Claude Delorme pretty much saw it all in his 23 years working at Olympic Stadium as a Montreal Expos employee.
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Claude Delorme spent 23 years at Olympic Stadium. (Courtesy Miami Marlins)
Delorme, now the Miami Marlins’ executive vice president of operations and events, started as an intern with the Expos in 1982. He gained valuable experience working across most departments in stadium operations before the Marlins hired him in 2005 to help develop their new ballpark in south Florida.
At The Big O, Delorme experienced multiple roof collapses caused by snowstorms and ice storms, but one thing he’ll never forget is a date that became part of rock ‘n’ roll history: Aug. 8, 1992. On that night, the Guns N’ Roses/Metallica concert turned into a full-scale riot and a few thousand of the 53,000 attendees did their best to tear the stadium apart.
From the start to the early finish, things didn’t bode well for the facility management team.
First, Metallica guitarist James Hetfield suffered second-degree burns after a pyrotechnic display malfunctioned. The band cut its set short to so he could get medical attention.
Axl Rose, front man for GNR, then took things to a higher level of hysteria. Rose had been having difficulties with his voice on the tour. That helped lead up to the rock group ending its performance about one hour into its set. Delorme recalls Rose cursing the crowd before leaving the stage.
At the time, Delorme was the Expos’ director of concessions. As patrons started throwing chairs on the event floor, looting the team store and setting small fires in trash cans, it was Delorme’s job to keep his staff members calm and have them lock the doors as police did their best to push the troublemakers outside the stadium’s perimeter.
“They completely raided the team store,” he said. “There were three items left, [which] were hanging from the ceiling. It was probably the most serious incident I’ve seen … and it was caused by inappropriate behavior by the artist. That’s one I will definitely remember for a long time.”
Delorme worked his way up the Expos’ organization, starting with game services and the box office as manager of ticket distribution. He moved to concessions for about three years before being promoted to executive director of business operations, and later, vice president of business development.
The struggles with the first roof, a retractable unit, stick out in his mind, including the time it got stuck while officials were trying to close it during a rainstorm in the late 1980s. The malfunction came one day after the Expos made a big presentation to showcase the new movable structure, Delorme said.
Separately, Delorme remembers the effects of a major snowstorm in January 1991 as stadium officials were preparing to host the Montreal Auto Show.
“I was at the ballpark and all of a sudden there was a thunderous noise,” he said. “The Kevlar roof pierced and snow bulldozed in. That was a serious setback.”
There are fond memories as well, such as the 1982 Major League Baseball All-Star Game and the Pope’s visit to Olympic Stadium, both of which occurred during Delorme’s internship.
The building “was ahead of its time, and unfortunately it cost a lot of money,” he said. “But the design itself was very special.”
