Swangard Stadium is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

Central Park Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City, and the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the List of parks in New York City, sixth-largest park in the ...

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 ...

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 ...

. Primarily used for

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

, rugby,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, and

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

, the stadium also used to be home to the

Simon Fraser Clan The SFU Red Leafs or Simon Fraser Red Leafs teams (formerly the Simon Fraser Clan) represent Simon Fraser University (SFU), which is located in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The Red Leafs are members of NCAA Division II and are the only Ca ...

football team and the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

while they were in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; ) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL). It is a non-FIFA league previously ...

(CSL) and various US-based Division 2 leagues. It opened on April 26, 1969, and has a capacity of 5,288.

History

In 1969, ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'' sports journalist

Erwin Swangard Erwin Swangard (11 May 1908 – 5 May 1993) was a German-born journalist. Swangard Stadium is named after him. Biography Swangard was born in Munich, Germany in 1908. He emigrated to Canada in 1930. As a journalist, he covered the 1936 Olympic ...

raised nearly $1 million for the construction of an athletic stadium in

British Columbia Premier The premier of British Columbia is the first minister and head of government for the Canadian province of British Columbia. Until the early 1970s, the title ''prime minister of British Columbia'' was often used. The word ''premier'' is derived ...

W. A. C. Bennett William Andrew Cecil Bennett (September 6, 1900 – February 23, 1979) was a Canadian politician who served as the 25th premier of British Columbia from 1952 to 1972. With just over 20 years in office, Bennett remains the longest-serving premier ...

officially named the stadium after Swangard at its opening on April 26, 1969. Swangard was not present on the day of the opening, having been sent to start a newspaper in Nigeria, and was instead represented by his wife Doris.

Vancouver Whitecaps

The city of Vancouver launched a professional soccer team in 1986, named the

Vancouver 86ers Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Met ...

(now known as the Whitecaps). The

(CSL) club began playing in 1987 and made Swangard Stadium their home pitch. The stadium served its last season as the Whitecaps' home in 2010, as the club joined

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) in 2011. As Swangard does not meet MLS standards for capacity, the City of Burnaby initially proposed to keep the team in Burnaby by renovating the stadium and expanding its capacity to 20,000 seats. This plan, however, fell through, and the Whitecaps eventually decided they wanted to move to a new, larger soccer-specific home at the

Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium The Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium was a proposed open-air soccer facility in Vancouver, British Columbia that would have been privately funded and developed by the Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The proposed location was north of Gastown on the central wa ...

. Currently the Whitecaps are playing at

BC Place BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a Crown corporation of the province. The venue is currently ...

Stadium and president of the organization,

Bob Lenarduzzi Robert Italo Lenarduzzi, OBC (born May 1, 1955) is a former North American Soccer League player, Canadian international, and coach of the Canadian national and Olympic soccer teams. He is currently club liaison for Vancouver Whitecaps FC. H ...

has stated the club intends to stay at BC Place for the time being and plans for a new stadium are all on hold.

International events

The stadium's capacity was temporarily increased to 10,000 for 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 ...

. In the past, it has hosted home games for the Canadian men's and women's soccer teams in Olympic and World Cup qualifying. In some cases, crowds in excess of 10,000 have witnessed games, with many of the fans standing. Swangard has also been the host stadium of the

2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship The 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship was held from 17 August to 1 September. It was the first sanctioned youth tournament for women put together by FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada. FIFA granted the tournament to Canada in March ...

Other events

In 2013, the

Vancouver Riptide The Vancouver Riptide was a semi-professional ultimate team that competed in American Ultimate Disc League which started playing in the 2013 season. They played their home games at Swangard Stadium, in Burnaby, British Columbia. The team ended pla ...

, a professional

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums *Ultimate (Bryan Adams album), ''Ultimate'' (Bryan Adams album) *Ultimate (Jolin Tsai album), ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) *Ultimate (Pet Shop Boys album), ''Ult ...

team competing in the

American Ultimate Disc League The Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) is a professional ultimate league in North America. The league comprises 24 teams divided between the South, Central, East, and West divisions. Each UFA season has 12 regular season games which run from Apr ...

, became a tenant of Swangard Stadium but they ended play at end of 2017 season and are being moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

for the 2020 season. In June 2014,

announced that Swangard Stadium would be their football team's home field for the 2014 season. The Clan returned to their campus again starting with the 2016 season. It is also used very frequently for track and field meets in the Lower Mainland. In March 2015, the first Quidditch Canada National Championship took place at the stadium. The

TSS FC Rovers TSS FC Rovers, commonly referred to as TSS Rovers, are a Canadian soccer team based in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada that play in League1 British Columbia, the third tier of soccer in Canada. Established for the 2017 PDL season by general m ...

played their home soccer games there starting in the 2017 season when they played in the

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States, forming part of the United States soccer league system. The league will featu ...

Northwest Division. The TSS FC Rovers Women's team of the

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States. History The WPSL is the longest-running active women's soccer league as it enters its 25th season in 2023. The WPSL is also the largest women ...

also use the stadium as their home. They started play in the 2018 season. Starting in the 2022 season, both men's and women's teams will play in the new

League1 British Columbia League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a Semi-professional sports, semi-professional men's and women's association football, soccer league in British Columbia, Canada. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the British Colu ...

(L1BC) soccer league. The

Whitecaps FC 2 Whitecaps FC 2 is a professional association football, soccer team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that serves as the reserve team of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer. History Prior to the MLS Next Pro iteratio ...

, the

MLS Next Pro MLS Next Pro (MLSNP) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada that is affiliated with Major League Soccer (MLS). It launched in 2022 with 21 teams and now comprises 27 reserve sides of MLS clu ...

reserve team of

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The MLS ite ...

, moved to the stadium in March 2022.

Vancouver Rise FC Vancouver Rise FC is a professional women's soccer club based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that competes in the Northern Super League, in the top flight of the Canadian soccer league system#Women, Canadian soccer league system. Majority-own ...

of the

Northern Super League The Northern Super League (NSL; ) is a Canada soccer league system#Women, top-division professional women's association football, women's soccer league in Canada. The league is owned and operated by Project 8 Sports, Inc., and includes six team ...

play at Swangard, having played their inaugural match at BC Place.

References

External links

City of Burnaby's information on the stadium

Information from Vancouver Whitecaps official website
{{Simon Fraser Red Leafs football navbox Athletics (track and field) venues in Canada Sports venues in Burnaby Canadian football venues in British Columbia Multi-purpose stadiums in British Columbia Soccer venues in British Columbia Tourist attractions in Burnaby Simon Fraser Red Leafs football Ultimate (sport) venues College football venues in Canada Sports venues completed in 1969 1969 establishments in British Columbia MLS Next Pro stadiums