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By all accounts, it’s a happy ending for the historic Varsity Stadium as the University of Toronto awaits the grand opening of the Varsity Centre.
Recreation
By all accounts, it’s a happy ending for the historic Varsity Stadium as the University of Toronto awaits the grand opening of the Varsity Centre.
Years ago, rumours were common on the university campus that a parking lot would replace the original deteriorating facade of the Grey Cup hosting football field.
Not so, according to university officials. The school has spent a reported $61.7 million revamping the field and concrete seating of the stadium. The university came up with the first $21.7 million, and the rest was provided by capital from a fundraising campaign.
The original stadium was demolished in 2002, and the Varsity Blues football team was forced to play out of Birchmount Stadium, located at Kingston Road and Birchmount Avenue in Scarborough.
Angelo Cofini, project manager for the Varsity Centre, said the project took a grand total of nine months, starting in March 2006, and was built on the premise of openness.
“That was really the university’s key focus, to make the stadium as open to the outside (Bloor Street) as possible,” said Cofini.
“We did very well in achieving that. We kept a section of the north wall on Bloor Street, but everything else was open in an ornamental sense.”
Varsity is loosely modelled on the home of Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles, Camden Yards, where people from the street will have unobstructed views of the local scenery.
The field and the track are the main attractions. The field received a Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) two-star rating, the second in North America that has the ability to host World Cup Soccer.
“Not just soccer games can be played there, International FIFA football games,” Cofini elaborated.
The track is an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) approved track, certified for the Olympics, featuring long jump and triple jump pits.
U of T required the facility be used for all 12 months.
“It had to be a 12-month field for usage. So what we did was build a removable dome that gets installed in November and then taken down in May,” said Cofini.
Currently, the new design is a more intimate venue, seating close to 5,000 people; a lot smaller from the original design that could pack 27,000 footballers into the venue.
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