Varsity Stadium - History

History

Varsity Stadium has for its entire history been host to the University of Toronto's collegiate Canadian football team, the Varsity Blues. However it was, until the opening of Exhibition Stadium in 1959, the home of the Canadian professional football team the Toronto Argonauts. It still holds the record for the number of times any stadium has hosted the Canadian professional football championship game, the Grey Cup. Capacity of the stadium has varied with time, but peaked at about 22,000 in the 1950s although, with the use of temporary bleachers, a record crowd of 27,425 watched the Edmonton Eskimos defeat the Montreal Alouettes 50-27 in the 1956 Grey Cup final.

During the 1976 Summer Olympics, Varsity Stadium hosted football games, and was the site of the semi-final game between Brazil and Poland. Perhaps the most famous Canadian football game played in the Stadium was the 1950 Mud Bowl for the Grey Cup championship.

In soccer, the NASL's Toronto Blizzard made Varsity Stadium its home for the 1984 season. In the summer of 1986, Varsity Stadium played host to the World Lacrosse Championships, a tournament featuring the United States, Canada, England, and Australia. The US defeated Canada in the final, 18-9.

The Toronto Blizzard returned to Varsity in 1987 as part of the Canadian Soccer League but would move to the smaller Centennial Park Stadium as a cost-cutting move. They returned in 1993 as a member of the American Professional Soccer League but again were forced to move, this time to Lamport Stadium, again due to financial difficulties. Varsity Stadium continued to host the Canadian intercollegiate championship, the Vanier Cup, but that too moved to larger quarters such as Skydome (now known as Rogers Centre) as the popularity of the collegiate championship grew.

The Canadian national team hosted Iran for a friendly match at the stadium in August 1997. A near-capacity crowd of over 15,000 attended—primarily Iranians from across the continent. It was the first visit for Iran's team in North America since before the Islamic Revolution, when its Olympic soccer team played at the 1976 Summer Games which coincidentally staged matches at Varsity Stadium.

Minor league professional soccer team Toronto Lynx moved into the stadium in 1997, but was forced to move to Centennial Park Stadium due to the impending demolition of the historic facility.

The stadium was demolished over the summer of 2002 after the cost of maintaining the large facility was far more than it generated in revenue. At that time, several structural sections of the stadium were being held up by temporary repairs, and the future integrity of the structure was in question. The field and track were retained after the demolition. From 2003 through 2005, temporary seating of about 1,500 was installed to permit the use of the field for intercollegiate games. The name Varsity Field was used from 2002 to 2006 during the period when the old stadium was demolished and the new stadium was being built.

A plan to build a new 25,000 seat multi-purpose stadium on the site in 2005 was voted down by management of the University of Toronto due to concerns over its cost. The facility was then planned to be built on the grounds of York University but that too failed. At the time of its demolition, Varsity Stadium was the second largest capacity stadium in Canada with a grass field, after Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta. As FIFA rules require international matches to be played on natural surfaces, the loss of Varsity as a venue resulted in financial difficulties to Canada's national soccer team in Canada's largest market as there were no large grass field stadiums remaining in Toronto, until BMO Field was converted to grass from field turf in 2010.