The next time you head to Canada, you’ll no doubt have a lengthy list of things you want to see and do. And a trip to these mammoth sporting arenas in the Great White North also comes highly recommended.
Elite level sport is a permanent fixture in Canada. From some of the best ice hockey teams on the planet to two-time World Series champions Toronto Blue Jays, Canadian teams have also enjoyed success on the soccer pitch and the football field.
The next time you head to Canada, you’ll no doubt have a lengthy list of things you want to see and do. And a trip to these mammoth sporting arenas in the Great White North also comes highly recommended.
The Olympic Stadium
If you spend some time in Montreal, you’ll do well to miss the enormous dome-style roof of the Olympic Stadium dominating the skyline.
This 66,000 capacity venue was built specifically to host the 1976 Summer Olympics, and it sits next to the famous Montreal Tower – the largest inclined tower in the world standing at an almost bizarre 45-degree angle.
It has acted as the home of the Montreal Expos and the Montreal Alouettes in past years, but now no sports team has taken up permanent residence at the Olympic Stadium. That said, CF Montreal do occasionally play home MLS matches there the demand for tickets is high, although given their betting odds of +5000 to win the MLS Cup, it’s unfortunate that the local crowd is unlikely to be able to cheer too much success.
The Commonwealth Stadium
This 56,000 seater arena in Edmonton is the largest open-air venue in all of Canada and was constructed to host the Commonwealth Games in 1978.
The multi-purpose stadium has also hosted editions of the women’s soccer World Cup, the athletics World Championships, the Churchill Cup, and the women’s Rugby World Cup, and is the permanent home of the CFL’s Edmonton Elks (it has also welcomed five Grey Cup games).
See here: https://twitter.com/FootyAccums/status/1460712919826681858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Commonwealth Stadium could be a location where history is made in 2026. Canada and the United States have won the right to host the soccer World Cup, and the Canadian national team is well on course to qualify for the tournament in 2022 – their first World Cup appearance in 36 years.
Could soccer fans in Canada be supporting their national team in the sport’s biggest competition in 2026?
Rogers Centre
Sports fans traveling to Toronto have plenty of options when it comes to watching live sport. There’s BMO Field, which is home to the Toronto Argonauts football team and Toronto FC soccer outfit, and TD Place Stadium – the base for the Ottawa Redblacks and Atlético Ottawa.
But it’s the Rogers Centre that takes pride of place, with the near-54,000 seat arena home to the Blue Jays and, formerly, to the Toronto Raptors.
It was also one of the first stadiums in the world to feature a fully retractable roof, which is an innovation used around the globe to this day.
BC Place
See here: https://twitter.com/bcplace/status/1493356547891609601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Fans of both types of football and rugby sevens will treasure a trip to BC Place in Vancouver.
Home to the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions and the MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps, BC Place also welcomed both the Winter Olympics and the Paralympics in 2010.
Another stadium to innovate on a major scale, BC Place has an air-supported roof – at the time of construction in 1983, it was the largest on the planet.
So if you are a sports fan heading to Canada in the near future, these are just some of the places you can pay homage to your favorites.
Photo by Pierre Jarry on Unsplash
