Royal Athletic Park

Last updated

Royal Athletic Park
2023 08 09 HarbourCats Baseball 26.jpg
Royal Athletic Park
Canada British Columbia relief location map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Royal Athletic Park
Location within British Columbia
Canada relief map 2.svg
Red pog.svg
Royal Athletic Park
Royal Athletic Park (Canada)
Full nameRoyal Athletic Park [1]
Address1014 Caledonia Avenue
Victoria, British Columbia V8T 1G1
Owner City of Victoria
Capacity
  • Soccer: 3,800 (Permanent) [2]
  • 10,000 (Temporary, approx.)
  • Baseball: 2,867; expandable to 5,200
Field size
Surface Natural grass
Construction
Broke groundEarly 1900s
OpenedEarly 1900s
Renovated1967
Tenants

[3] Royal Athletic Park is a stadium in Victoria, British Columbia, and is used for baseball, soccer, softball and football, but also hosts special events, such as the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival and previously the Rifflandia Music Festival. It is home to the Victoria HarbourCats Baseball Club of the West Coast League. It is located 1 km from the city centre.

Contents

History

In 1907 the burgeoning summer athletic teams did not have enough facilities for senior teams with paid attendances. Baseball in particular was challenged to find available dates at Oak Bay Grounds to operate due to a preference for lacrosse. [4]

Subsequently, the supporters of Canada's national summer sport [5] lacrosse, at a meeting chaired by BC Premier Richard McBride formed the Royal Victoria Athletic Association on March 26, 1908, [6] and a senior lacrosse team was founded to enable the best intermediate (Uuder 21) players to play in the British Columbia Amateur Lacrosse Association (BCALA) League. The Oak Bay Grounds were put under the management of the senior baseball team [7] and then later the Rugby Football Club. [8] The lacrosse group, later shortened to the Royal Athletic Association, issued shares at $25 each with deposits of 10% and biannual calls of 10% to raise $25,000 for improvements to the grounds. The lease was signed for 5 acres at the corner of Cook and Pembroke Streets for the grounds. [6] [9]

Contracts had been let by May 12, 1908, and $4,000 from the share offering and gate receipts was spent by June on the construction of a perimeter fence, 2 ticket offices, an inner fence, grandstand, and carriage parking area. The inner fence enclosed the 500-by-285-foot (152 m × 87 m) playing field. The grandstand on the south side of the playing field was 150 by 25 feet (45.7 m × 7.6 m) with 10 rows of seats for more than 1000 spectators. Beneath the grandstand were dressing rooms and concessions. [10] The original layout of the field and grandstand was essentially the same as today's; however, based on maps used in advertising [11] the original field also included half of the city block to the west between Quadra and Vancouver Streets. The carriage parking was on the east side off Cook Street.

The Victoria West Athletic Association, James Bay Athletic Association, and Central Lacrosse Club as well as others with intermediate lacrosse teams also played at the Royal Athletic Association grounds. Field lacrosse was to be the primary sport at the grounds. The facility was a multi-sport community asset from the beginning as cricket, football (Canadian, rugby, and association codes), field sports, boxing, other sports, the circus, fireworks, theatre, and other events were allowed to rent the facility. [6] [9] Due to field shortages, the Victoria and District Football Association (soccer) started renting RAP in September 1908 as the Royal Athletic Association's main winter tenant for district and inter-community league games. [12] [13] The first soccer game played was at 3 pm September 12, 1908, between Victoria West and Fifth Regiment, Victoria West won 10-0. [14] The first recorded baseball game was an exhibition on June 27, 1908, between the Chicago Ladies' Baseball Club and Rendell's Team on June 27, 1908. [15] In the mid-1920s RAP became home to amateur baseball with the construction of the Crystal Gardens on the main Victoria baseball grounds. [16]

The first mention of Royal Athletic Park in the British Colonist (which later merged with the Victoria Times to become the Victoria Times Colonist ) is on May 21, 1908. It is an advertisement for an inter-provincial championship lacrosse game against a Vancouver side on May 25, 1908 at the new Royal Athletic Park. [17] Many advertisements right from the start emphasize its location less than 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from downtown, still a major feature of the facility's popularity among spectators.

The land was purchased by the city in 1925 from the Royal Athletic Association and the park underwent a major restoration in 1967 after a large fire in 1964 burned the original grandstands. [18] The park has been the home to many different sports teams, notably including the Victoria Rebels (CJFL 1985-2008), Victoria Athletics (Western International League 1946-1954) [19] and Victoria United (Pacific Coast Soccer League 1995-2012).

From July 1 to 11, 2007, Royal Athletic Park was one of six host venues for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. [20] The stadium hosted Group F, and also featured Japan vs Czech Republic in a Round of Sixteen game.

