City of Burnaby to consider major upgrades for Swangard Stadium

Swangard Stadium (City of Burnaby)

Some major upgrades could be considered for Swangard Stadium at Central Park in Burnaby.

The municipal government has kicked off the process of creating a feasibility study for making “potential opportunities and options” for improving the stadium over the next 20 years.

According to City staff, this feasibility study, conducted by consultancy firm Cornerstone Planning Group, is triggered by recent interest from a number of unnamed community organizations, both private and non-profit, in forming some kind of partnership arrangement or “anchor tenancy.”

It should be noted that since 2022, the Whitecaps FC 2 of the MLS Next Pro league, the reserve team of the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps, has used Swangard Stadium as their home pitch.

A previous iteration of Whitecaps FC 2 under the USL played at UBC Thunderbird Stadium, up until 2017.

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The feasibility study process starts with a consultation with the stadium’s user groups and stakeholders between mid-January and mid-February, which would lead to the creation of possible stadium renewal options in March, the draft strategy in April, and Burnaby City Council’s approval in May.

“Overall, the study is intended to provide a big picture road map for potential short-, medium- and long-term projects that guide reinvestment in the facility,” reads a report by City staff.

“The next step in the review is to conduct community engagement to further understand the usage of Swangard and the role it plays as an important community asset.”

Swangard Stadium (City of Burnaby)

Swangard Stadium was built in 1969 in time for the 1973 Canada Summer Games, and it features a fixed capacity of 5,288 seats under a covered grandstand, athletics track-and-field facilities that enclose the grass playing field, and amenities such as washrooms and concessions.

The City-owned venue regularly hosts large community sporting and cultural events, including elementary- and high-school events and annual Canada Day celebrations. It was also previously used by the varsity sports teams of Simon Fraser University, which completed its own 1,800-seat stadium at the Burnaby Mountain campus in 2021 at a cost of $10 million.

SFU Stadium at Terry Fox Field. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

For more than two decades, Swangard Stadium had a major anchor tenant. It was the home pitch for the Whitecaps, until their 2011 entry into the MLS and permanent relocation to BC Place Stadium starting in 2012. For their inaugural MLS season in 2011, the Whitecaps played at the temporary 27,500-seat Empire Field stadium at Hastings Park, which was built for $14 million as the temporary home for both the CFL BC Lions and Whitecaps while BC Place Stadium underwent its renovation.

Swangard Stadium has been used for international sporting events, most notably as one of the venues for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, with the stadium’s capacity temporarily expanded to 10,000 with a mirroring 5,000-seat grandstand installed on the east parking lot. Although the stadium is about a 10-minute walk from SkyTrain Patterson Station located on the east side of Central Park, transportation accessibility has long been a challenge for larger events held at the stadium, which has highly limited vehicle parking.

There were media reports in the late 2000s of competing interests by NHL Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot to launch Vancouver’s MLS team.

Aquilini was reportedly interested in permanently expanding Swangard Stadium to a capacity of 20,000 seats to meet MLS requirements. At the time, the City of Burnaby indicated it was open to the possibility.

whitecaps stadium waterfront gastown railyard

Artistic rendering of the never-built outdoor soccer stadium over the waterfront railyard north of Gastown. (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)

Artistic rendering of the final concept of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ Waterfront Stadium. (Vancouver Whitecaps)

At around the same time, Kerfoot pitched the idea to completely self-fund the construction of a 15,000-seat stadium — expandable to 30,000 seats in the future — over the railyard just north of Gastown in downtown Vancouver and had even acquired the railyard’s air space and adjacent buildings towards achieving this vision. But the proposal hit a wall with the municipal government and Port of Vancouver over the site’s spatial constraints and safety issues over an active railyard.

An alternate proposal by Kerfoot of shifting the stadium north of the railyard, within Port property and partially over water, also did not gain traction. There were also brief discussions with the municipal government on placing the soccer-specific stadium within the False Creek Flats, where the new St. Paul’s Hospital campus is being built today. The Whitecaps ultimately settled for BC Place.

As for actual plans to reinvest in a stadium facility in this region, the former home pitch of Whitecaps FC 2 at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is set to be redeveloped. UBC has set aside $50 million in its five-year capital plan through 2028 to build a new replacement Thunderbird Stadium with 5,000 seats, with the capability for temporary expansion to 10,000. The new stadium will have a smaller footprint than the existing stadium, allowing for high-density residential development in the area.

Artistic rendering of the new UBC Thunderbird Stadium. (UBC)

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