The stadium's troubled origins trace to one man's ambition. Mayor Jean Drapeau wanted the 1976 Olympics, and he wanted a Major League Baseball team. A covered stadium was essential for baseball in a city where April and October bring freezing weather. In 1967, after the National League granted Montreal an expansion franchise, Drapeau promised a covered stadium by 1971. He could not deliver on his own authority. When franchise owner Charles Bronfman was ready to walk away, Drapeau had staffers draw up a proposal just convincing enough to keep the deal alive. Soon after Montreal won the 1976 Games, Drapeau struck a secret deal with Taillibert to design the stadium. It only came to light in 1972. Taillibert based his design on plant and animal forms -- vertebral structures with sinews and tentacles -- creating what is now cited as a masterpiece of Organic Modern architecture. The aesthetics were extraordinary. The execution was a catastrophe.

The stadium's retractable roof was its defining innovation and its greatest curse. The design called for a 66-tonne Kevlar membrane, opened and closed by cables suspended from the massive inclined tower. The roof materials sat in a warehouse in Marseille until 1982. When the orange-colored roof was finally installed in April 1987, a decade behind schedule, it could not operate in winds above a moderate threshold. It ripped repeatedly. In 1991, a windstorm tore it badly enough to force cancellation of the auto show, which left the venue permanently. On September 8, 1991, support beams snapped and a concrete slab fell onto an exterior walkway. The Expos had to play their final 13 home games that season in opponents' cities. By May 2017, the roof had accumulated 7,453 tears. In February 2024, Quebec announced the new replacement roof would cost $870 million and take four years to build. Demolition was declared unthinkable -- the Metro runs directly beneath the stadium, and the pre-stressed concrete construction rules out implosion.

Despite its problems, the stadium hosted decades of professional sports. The Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League moved in midway through the 1976 season. The 1977 Grey Cup drew 68,318 spectators despite a transit strike and harsh winter weather, and the stadium holds the record for nine of the ten largest crowds in CFL history. The Montreal Expos replaced Jarry Park Stadium as their home in 1977, though they were never consulted on the stadium's location, design, or construction. The playing surface was an extremely thin AstroTurf carpet over concrete, so hard on players' knees that visiting teams frequently ran at a nearby park. By the 1990s, free agents demanded the Expos be removed from consideration due to the poor conditions. Willie Stargell hit the longest home run in the stadium's history on May 20, 1978 -- an estimated 535 feet into the second deck. The yellow seat marking the landing spot now resides at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Big O's most memorable moments often had nothing to do with scheduled programming. On August 8, 1992, Metallica and Guns N' Roses co-headlined a concert before 54,666 fans. During "Fade to Black," improper pyrotechnics burned James Hetfield, cutting Metallica's set short. After a two-hour delay, Guns N' Roses played a shortened set. The crowd rioted. An estimated 2,000 people overturned police cars and set bonfires inside the stadium, causing an estimated $400,000 in damage. Guns N' Roses were banned from the venue. Metallica did not return until 2023. The stadium's largest paid crowd was far more peaceful: 78,322 people for Pink Floyd on July 6, 1977. Pope John Paul II held a youth rally for 55,000 in 1984. Roberto Duran defeated Sugar Ray Leonard for the WBC welterweight championship on the stadium floor in 1980. And in 2021, the Big O became one of Quebec's largest COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Demolition estimates range from $500 million to $2 billion, depending on who is counting. The stadium was built of pre-stressed concrete -- rebar wire under tension -- ruling out wrecking balls and controlled implosion. The Metro's Green Line runs directly underneath. Businesses lease space in the office tower. Quebec Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx has called demolition "unthinkable." So the Big O endures, hosting soccer matches that set Canadian attendance records -- 61,004 for the 2015 CONCACAF Champions League final -- along with gymnastics championships and mass vaccinations. The stadium that nearly broke Montreal has outlasted the Expos, outlasted its own roof, and outlasted the debt that gave it its cruelest nickname. Whether that makes it a triumph or a monument to stubbornness depends on which Montrealer you ask.