Sobeys Stadium, formerly Aviva Centre and Rexall Centre, is a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

stadium in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The 12,500-capacity Stadium Court is the largest stadium at the tennis complex. Sobeys Stadium is the venue for the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, a professional tournament on the ATP World Tour and WTA circuits, held annually. Sobeys Stadium hosts the men's tournament in odd-numbered years and the women's event in even-numbered years, with the other gender's event held in Montreal in those years. The facility also is a year-round tennis training facility. The main stadium is occasionally used for seasonal concerts. Sobeys Stadium is located on the grounds of

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

's Keele Campus in

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a po ...

, Toronto.

Description

Built in 2004, the main venue holds 12,500 spectators. There are 11 other small courts next to the stadium. All twelve courts use the

DecoTurf DecoTurf is a brand of tennis hardcourt constructed from layers of acrylic resin, rubber, silica, and other materials on top of an asphalt or concrete base. It is manufactured by the sports surfaces division of California Products Corporation ...

cushioned acrylic surface, the same surface as the US Open Grand Slam event. The stadium has 39 executive suites and two party suites. Sobeys Stadium is also the home of the Toronto offices of Tennis Canada and the Ontario Tennis Association. The grounds serve as the national and provincial tennis training centre year-round, offering 16 courts (eight of which are indoors). The stadium is also used for the staging of interuniversity competitions and practices and winter training. During the academic year, a discounted fee on indoor courts is offered to York students weekdays during daytime hours. This is the venue for York University's Convocation Ceremony every year. The facility is located on the northwestern edge of York University's, south-east of Jane Street and Steeles Avenue West, at the intersection of Shoreham Drive, and Pond Road. To the west of the facility are forested park lands along the Black Creek. The Saywell Woods and Stong Pond are located to the south and east of the facility.

History

The stadium was built to replace the National Tennis Centre, which was demolished in 2003. The facility opened on July 26, 2004 as the Rexall Centre in a

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of ...

deal with

Rexall Rexall was a chain of American drugstores, and the name of their store-branded products. The stores, having roots in the federation of United Drug Stores starting in 1903, licensed the Rexall brand name to as many as 12,000 drug stores across th ...

pharmacy chain. The first match at the stadium was an opening round match between

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major champion and an Tennis at the 1996 Summer Olympic ...

and

Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

attended by 10,500. The Sobeys Stadium is one of two venues for the Canadian Open. The tennis tournament alternates venues year-to-year, between the Sobeys Stadium, and the

IGA Stadium IGA Stadium (French: Stade IGA) (formerly Stade Du Maurier and Stade Uniprix) is the main tennis court at the Canadian Open tournament in Montreal, Quebec. Built in 1996, the centre court stadium currently holds 11,815 spectators.Stade UniprixR ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

. In 2011, the stadium became the venue for the BlackCreek Summer Music Festival, a series of concerts of jazz, opera, popular and symphonic music. In 2014, the venue was named as the host of the tennis events at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak al ...

. In 2015, the venue was renamed the Aviva Centre after reaching a new naming rights deal with British multinational insurance company

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

. In 2017, the Sobeys Stadium hosted the opening ceremonies for the 2017

North American Indigenous Games The North American Indigenous Games is a multi-sport event involving indigenous North American athletes staged intermittently since 1990. The Games are governed by the North American Indigenous Games Council, a 26-member council of representatives ...

. In 2022, the stadium was renamed Sobeys Stadium after Canadian supermarket chain

Sobeys Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of ...

was given the naming rights to the venue.

Mystery tunnel

In February 2015,

Toronto Police Service The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is a municipal police force in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the primary agency responsible for providing law enforcement and policing services in Toronto. Established in 1834, it was the first local police ser ...

announced the discovery of a "mystery" tunnel located a few hundred metres from the facility, a story which later became popular. It was later revealed to be a "

man cave A man cave or manspace, and less commonly a manland or mantuary is a male retreat or sanctuary in a home, such as a specially equipped garage, spare bedroom, media room, den, basement, or tree house. The term "man cave" is a metaphor describ ...

." The two men in their mid-20s who excavated the cave had no criminal intent and are not affiliated with York University, Rexall Centre (as it was then called), or the Pan Am Games. The ''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Postmedia Place in ...

'' identified one of the men as 22-year-old Elton McDonald. He faced an $800 fine instead of receiving a criminal record. McDonald's employer said that he borrowed and lost his tools used to dig the tunnel.

Access

The facility is located on Shoreham Road, which connects to Jane Street, just south of

Steeles Avenue Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from Appleby Line in Milton in th ...

. There are an estimated 7,000 parking spaces in the vicinity. subway station is situated a short walk from the stadium, or transit users can take the 106 Sentinel bus between the stadium and the subway station.

References

External links