer to the playing surface than those on the west side. This results in that side of the field being much brighter, almost too bright, than the west side. See the photos for an example.

But I'm glad we have them just the same.

The Sound System

Boy does the sound suck! Don't worry, the speakers can be heard from all parts of the stadium - a blessing to those on the east side that at Little had to do without. The problem is we get to hear everything twice. The echo is really bad. Again, I'm not sure if adjustments or more people in the stands will improve this or not. Let's hope so.

The Little Building

Aptly named, it is little. Of course, it was named after J.W. Little so that name would live on. During the opening ceremonies not much of the interior was done so the tour was of little use. However, it is clear that, other than for locker rooms and stadium offices, the building serves little (there's that name again) purpose. Most fans will simply bypass it to get to their seats.

It has a nice lobby and a nice little (there it is again) lounge that will seat no more than a few people. As expected it includes ticket windows and concession stands. But you have to be really hungry; it's a long walk from the best seats in the grandstand.

The architecture of the building is nice though, both from the parking side and the stadium side. It will give a really good first impression to all that visit.

The Named Stadium

I've never seen a facility with so many names. As you know, the stadium itself is called the TD Waterhouse Stadium and its nickname is The Exchange. But the names don't stop there. The west grandstand is named, the track is named, the field house is named, the lounge is named, the turf has names cut into it, and even many of the bricks on the area surrounding the field house are named.

While there is much left to do, the facility looks good. I look forward to the start of the season in September to really see how it performs.