Montreal Auto Show Announces New Venue

The Montreal Auto Show, which had suffered since the roof collapsed on the Olympic Stadium, has announced it is moving to the refurbished Palais des Congres.
The show will be held from November 22 to December 1, 2002. “After consulting the vehicle manufacturers, we concluded that it was important to find a site that is better suited to accommodate such an important event,” said Jean-Franois Couture, executive vice-president of the Montral Automobile Dealers Corporation (MADC) and the Montral International Auto Show. Officials with the Auto Show held a special meeting with the event’s vehicle-manufacturer partners last November and requested that they evaluate all venues located in Montral that could accommodate the next car show.
“During this meeting, the manufacturers unanimously requested that we hold the next Montral International Auto Show at the Palais des Congrs because the playing field at the Olympic Stadium is no longer accessible in winter,” said Couture.
“Now that the Palais has undergone an expansion, we will have approximately the same space that we had when the playing field was available at the Olympic Stadium.”
The Auto Show first moved to the Olympic Stadium in 1990 after it was found that the display area at Place Bonaventure was no longer adequate to receive the increasing number of participating car-makers. The Show’s 1999 edition was cancelled after the Olympic Stadium roof ripped and the Show returned to Place Bonaventure in 2000. The event was held at the Big O in 2001, but hopes that the playing field would be available in 2002 were dashed.
“The Show experienced its greatest moments at the Olympic Stadium,” said Couture. “That’s where we recorded our biggest crowds. From 1990 to 1998, and in 2001, we maintained an average of 240,000 visitors at the site. When we presented our January 2002 edition, we found ourselves, for a second time, in a stadium whose playing field was not available, and six car manufacturers were absent. The event suffered an attendance loss of 23 per cent, or approximately 60,000 people.”
The move to the Palais des Congrs is the result of a collaborative effort on the part of the Olympic Installations Board, the Palais des Congrs and the Montral International Auto Show. The switch is also a positive and concrete response to the challenge of finding an adequate venue in the city that is capable of hosting an international public exposition in Montral. Montralers are therefore encouraged to come and see what the Palais des Congrs has in store for the 35th edition of the Auto Show, to be held this November.