Notable games

Source: [2]

Tenants

The park is home to a number of local community groups, clubs, and associations. The annual Highland games for example have been a steady user of the facility. The park also plays host to the Great Canadian Beer Festival annually each summer. During the winter and spring Vancouver Island Soccer League games including Jackson Cup playoffs are hosted by RAP. RAP has accommodated everything from amateur as well as professional soccer, junior football, softball to professional baseball games, international competitions, festivals and concerts, among others.

The amateur baseball Victoria HarbourCats of the West Coast League signed a 3-year contract as the anchor tenant starting in 2013. The Harbourcats season runs from June to August. [22] Numerous baseball teams have used RAP since the Victoria Athletics, baseball has been a periodic user of the facility since the Athletics. The Athletics were a New York Yankees b-team in the late 1940s. [19] The last baseball team, the Victoria Seals of the Golden Baseball league, folded after only two seasons, and did not return for the 2011 baseball season. [23]

The park lost their main Canadian football tenant, the Victoria Rebels, in 2008 to the new Bear Mountain Stadium at City Centre Park located in nearby Langford, BC. Field lacrosse is typically played at the Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre and Centennial Stadium. Due to baseball lease arrangements, in 2012 the Victoria United Football Club moved their home grounds to Braefoot Park for 2012. [24] Infrastructure improvements including a more stable moveable outfield fence for baseball are planned to facilitate multiple user groups. [22] RAP was also home to defunct soccer teams, Victoria Riptide and Victoria Vistas of the CSL.

Layout and design

The Park oriented for a soccer match in 2007 Royal Athletic Park Victoria.jpg
The Park oriented for a soccer match in 2007

The park is a large rectangular plot oriented east-west, and the seating has been designed to accommodate field sports such as football (Canadian, Aussie, Rugby, Association codes), field lacrosse, baseball, and other field sports. The main baseball diamond (there is a secondary one in the NE corner) is located in the southwest corner.

The permanent park seating is set up on the south and west sides of the property in a L-shape. At south sideline midfield, there is the main covered grandstand, about the width of three bleachers, and quite a bit deeper than the bleachers. East of the main grandstand there is a "full length" bleacher and a "half length" bleacher. Between the small "baseball" grandstand at the southwest field corner and the main grandstand there are 4 bleachers. Along the west end of the field extending northward from the smaller "baseball" grandstand is a "full length" bleacher and a "half length" bleacher. [25] The facility is set up to be accessible to as many different sporting entities as possible with the L-shaped seating. The design allows for numerous seating capacities with the addition of temporary seating.

The stadium is surrounded by high-intensity lights on all sides allowing night games. There is surface parking just west of the stadium shared with the hockey arena, Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. Residential and commercial development including single family detached houses and multi-family developments are on all sides of the city block. [26]

The stadium was recently[ when? ] upgraded with a new $400,000 video scoreboard intended to replace the decades-old minimalist baseball scoreboard. The scoreboard is situated on the northwest side of the park, or just beyond left field using the main baseball diamond configuration. Aside from a large full-colour video screen, the scoreboard also features prominently the name 'Royal Athletic Park' in large, arcing letters overhead.[ citation needed ]

Capacity

The park has a permanent seating capacity of 5,700 including temporary bleachers. There are 3,800 permanent seats in the covered mid-field grandstand. [2] Depending on its configuration and the event, it can hold a larger capacity, often listed as a max capacity of 9,247. Temporary bleachers were added to expand seating for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup games. (In the above picture, one can see some examples of added temporary seating behind the shorter bleachers on the right half of the picture). An announced total of 14,500 was later altered to 10,500, as temporary grandstands were not erected behind the goal on the east side. [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polo Grounds</span> Sports venue in Manhattan, demolished 1963

The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 to 1963. The original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876 and demolished in 1889, was built for the sport of polo. Bound on the south and north by 110th and 112th streets and on the east and west by Fifth and Sixth (Lenox) avenues, just north of Central Park, it was converted to a baseball stadium when leased by the New York Metropolitans in 1880.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CEFCU Stadium</span> Stadium at San Jose State University

CEFCU ('sef-kyü) Stadium, formerly known as Spartan Stadium, is an outdoor athletic stadium on the west coast of the United States, located in the Spartan Keyes neighborhood of central San Jose, California. Owned by San José State University, the venue is the longtime home of Spartan football; it also hosts the university's commencement ceremony on Memorial Day weekend, and occasional high school football games. Known as Spartan Stadium for over eight decades, it was renamed in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South End Grounds</span> Baseball parks in Boston, Massachusetts

