Percy Perry Stadium is a multi-purpose, fully lit stadium in

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with an estimated population of 174,248 in 2024, and one of th ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. It was built for the 1991 B.C. Summer Games, as part of the district's 100th anniversary, and has featured events with crowds of over 4,000 spectators. Prior to 2006, the stadium had been named "Town Centre Stadium", but was renamed to "Percy Perry Stadium" in honour of long-standing track and field coach Percy Perry who died in 2005. Percy Perry Stadium features a 400m polyflex synthetic rubberized track surface, as well as separate areas for

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down the tr ...

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a #bar, bar. Pole jumping was already practiced by the ...

, discus,

hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

shot put The shot put is a track-and-field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical Ball (sports), ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. For men, the sport has been a part of the Olympic Games, modern Olympics since their 1896 Summer Olym ...

and

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

Teams

Percy Perry Stadium is home to the League1 BC's Coquitlam Metro-Ford Evolution FC, the

Pacific Coast Soccer League The Pacific Coast Soccer League is an amateur Association football, soccer league, currently featuring teams from British Columbia. In the past, clubs from Washington (state), Washington and Oregon have competed. The Pacific Coast Soccer Leagu ...

's Khalsa Sporting Club, the Coquitlam Cheetahs

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

club, and previously served as the home of the CMFSC Xtreme, Whitecaps FC Reserves and the defunct Tri-City Bulldogs of the

Canadian Junior Football League The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players move on to professional footbal ...

Events

In addition to the B.C. Summer Games, the facility also hosted the 1993 Canadian Track and Field Championships. The BC Highland Games are held on the last Saturday of every June at the stadium. Since 2013, Western Canada's largest Functional Fitness Competition, The CanWest Games, have been held every July. As a warmup to the

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the scor ...

, a friendly match between Scotland and Canada had been scheduled for

Swangard Stadium Swangard Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Central Park (Burnaby), Central Park in Burnaby, British Columbia. Primarily used for association football, soccer, rugby, Canadian Football, football, and sport of athletics, athletics, the stadiu ...

in neighbouring

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard In ...

on March 23. Weeks of heavy rain had turned the natural turf at Swangard into muck, and at the last moment the game was shifted to Percy Perry Stadium and its new FieldTurf surface. This was the stadium's second-ever international match (the other was a U-23 match in 1996). In spite of poor weather and just a day's notice of the venue change, a sellout crowd of 4,265 watched Canada upset Scotland 3-1. In July 2008, Percy Perry Stadium hosted the 2008 ILF Under-19 World Lacrosse Championships.

Renovations

Beginning in the spring of 2007, the city of Coquitlam undertook a $10 million expansion to the facilities in and around Percy Perry Stadium, in order to expand the number of events and tournaments that could be held at the facility throughout the year.Coquitlam Commits $10 Million to Town Centre Tournament Facility Project
/ref> The natural grass inside the track was replaced with FieldTurf, two new fully lit FieldTurf fields were constructed north of the stadium, and the older

Astroturf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for pitch (sports field), playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a pile (textile), short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Si ...

at Cunnings Field to the west has also been replaced with FieldTurf. Following the 2007-2008 renovations that saw the removal of bleacher seating, permanent seating capacity was reduced to 1,482.

References

{{reflist
Sports venues in Coquitlam Soccer venues in British Columbia Canadian football venues in British Columbia Athletics (track and field) venues in Canada Multi-purpose stadiums in British Columbia Sports venues in British Columbia Lacrosse venues in Canada