Soccer Stalemate PAUL S. HENDREN AND COLIN JOSE • CONTINUED FROM FRONT COVER city spilling out into Toronto's downtown have been reversed over the past decade core. In Vancouver, Empire Stadium, site south of the border. of the famous Roger Bannister-John Landy sub-four-minute mile, quickly es- Cold Reality tablished itself as one of North America's With more participants registered in premier soccer grounds attracting large soccer rather than Canada's passion, boisterous audiences for Whitecaps hockey, one would assume that soccer games. Empire Stadium, like Callister grounds, like the infinite number of Park in Winnipeg and Delormier Stadium hockey arenas, would similarly be scat- in Montreal has since been reduced to rub- tered across Canada's expansive landscape ble unable to avoid redevelopment. from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Nothing Montreal's Olympic Stadium attracted can be further from the truth and the cold 71,617 for the 1976 Olympic soccer final reality is that Canadian soccer is now faced and the Montreal Manic frequently drew with a stadium crisis. Canada's small fleet over 40,000 to the same venue during their of soccer facilities are either too old, too banner season in the North American Soc- decrepit, too small, too cavernous or just cer League in 1981. Many large stadia in too inappropriate to house big soccer events. Canada, however, have been ruined for On the West Coast, considered a hot- soccer with the introduction of synthetic bed for soccer due to its moderate climate, playing surfaces. A trend that appears to there is little doubt that ... continued page 8 International David Jack played at Ulster Stadium in 1926 and when he returned home he told the Athletic News that the Toronto based soccer stadium had one of the best enclosures that he ever played on. Today, Ulster Stadium, like many other vintage parks, has been redeveloped for housing. Toronto's Maple Leaf Stadium, a baseball park, attracted 23,137 patrons Professional Equipment in 1968 for a game between Inter-Milan TURF RESTORATION LTD. for the Golf & and Olympiakos and during the same year, • Turf Drainage Solutions a few blocks away at Exhibition Stadium, Sports Turf Industry Glasgow Celtic and AC Milan attracted • Aeration (All Types) over 30,000 for a friendly. • Top Dressing Pro Turf has a wide range of top Varsity Stadium, known for years as the • Overseeding quality professional equipment home to Canadian soccer hosted one of •Automated Laser Fine Grading available for rental services, including the most memorable matches in recent • Golf Course Renovations, topdressers, aerators, overseeders, history. In 1972, Santos played Bologna • Sports Field Construction tractors, loaders, mericrushers, with a capacity crowd bursting every inch & Reconstruction fertilizer spreaders and grading boxes. of Varsity Stadium. Thousands of fans who Regardless of the scope or size of the were unable to gain entrance scaled the • SportGrass ™ project, Pro Turf Equipment Rentals northern wall and lined the touchlines to Ltd. can provide you with everything '6393 County Rd. 27, Innisfil, ON L95 4V4 get a glimpse of Pele in his famous white you need to complete the job Tel: (705) 458·2851 Fax: (705) 458·2849 shirt. As recently as November 2000, successfully. Canada versus Mexico played to a 0-0 tie Mobile: (416) 717·0012 in front of 6,500 fans. Toll Free: 1·800·794·9664 e-mail: [email protected] Helping You Tame In 1981, Exhibition Stadium hosted the North American Soccer League's Soccer MEMBER S.T.A., O.R.F.A., O.G.S.A. Your Turf Problems Bowl and 36,971 turned out to see Chi- call1·BOO· 794·9664 cago upset the mighty New York Cosmos resulting in many revellers from the windy SPORTS TURF MANAGER • 7 Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British ing customers and he has been very criti- Columbia; situated overlooking the Rocky cal of the Commonwealth as a venue for Mountains has an unmatched charm. Dur- the national team. ing the hey days of the Canadian Soccer In Manitoba, there was a glimmer of League it was the favourite destination for hope from the recently held Pan Ameri- most players but even with its expanded can Games. A small little intimate Soccer capacity of 6,800 it is limited in size re- Park was erected outside of Winnipeg that stricting its use for top international was believed to lead to greater things. games. Unfortunately, the legacy of the Soccer Former national team coach, Bob Park lasted just a few weeks as the port- Lenarduzzi, now one of Canada's top soc- able bleachers were quickly dismantled in cer broadcasters, is of the opinion that Lego-like speed and shipped off to a dis- British Columbia will never again see big tant auto race. The residuals