More than 60,000 people were crammed into Olympic Stadium in Montreal on Wednesday for the first leg of a playoff series between the Montreal Impact and Toronto FC. But with all of the excitement, there had to be some letdown.
This is Olympic Stadium, after all. Most American fans remember this is as the place that hosted the Montreal Expos and drew about 800 people a night. And as we saw Wednesday, this stadium is still living up to its bad name. Prior to the start of this showdown, it was announced that the game was delayed because the goal lines were not the correct length.
Delay to kick off due to Olympic Stadium not correctly painting the goal boxes on each end. Amazing #MTLvTOR #MLSCupPlayoffs
— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) November 23, 2016
Not something you see every day – match delayed because penalty box was painted too narrow. #MTLVTOR pic.twitter.com/tbY8158zob
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 23, 2016
The definition of facepalm. It’s bad enough they screwed this up, but in the conference finals with 60,000 people having to watch you repair the field.
As this news spread, the internet had fun with this because how could it not.
That moment when 61,000 people show up at your house for the party but you forgot to clean the bathroom. *facepalm emoji* #MTLvTOR pic.twitter.com/Is34ypRceI
— theScore (@theScore) November 23, 2016
https://twitter.com/cbut58/status/801234903002136576
https://twitter.com/romeo_saunders/status/801234686538350592
Gonna apply to work grounds crew at Olympic Stadium tomorrow, surely I could do better
— D-Yawn (@deion26mustard) November 23, 2016
For those in attendance, they were also having some fun.
https://twitter.com/nicksabetti/status/801233576540848129
Olympic Stadium erupts in cheers as the paint machine finishes one 18 yard box, moves across field to the next #TFCLive
— Shari Gibson (@sharigibson_) November 23, 2016
This is a pretty bad gaffe, and I guess they’re lucky the fans had some fun with it. While 2016 could be called a lot of things, there’s a case to be made for it to be called the year of the weird paint fiascos following this instance and the NFL Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio.
