Jarry Park

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**Jarry Park**
**Le Parc Jarry**

Location	Montréal, Quebec
Opened	April 14, 1969
Closed	September 26, 1976
Capacity	28,000
Owned By	City of Montréal
Architect:
Dimensions: Left Left-Centre Centre Right-Centre Right Backstop	340 ft / 103.6 m 368 ft. / 112.2 m 420 ft / 128.0 m 368 ft / 112.2 m 340 ft / 103.6 m 60 ft / 18.3 m

Jarry Park (Le Parc Jarry) was a Montréal baseball stadium and home to the Montréal Expos; Major League Baseball's first Canadian franchise from 1969-1976. It served as a temporary home (for 8 seasons) until the domed Olympic Stadium was finished and made available to the Expos. The park's name in English tended to spoken as a homonym of "Jerry".

The stadium began as a ballfield in Montréal's north end (Villeray) in a public park known as Jarry Park. The only structure was the small unroofed grandstand behind the home plate and backstop area, that sat maybe 3,000.

When the Expos were announced as an expansion franchise in 1968, finding a site proved to be a challenge. The old minor league park, Delorimier Stadium, had a capacity of around 20,000, which was not large enough to meet Major league standards, and was eventually demolished in 1971. Initially it looked like the Expos would be using the Autostade from the fair, Expo 67, which had inspired the new club's nickname. That idea proved unworkable, and the Expos had to find another site quickly. The decision was made to convert the Jarry Park ballfield to something approaching major league standards.

Once the ballfield was announced as the home of the expansion club, the site was likewise expanded. Unroofed extensions were built from the original stand to the left and right field corners, a large bleacher was constructed across left field, and a scoreboard was built behind the right field fence. This work brought the park's capacity to a serviceable 28,000 or so, and the park was deemed ready for the Expos.

Beyond right field was a pre-existing swimming pool in the city park. Long before the "splash hits" at AT&T Park in San Francisco, there were occasional "splash hits" here. The idea of the swimming pool itself was later replicated in Chase Field in Phoenix).

The stadium was rather sparse, given that it was intended to be only a temporary home - though it took far longer to build the Olympic Stadium than was initially anticipated, so much so that even then there was talk of moving the franchise - and the stadium was very much open to the elements, which was a particular problem at the beginning and end of the season, given the short Montreal summers.

Although the centre field distance was posted as 420 feet, it was actually 417 feet to straightaway centre, and 420 feet to the deep left and right centre field corners.

**Stade Uniprix**
**Le Parc Jarry**
Image:Stade Jarry.jpg
Location	Montreal, Quebec
Opened	August 7, 1995
Capacity	12,000
Owned By	Tennis Canada
Managed By	City of Montréal
Architect:	Jarry Park Development Plan

[edit] After the Expos

The stadium was used for various civic events in the years after the Expos moved out. It was gradually converted into a tennis stadium, with one corner of the court located at the old backstop. The stadium was renamed in honor of Pope John Paul II to mark his visit to Montréal and the park on September 11, 1984. The venue was renamed 'du Maurier Stadium' in 1987. It has since been renamed again, to 'Stade Uniprix'.