Montreal Impact Stadium Will Not Be Ready For Start Of Season

The Montreal Impact’s much anticipated entrance to MLS won’t go exactly as planned. The Impact will make the jump to the top league in the U.S. and Canada for the 2012 season and were supposed to have begun work on the expansion at Saputo Stadium that will take it from 13,000 seats to 20,000 seats, but that hasn’t happened yet. As a result, the stadium will not be ready in time for the beginning of the 2012 MLS season and the Impact will have to play some of their home games at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.

According to club president Joey Saputo, the initial bidding process came back with costs well above the $23 million the club received in government funding for the project. The Impact are now hoping to have the stadium done by next summer, about halfway through the MLS season.