South End Grounds refers to any one of three baseball parks on one site in Boston, Massachusetts. They were home to the franchise that eventually became known as the Boston Braves, first in the National Association and later in the National League, from 1871 through part of the 1914 season. That stretch of 43 1/2 seasons is still the longest tenure of the Braves club at any of their various ballparks and cities since 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanlan's Point Stadium</span> Former baseball stadium in Toronto, Canada

Hanlan's Point Stadium was a baseball stadium and lacrosse grounds in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was erected in 1897 at Hanlan's Point on the Toronto Islands for the minor league Toronto Maple Leafs baseball club. It was destroyed by fire twice, in 1903, and again in 1909. Adjacent to the Hanlan's Point Amusement Park, the site was in use for various sports until the late 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Side Park</span> Two former baseball parks in Chicago, Illinois

West Side Park was the name used for two different ballparks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois. They were both home fields of the team now known as the Chicago Cubs of the National League. Both ballparks hosted baseball championships. The latter of the two parks, where the franchise played for nearly a quarter century, was the home of the first two world champion Cubs teams, the team that posted the best winning percentage in Major League Baseball history and won the most games in National League history (1906), the only cross-town World Series in Chicago (1906), and the immortalized Tinker to Evers to Chance double-play combo. Both ballparks were primarily constructed of wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulphur Dell</span> Former baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Sulphur Dell, formerly known as Sulphur Spring Park and Athletic Park, was a baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It was located just north of the Tennessee State Capitol building in the block bounded by modern-day Jackson Street, Fourth Avenue North, Harrison Street, and Fifth Avenue North. The ballpark was home to the city's minor league baseball teams from 1885 to 1963. The facility was demolished in 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dix Stadium</span> American football stadium in Kent, Ohio

Dix Stadium is a stadium in Kent, Ohio, United States. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Kent State Golden Flashes football team. In addition, since 2016 the stadium is also home to the Kent State women's soccer team and since 2019 to the women's lacrosse team. Previously, it was home to the Kent State field hockey team from 1997 to 2004 and served as a secondary home for the KSU men's soccer team in the 1970s. It opened on September 13, 1969 and was named in 1973 after Robert C. Dix, former publisher of the Record-Courier and a member of Kent State's Board of Trustees for more than three decades. It was built as an expansion and relocation of Memorial Stadium, with all of Memorial Stadium's main seating areas used at the current stadium in a new configuration. During soccer games, the playing surface is known as Zoeller Field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium</span> Football stadium of Brown University

Richard Gouse Field at Brown Stadium is a football stadium located in Providence, Rhode Island. It is the home of Brown University's football and outdoor track teams. The athletic teams at Brown University, known as the Bears, compete in the Ivy League. Brown was the last Ivy stadium with a grass playing field until the installation of a FieldTurf surface in 2021. The field is named for Richard I. Gouse '68, the primary donor of the turf field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grainger Stadium</span>

Grainger Stadium is a sports venue located in Kinston, North Carolina. It is the home ballpark for the Down East Bird Dawgs, which joined the Frontier League for the 2025 season, as well as the annual Freedom Classic between Navy and Air Force. Grainger was previously home to the Down East Wood Ducks, the Kinston Indians and all the professional Kinston baseball teams since 1949.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V.A. Memorial Stadium</span>

V.A. Memorial Stadium is a baseball stadium located on the grounds of the Veterans Administration Hospital campus off of OH-104, three miles north of Chillicothe, Ohio. It is officially designated as building 244. The stadium is the home field of the Chillicothe Paints, a collegiate wooden bat baseball team in the Prospect League. Though primarily used for baseball, V.A. Memorial Stadium has been used for softball, soccer, and other non-sporting events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breese Stevens Field</span> Athletic field in Madison, Wisconsin

Breese Stevens Municipal Athletic Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Madison, Wisconsin. Located eight blocks northeast of the Wisconsin State Capitol on the Madison Isthmus, it is the oldest extant masonry grandstand in Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosedale Field</span>

Rosedale Field was a grandstand stadium located in Rosedale Park at 20 Scholfield Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffey Field</span> Stadium in New York, United States

Jack Coffey Field is a 7,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in the Northeastern United States, located on the campus of Fordham University in The Bronx, New York. It is the Fordham Rams' home for football, men's and women's soccer, and baseball. The facility opened for baseball 94 years ago in 1930, and was named in 1954 for baseball coach and longtime athletic director Jack Coffey, four years before his 1958 retirement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaughn Street Park</span> Former baseball stadium in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

Vaughn Street Park was a baseball park in the northwest United States, located in Portland, Oregon. Opened in 1901, it lasted for over a half century and was torn down in 1956. Its primary tenant was the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League (PCL). During a stretch when the club was tagged as the "Lucky Beavers", the ballpark was also sometimes called Lucky Beavers Stadium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birchmount Stadium</span>