that remain soccer events and he proclaimed that: "I would only be suitable for a local ama- think it is a disgrace that when you con- teur soccer team. sider the size of Canada and we don't have In La Belle Province, the Montreal one appropriate national soccer stadium." Impact's (in North America's sanctioned Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton second division) experiment of hosting was targeted to be Canadian soccer's sav- both outdoor and indoor soccer at Center iour throughout the nineties and leading Claude Robillard has been impressive but to the next millennium. A· near capacity the outdoor stadium's small capacity of crowd jammed into the 60,000-seat facil- 8,000, its intrusive running track and post- ity to cheer on the mighty Brazilians age sized playing surface makes it less before they embarked on their World Cup than ideal. Talk of converting the 20,000 built in a charming period in the 1920s, campaign in 1994. Commonwealth Sta- seat Molson's Stadium in the city centre Varsity Stadium's ideal capacity of just dium was the place to be and huge partisan with a more soccer friendly playing sur- 20,000, its rectangular shape and intimate Canadian crowds were expected when the face and the Quebec Soccer Federation's sight lines has served Canadian soccer men wearing the Maple Leaf touched scheme of erecting a large portable sta- well over the decades. Waiting for its date down in Edmonton. The bubble quickly dium on the grounds of the Olympic site with the wrecking ball the East grandstand burst with extremely poor gates turned out using bleachers from the Montreal Grand is now unfit for human habitation and the for subsequent international friendlies and Prix have never graduated from the draw- stadium capacity has been drastically re- Olympic qualifying leaving Canadian na- ing board. duced to a mere 9,000. After the grand old tional team head coach Holger Osieck lady is converted to student housing for with an empty feeling. Osieck, who as- Hogtown Headaches the University of Toronto next year what sisted Franz Beckenbauer with the The worst scenario comes from Cana- is left for soccer fans in Canada's most German national team in 1990, is not used da's largest urban centre affectionately populated area are two municipal multi to stadia with more empty seats than pay- known to locals as Hogtown. Originally use stadia that are not even close to being suitable for big league soccer. Toronto's top professional soccer club, the Toronto Lynx, has identified the pend- ing problem and they are busy striking a working committee to examine stadium options. It appears that all stadium initia- tives have been put on hold until the decision is made regarding Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympics. Insiders believe that the spin-doctors at Toronto's Olym- pic bid have underestimated the magnitude of Olympic soccer and they have not made adequate provisions for new soccer sta- dia. A decision that concerns Kevan Pipe of the CSA who pleaded with the com- mittee to spread the wealth by erecting or retrofitting stadia from coast to coast. The experiment of soccer indoors at the Skydome was never repeated and the fuzzy concrete playing surface has never been a favourite of international teams. 8 • DECEMBER 2000 Capital Idea potential to be a first rate soccer facility up in the early nineties. Occasionally Frank Clair Stadium, situated in the and a saviour for the national team pro- Kevan Pipe pulls the plans out for a quick nation's capital, has been sitting in moth- gram. review wishing that his national federa- balls for several years uncertain of its fate. tion had an infinite bank account to payroll It appears that the stadium's destiny has Coveting the Cup such projects. It is a crime that Canada's been turned over to the regional govern- Despite its obvious stadium shortcom- national soccer body is unable to get into ment who recently assumed full control ings, the Canadian Soccer Association bed with the gifted architects who have of its operation. Built in 1967, with a ca- made the bold announcement in 1997 that been recruited from right under their noses pacity of 30,000, Frank Clair Stadium's it has officially applied to FIFA to stage to display their immense talents abroad. cantilevered roofs, doubledecker stand and the 2010 World Cup. CSA Chief Operat- Many pundits in the Canadian soccer rectangular shape shares many of the same ing Officer Kevan Pipe is a strong believer community are painfully aware of the wid- characteristics of many football grounds that Canada's army of large grid-iron Ca- ening gap between our stadium wish list across the United Kingdom. The stadium nadian Football League stadia can be and our stadium reality.