I liked the idea of ordering room service at the ball park. 

Not the elevated service you get at places like the Diamond Club behind home plate at Nationals Park — which is quite nice, by the way, ordering drinks and food from your seat and having it delivered. 

No, the kind of room service I looked forward to was actual hotel room service, at the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel at the Rogers Centre, home of Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays. 

In sports, there isn’t much like the set-up at the Rogers Centre. 

It opened on June 5, 1989 as the SkyDome, (cooler name chosen by fans before its opening but unsustainable when the facility ran into financial trouble and went-a-courtin’ for a sponsor.) 

A multi-purpose stadium site with a retractable roof, it has always hosted the Blue Jays, but has also been home at various times to the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts and NBA’s Toronto Raptors, as well as sundry one-offs (WrestleManias and concerts and etc.) and even that source of Western New York angst, the Bills Toronto Series, where the NFL’s Buffalo Bills played several “home” games in Toronto from in the late 2000s and early 20-teens. 

Restaurants and bars and things like that are nothing new to these kind of venues. 

But the SkyRogersDomeCentre is pretty unique in having that stuff – and a hotel in the stadium the windows of which face the field, so you can watch the game from the friendly confines of a love seat, and eat overpriced room service, not the regular joe overpriced poutine in the stadium seats.

When I went to Toronto in 2017 as part of an annual baseball trip I take with friends from college, of course we were going to stay in the hotel. 

But one has to be careful in booking rooms. 

The outer ring of rooms faces outside. The view of Lake Ontario is quite pleasant, but it’s not the field. It’s still nice being that close to the game, but it’s not the same as the inner ring, which faces the field. 

I stayed in the inner ring. The novelty was worth it, especially if you are a baseball completist. (Guilty). 

But there are a couple of quirks to keep in mind. 

It can feel like you’re watching a game from home, with how distant the field is and how comfy things are in the hotel room. Except it’s not your home. But it would be easy to get comfortable and walk around in your underwear before remembering you’re in a public place where thousands of people can see you. 

Among the things broadcast that one doesn’t normally see at a baseball game are pillow fights and couples having sex. 

Let’s say you remember the reality of the public bubble nature of it all and you enjoy the room service, and the game experience is a good one, and overall it’s a positive thing.

Just do yourself one more favor before booking your trip. 

Stay at the Rogers Centre hotel on a night when there’s a day game. 

Unless you like the sound of leaf blowers cleaning up 50,000 beer cans and soda cups and hot dog wrappers and popcorn boxes. Hour after hour after hour. 

Otherwise it will be a long night, no matter how good the baseball was. 

Feature image by Wendy Wei

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