Ottawa Soccer Stadium

Last updated
Aerial view of proposed stadium Ottawa Soccer Stadium.jpg
Aerial view of proposed stadium

The Ottawa Soccer Stadium was a proposed open-air soccer facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It was part of a proposal to bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Ottawa by the Ottawa Senators organization. [1]

Contents

Proposal

The stadium, projected to cost $100 million, was designed to hold 20,000 for sports. One end terrace on the north end was convertible to a concert stage for outdoor concerts, and with field seating, the stadium could hold 30,000 for concerts. The field would have had a natural grass surface built to MLS and FIFA specifications. Outside of the stadium there would have been five open-air soccer fields, of which one would be to MLS and FIFA standards and the others to community standards. The purpose of the external fields was for community use and the MLS team's practices. The architectural design was by Rossetti Architects, architects of Scotiabank Place. [2]

The stadium was to be located on City of Ottawa land to the south-east of nearby Scotiabank Place, in the west end of Ottawa, on Palladium Drive, west of Terry Fox Drive. The soccer stadium would share parking with Scotiabank Place. The land is currently frozen for development by the Ontario provincial government as it is on a floodplain of the Carp River. [3] The land is currently used as a snow dump. [4]

The proponents were Senators Sports & Entertainment, owners of the NHL's Ottawa Senators. The stadium plans were announced on September 16, 2008 by Scotiabank Place CEO Cyril Leeder and SSE owner and chairman Eugene Melnyk. Senators Sports & Entertainment is seeking funding from all levels of government for construction and operation of the stadium, and will operate a new MLS franchise there separately under private ownership. [4] To support the initiative, SSE launched the "Bring the World to Ottawa" campaign seeking broad community support. [1]

MLS expansion

While the MLS commissioner gave positive comments about the Ottawa proposal, MLS eventually granted expansion franchises to other cities, including Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Lansdowne Live

At the same time that the Ottawa Soccer Stadium proposal was made, the City of Ottawa was presented with the "Lansdowne Live" proposal to revitalize Lansdowne Park and Frank Clair Stadium. A public debate went on both proposals, which would both require some investment on the part of the City. In February 2009, a public opinion poll conducted by The Ottawa Citizen, found that 79% of respondents preferred the Lansdowne Park Football facility option over the Kanata located soccer facility.

In April 2009, matters came to a head. The staff of the City of Ottawa presented a report to Council on the merits of the Soccer Stadium and Lansdowne proposals. The City held public hearings based on the report, which questioned the necessity of the spending, but gave a slight edge to the Lansdowne proposal. Councillors attempted to find out whether the SSE group would support sharing their stadium with a planned CFL franchise, but the SSE group rejected the possibility. Lansdowne Live proponents made it clear that an MLS team, or another pro soccer team, such as one in the North American Soccer League (NASL) could play at Frank Clair Stadium.

On April 22, 2009, the City of Ottawa Council chose the Lansdowne Live proposal over the SSE proposal as its choice for an outdoor stadium. Since that time, the Lansdowne Live proponents and the City of Ottawa have been negotiating over a final plan. Melnyk released a press release expressing his disappointment and directed SSE staff to stop work on their proposal.

Related Research Articles

Ottawa Senators National Hockey League team in Ottawa, Ontario

The Ottawa Senators, officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and play their home games at the 18,652-seat Canadian Tire Centre, which opened in 1996 as the Palladium.

Ottawa Renegades

The Ottawa Renegades were a Canadian Football League franchise based in Ottawa, Ontario founded in 2002, six years after the storied Ottawa Rough Riders folded. After four seasons, the Renegades franchise was suspended indefinitely by the league due to financial instability, and its players were absorbed by the other teams in a dispersal draft.

Kanata, Ontario Community in Ontario, Canada

Kanata is a major suburb of the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario. It is about 22 km (14 mi) west of the city's downtown core. As of 2016, Kanata had a population of 90,806 and is growing. Before it was amalgamated into Ottawa in 2001, it was one of the fastest-growing cities in Canada and the fastest-growing community in Eastern Ontario. Located just to the west of the National Capital Commission Greenbelt, it is one of the largest of several communities that surround central Ottawa.

Vancouver Whitecaps (1986–2010) Football club

The Vancouver Whitecaps were a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Founded in 1986, the team played its final year in the second tier of the United States soccer pyramid in the NASL Conference of the USSF Division 2 Professional League coached by Teitur Thordarson. The team played its home games at Swangard Stadium in nearby Burnaby, British Columbia. The team's colours were blue and white.

TD Place Stadium Stadium in Ottawa, Canada

TD Place Stadium is an outdoor stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at Lansdowne Park, on the southern edge of The Glebe neighbourhood, where Bank Street crosses the Rideau Canal. It is the home of the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and Atlético Ottawa of the Canadian Premier League (CPL).

Lansdowne Park

Lansdowne Park is a 40-acre (16 ha) urban park, historic sports, exhibition and entertainment facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by the City of Ottawa. It is located on Bank Street adjacent to the Rideau Canal in The Glebe neighbourhood of central Ottawa. Lansdowne Park contains the TD Place Stadium and Arena complex, the Aberdeen Pavilion, and the Horticulture Building.

