Montrealers love discussing the Olympic Stadium, a structure that is both a striking city landmark and a massive reminder of crumbling infrastructure — a 50-tonne concrete beam fell off in 1991 — and budget overruns. The Big O’s final cost rolled in at $1.1 billion.

When The Gazette asked readers in July for their ideas on what do with the Big O, the newspaper was inundated with responses: turn it into a giant flowerpot, an indoor water park, even a new UFO-shaped home for the city’s planetarium.

Thirty-four years after the 1976 Summer Olympics, the problem is that Montreal can’t live with the stadium and can’t live without the stadium. The city can’t live with it in its present state because, unless the fire department gives special permission, the stadium can’t be used between Dec. 1 and March 1 for fear that its patched-up roof will rip under the weight of snow.

And the city can’t live without the stadium because it’s almost impossible to get rid of it. The oval-shaped behemoth can’t be blown up because it’s close to homes and subway tunnels. And it would take years and cost more than $500 million to dismantle the thing and cart away the tons of rubble.

The stadium didn’t have a roof in 1976. A retractable one was installed nine years later, but it was opened and closed only 88 times before being permanently closed due to rips in it. In 1998, that roof was replaced with a fixed roof. A year later, during preparations for an auto show, that roof also ripped, dropping tons of snow inside and injuring five people.

Years of study and indecision ensued. Al-though it was concluded that Montreal needed the Big O (with 56,000 seats, it’s the only venue in the city that can hold more than 22,000 people), a cost/benefit analysis suggested that the few events requiring an open-air facility were not worth the extra expense of a roof that opens.

So, the province decided the Big O would forgo sporting events that required open sky. Instead, the stadium would rely on major exhibitions. In 2007, Quebec finally decided to order a fixed roof. The builder was Montreal-based engineering giant, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. That decision was made even though other major stadiums were going the retractable route; British Columbia, for example, had approved a retractable roof, now under construction, for Vancouver’s B.C. Place stadium.

This past summer, when Quebec seemed finally ready to spend the $300 million required for SNC’s fixed roof, an alternative appeared. A proposal for a retractable roof was put forward by a consortium made up of Dessau, a major Montreal engineering firm, and Ontario’s EllisDon Corp., the latter of which had designed and built Toronto’s Rogers Centre and its functioning retractable roof.

Quebec reconsidered. In late September, the province announced a new call for tenders — a process that means no decision will be made until at least 2011.

The delay is bad news for a struggling section of Montreal. Business and political leaders are hoping a new year-round stadium will help jump-start the sagging economy of Montreal’s East End, pummelled this summer by the announced closure of a Shell Canada Ltd. oil refinery employing 500 people.

Others see the stadium as an opportunity. Served by two subway stations, the Big O is close to downtown, has a 4,000-spot underground parking lot and is close to two of Montreal’s biggest tourist attractions: the Botanical Garden and the Biodôme.

The area around the stadium, currently a concrete desert, could be turned into a green space, with water fountains, grass, trees, benches and picnic tables, according to a proposal put forward by a Université du Québec à Montréal geography professor.

But first, the roof saga will have to be concluded. One of the final events at the Big O this year will be a giant mass for Brother André on Oct. 30, two weeks after the city’s religious icon is canonized. Stadium officials will be praying that Montreal doesn’t get an early snowfall. IE