Birchmount Stadium is a multi-purpose outdoor sports facility in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located near Kingston Road and Birchmount Road in the former city of Scarborough. Its original capacity was 6,345, and it was built for what was then the Borough of Scarborough.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Beaver Field</span> Stadium in Pennsylvania, US, 1909–1959

New Beaver Field was a stadium in University Park, Pennsylvania. It served as the third home of the Penn State University Nittany Lions football team, hosting the team until they moved in 1960 to Beaver Stadium. It was built to replace the original Beaver Field (1892–1908), retroactively called Old Beaver Field, which had a capacity of 500 and stood between present-day Osmond and Frear Laboratories. Prior to this, the team played on Old Main Lawn, a grassy area outside the main classroom building of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Highlanders FC</span> Football club

Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The club was founded in 2008.

Sweeney Field is a multi-use sports facility on the Saint Joseph's University campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which opened in 1929 and was originally planned to be the centerpiece to a 70,000 seat football stadium in the natural bowl of the campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starlight Stadium</span> Multi-purpose stadium in Langford, British Columbia

Starlight Stadium is a 6,000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Langford, British Columbia, Canada. It is used by Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League for soccer, by Rugby Canada for various events, and by the Westshore Rebels junior Canadian football team. In an international context, its most notable usage is as the site of the Canada Women's Sevens, an event in the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series for national rugby sevens teams. The stadium also hosted the BC Bears of the Canadian Rugby Championship from 2009 to 2013, and the Victoria Highlanders soccer team from 2009 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plant Field</span> Athletic venue in Tampa, Florida

Plant Field was the first major athletic venue in Tampa, Florida. It was built in 1899 by Henry B. Plant on the grounds of his Tampa Bay Hotel to host various events and activities for guests, and it consisted of a large field ringed by an oval race track flanked by a large covered grandstand on the western straightaway with portable seating used to accommodate a wide variety of uses. Over the ensuing decades, Plant Field drew Tampa residents and visitors to see horse racing, car racing, baseball games, entertainers, and politicians. The stadium also hosted the first professional football and first spring training games in Tampa and was the long-time home of the Florida State Fair.

References

  1. ↑ "Royal Athletic Park". victoria.ca. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Our Club". Victoria United FC. Archived from the original on May 10, 2011. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Royal Athletic Park". City of Victoria. Retrieved September 26, 2024.
  4. ↑ British Colonist . April 14, 1907.
  5. ↑ "Consolidated federal laws of canada, National Sports of Canada Act". April 8, 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 British Colonist. March 27, 1908.
  7. ↑ British Colonist. April 9, 1908.
  8. ↑ British Colonist. October 24, 1908.
  9. 1 2 British Colonist. March 28, 1908.
  10. ↑ British Colonist. May 12, 1908.
  11. ↑ British Colonist. June 6, 1908.
  12. ↑ British Colonist. September 11, 1908.
  13. ↑ British Colonist. October 24, 1908.
  14. ↑ British Colonist. September 13, 1908. p. 17.
  15. ↑ British Colonist. June 23, 1908. p. 9.
  16. ↑ "The Beginning of Baseball - Victoria Baseball History 1849 - 1921". www.vdba.ca. July 27, 2022.
  17. ↑ British Colonist. May 21, 1908. http://britishcolonist.ca/
  18. ↑ "Royal Athletic Park | Victoria". Archived from the original on April 3, 2013. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  19. 1 2 "Victoria Baseball History 1946 - 2008". www.vdba.ca. July 27, 2022.
  20. ↑ "FIFA - Royal Athletic Park". FIFA. Archived from the original on June 6, 2007. Retrieved July 2, 2008.
  21. ↑ "Victoria United FC :: Our Club :: 1950 FA Tour". Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2013.
  22. 1 2 Stewart, Christian J. (June 13, 2012). "Play Ball! West Coast League Coming to Royal Athletic Park in 2013".
  23. ↑ "Golden Baseball League Expands to Victoria, Canada". GBL. Archived from the original on March 14, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2008.
  24. ↑ "Victoria United FC :: News". April 11, 2013. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013.
  25. ↑ "Layout of Royal Athletic Park Seating" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 17, 2007.
  26. ↑ "Investimento Futebol: A dimensão do mercado!" (in Portuguese). www.futeboltrading.com. Retrieved September 5, 2015.
  27. ↑ Permanent Seating of the Royal Athletic Park, City of Victoria "City of Victoria - Royal Athletic Park". Archived from the original on December 2, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2010.

48°25′52″N123°21′15″W / 48.4312°N 123.3541°W / 48.4312; -123.3541

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.