Downsview Park

Downsview Park is a large urban park located in the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park's name is officially bilingual due to it being federally owned and managed, and was first home to de Havilland Canada, an aircraft manufacturer, and later was a Canadian Forces base. The park still contains Downsview Airport. In 1999, the Government of Canada declared it as "Canada's first urban national park." However, unlike the Rouge National Urban Park in eastern Toronto, Downsview Park is managed by the federal Crown corporation Canada Lands Company rather than Parks Canada. As of 2017, little development has taken place, and the park remains mostly untouched.

Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park

Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Park, also known as RCGT Park is a baseball stadium in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with a seating capacity of 10,332 for baseball. The stadium is located in the city's east end near the interchange of Queensway and Vanier Parkway. It has been used for minor-league professional baseball and music concerts since 1993.

Eugene Melnyk Canadian sports businessman

Eugene Melnyk is a Canadian businessman, philanthropist and current owner, governor and chairman of the National Hockey League (NHL)'s Ottawa Senators and AHL’s Belleville Senators. He is the founder, former chairman, and CEO of Biovail Corporation, once Canada's largest publicly traded pharmaceutical company with more than C$1-billion in annual revenue. He sold almost all of his holdings of the company by 2010. Canadian Business magazine ranked Melnyk 79th with a net worth of $1.21 billion on its 2017 list of Canada's 100 wealthiest people. He is also one of the richest residents of Barbados.

Ottawa Auditorium

The Ottawa Auditorium was a 7,500-seat arena located in Ottawa, Ontario. It was located in Downtown Ottawa at the corner of O'Connor and Argyle Streets, today the site of the Taggart Family YMCA. Built primarily for ice hockey, the arena was also used for sports events, assemblies and musical concerts.

BMO Field Stadium in Toronto

BMO Field is an outdoor stadium located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which is home to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Constructed on the site of the former Exhibition Stadium and first opened in 2007, it is owned by the City of Toronto, and managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment. The stadium's naming rights are held by the Bank of Montreal, which is commonly branded as "BMO".

Starfire Sports

Starfire Sports is a multi-purpose stadium and sporting facility in Tukwila, Washington, United States. It is located on the banks of the Green River, just south of Seattle. The stadium is operated by the non-profit corporation Starfire Sports and is home to several soccer and rugby teams.

Ottawa Redblacks Canadian professional football team

The Ottawa Redblacks are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

Expansion of Major League Soccer

Expansion of Major League Soccer has occurred several times since the league began play in 1996. Major League Soccer was established as the top level of professional soccer in the United States in 1993 with 10 teams and began play in 1996. It has expanded several times since 1998 into new markets across the United States and, since 2006, Canada.

Jeff Hunt is a Canadian businessman who is an owner of the Ottawa Redblacks football club of the Canadian Football League and the Ottawa 67's hockey club of the Ontario Hockey League. He started a carpet-cleaning firm called Canway. His firm was in the Profit Magazine 100 seven times in the 1990s.

USL Championship Professional soccer league in the United States

The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation as a Division II league since 2017, placing it under Major League Soccer in the hierarchy. The USL is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

Lansdowne Park redevelopment History of public project

The Lansdowne Park redevelopment is a public-private partnership redevelopment of the Lansdowne Park fairgrounds in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In September 2007, cracks were discovered in Frank Clair Stadium, and a portion of the south-side stands was demolished due to safety concerns. The City of Ottawa subsequently initiated an international design competition to redevelop Lansdowne Park. However, it suspended the competition when a group of Ottawa businessmen known as the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), who had been awarded a Canadian Football League franchise on the condition of securing a home venue in Ottawa, proposed a public-private partnership with the City to rebuild the stadium and redevelop the grounds with residential and commercial uses to finance the reconstruction and annual upkeep of the site. Ottawa City Council decided to enter into a partnership with the OSEG group and cancelled its competitive process.

Canadian Tire Centre Multipurpose arena in Ottawa

Canadian Tire Centre is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located in the western suburb of Kanata. It opened in January 1996 as the Palladium and was also known as Corel Centre from 1996 to 2006 and Scotiabank Place from 2006 to 2013.

Wesley Clover Parks Recreational park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

The Wesley Clover Parks are recreational parklands in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located at the intersection of the 416 and 417 highways in the former city of Nepean. Wesley Clover Parks was established in 2014 when the Wesley Clover Foundation took over operations of the former Nepean National Equestrian Park, and the adjacent Ottawa Municipal Campground.

NHL 100 Classic

The NHL 100 Classic was a regular season outdoor National Hockey League (NHL) game held on December 16, 2017. The game featured the Ottawa Senators playing the Montreal Canadiens at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa. It was the first of the three scheduled outdoor regular season games in the 2017–18 NHL season.

References

  1. 1 2 "Eugene Melnyk and Senators Sports & Entertainment Announce Plans to Bring Major League Soccer and World-Class Outdoor Stadium to Ottawa" (PDF). September 16, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  2. "Melnyk serious about MLS". CBC Sports. September 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  3. "Proposed Ottawa soccer stadium faces environmental hurdle". CBC Sports. September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  4. 1 2 "Soccer stadium in Kanata could cause chaos: councillor". CBC News. September 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-18.