The Marikina Sports Center, also known as Marikina Sports Park and formerly known as Rodriguez Sports Center, is a

sports complex A sports complex is a group of sports facilities. For example, there are track and field stadiums, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, swimming pools, and Indoor arenas. This area is a sports complex, for fitness. Olympic Park is also a kind ...

located in

Marikina Marikina (), officially the City of Marikina ( fil, Lungsod ng Marikina), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 456,159 people. It is loca ...

, at the corner of Shoe Avenue and

Sumulong Highway The Sumulong Highway, constructed in 1960, is the highway in the Philippines that connects Marikina with Antipolo and the municipality of Cainta in the province of Rizal. It was named after Don Juan Sumulong, an Antipolo native who served as th ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the seat of government and one of three defined metropolitan areas in ...

, Philippines.

History

Prior to its current sports facilities, the area is a site of PNR Mariquina Station back in the early 1900s. The Rodriguez Sports Center was built in 1969 under the Rizal

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Isidro Rodriguez Sr. on a land owned by Marikina, then a municipality of Rizal. It is turned over to the Marikina municipal government under Mayor Bayani Fernando in 1995 and was renovated in 2001 under Mayor Maria Lourdes Carlos-Fernando. and was renamed the Marikina Sports Park. Following the designation of the facility as the home ground of Philippines Football League sides, JPV Marikina F.C. in 2017, the facility's football pitch underwent renovations to meet league standards.

Facilities

The Main Stadium, the football and athletics stadium of the Marikina Sports Center, consists of an athletics track, a wide natural grass pitch, and two grandstands; the West and East Stands. The grandstands have a total seating capacity of 15,000 people. Between the West Stand and the athletics track are basketball and tennis courts. The West Stand is situated along Shoe Avenue. Prior to hosting its first Philippines Football League match, the football pitch hosted a bicycle track. It also hosts an Olympic-size swimming pool inside an aquatics center which can accommodate 2,000 spectators, a sports building, and an indoor gymnasium with 7,000 seats. The MSC hosts facilities for football, tennis, basketball, swimming, and martial arts. Its athletics tracks is open to the public in most nights for a small fee which is used for maintenance expenses of the sports center.

Events

The area has been host to several sports competitions, including the 3rd ISF Men's World Championship 1972, the 1st Asian Athletics Championships 1973, and the 2014 ASEAN School Games which serves as the main venue. It also serves as the venue for women's football at the

2005 Southeast Asian Games The 2005 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 23rd Southeast Asian Games, was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event held in Manila, Philippines. This was the third time the Philippines hosted the games and its first time since 1991. ...

and supposed to be the main venue of 2020 Palarong Pambansa but canceled due to

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. The venue also hosted several entertainment shows such as grand concerts, finals night, and live television shows. Aside from hosting events, Marikina Sports Center also host sports clinics for the residents of

during the summer season yearly, dubbed the "Summer Sports Camp". The main stadium of the facility has hosted

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Foo ...

matches as the designated home venue of JPV Marikina F.C. since 2018. The facility has been named the home venue of the JPV Marikina since the inaugural 2017 PFL season though the club didn't play a single home game in the venue due to renovation works. The club started playing their home games at the venue on March 3, 2018 with a 2-1 win over Global Cebu.

External links

References

{{Sports venues in the Greater Manila Area 1969 establishments in the Philippines Athletics (track and field) venues in the Philippines Basketball venues in the Philippines Buildings and structures in Marikina Football venues in the Philippines Sports venues completed in 1969 Sports venues in Metro Manila Swimming venues in the Philippines Tennis venues in the Philippines