Royal Athletic Park
Encyclopedia
Royal Athletic Park is a multi-purpose, fully lit stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...

 in Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

, British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. It is primarily used for baseball, soccer, softball and football, but also hosts special events, such as the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival.

History

The land was originally purchased by the city in 1925 and the park underwent a major restoration in 1967 after a large fire. The park has been the home to many different sports teams, most notably including the Victoria Athletics
Victoria Athletics
The Victoria Athletics were a Western International League baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada that existed from 1946 to 1951. From 1947 to 1949, they were affiliated with the New York Yankees. They played their home games at Royal Athletic Park.Gil McDougald played for them....

 of the Western International League
Western International League
The Western International League was a mid- to higher-level circuit in American and Canadian minor league baseball. It operated in 1923, 1937-42, and 1946-54. In 1955, it changed its name to the Northwest League, and still operates today as a Short Season A loop under that name.The WIL consisted of...

, Victoria United
Victoria United
Victoria United is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1904, the team plays in Pacific Coast Soccer League , a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, which features teams from western Canada and the Pacific Northwest...

 of the Pacific Coast Soccer League
Pacific Coast Soccer League
The Pacific Coast Soccer League is a soccer league featuring teams from British Columbia, although the league has also featured teams from Washington in the past as well...

, the Victoria Highlanders
Victoria Highlanders
Victoria Highlanders is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 2007, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League , the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.The team plays its home games in...

 of the USL Premier Development League
USL Premier Development League
The USL Premier Development League is the amateur league of the United Soccer Leagues in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda, forming part of the American Soccer Pyramid...

 and in recent years, the Victoria Seals
Victoria Seals
The Victoria Seals were a professional baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Seals were a member of the North Division of the independent Golden Baseball League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball. They joined the GBL on October 1,...

 of the Golden Baseball League
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico....

.

From 1 July to 11 July 2007, Royal Athletic Park was one of six host venues for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup
2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup
The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the sixteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup , hosted by Canada from June 30 to July 22, 2007. Argentina defeated Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth...

. The stadium hosted Group F, and also featured Japan vs Czech Republic in a Round of Sixteen game.

Tenants

The park is currently the home of two local association football (soccer) teams, the Victoria United Football Club
Victoria United
Victoria United is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1904, the team plays in Pacific Coast Soccer League , a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, which features teams from western Canada and the Pacific Northwest...

 and the Victoria Highlanders Football Club
Victoria Highlanders
Victoria Highlanders is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 2007, the team plays in the USL Premier Development League , the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.The team plays its home games in...

. Minor-league baseball recently returned to Royal Athletic Park in 2009, when the Golden Baseball League
Golden Baseball League
The Golden Baseball League, based in San Ramon, California, was an independent baseball league. It later merged with the Northern League and the United Baseball League to form the North American League in the western United States, western Canada and Mexico....

's Victoria Seals
Victoria Seals
The Victoria Seals were a professional baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Seals were a member of the North Division of the independent Golden Baseball League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball or Minor League Baseball. They joined the GBL on October 1,...

 took up residency. After only two seasons, the Victoria Seals, however, decided to break their contract with the City of Victoria, and will not be returning for the 2011 baseball season. The park lost their main Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

 tenant, the Victoria Rebels
Victoria Rebels
The Westshore Rebels are a Canadian Junior Football team based in Langford, British Columbia. The Rebels play in the six-team B.C. Football Conference, which itself is part of the Canadian Junior Football League and competes annually for the national title known as the Canadian Bowl...

, in 2008 to the new City Centre Stadium located in nearby Langford, BC. The park also plays host to the Great Canadian Beer Festival annually each summer.

Layout and design

The park lies on a large rectangular plot --- often the kind of plot used for soccer or football stadiums, but the stadium appears to have been designed as a baseball/soccer hybrid stadium. From above, the stadium looks like a small baseball/softball park, with continuous seating on the south end of the park extending northward about 1/3 of the park's width on the west side of the park. The main baseball diamond (there are two more diamonds located at both east corners used by local amateur teams) is located in the southwest corner, so the north running seating reach the third base line (about 90 feet/30 yards).

The park seating is set up in this manner. Along the south sideline starting at the west edge of the stadium, there is a covered, angled, deep grandstand behind home base of the main baseball diamond. Next to it are a series of 4 bleachers with gaps between them. These bleachers extend more than halfway down the length of the football /soccer field. Then there is the main grandstand which is covered, about the width of 3 bleachers, and quite a bit deeper than the bleachers. Then there is another bleacher and then a second, smaller bleacher (about half the width of the other bleachers).

Along the Western side of the field extending northward from the smaller "baseball" grandstand are another pair of bleachers, a "full length" bleacher and a second "half length" bleacher.

The stadium is surrounded by high-intensity lights on all sides that allow night games.

Due to the park's multi-sport use, it's seating choices can seem rather unorthodox and poorly conceived, but it is evident the city intends for the stadium to be accessible to as many different sporting entities as possible. Sadly, as there are a number of nice features of the site, history suggests the stadium is a little bit substandard to host teams of any sport for very long.

The design allows for numerous seating capacities, and has accommodated everything from amateur softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

 to professional baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 games, as well as professional soccer, junior football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

, international competitions, festivals and concerts, among others.

The stadium was recently upgraded with a new $400,000 video scoreboard
Scoreboard
A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game or match. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used a mechanical clock and numeral cards to...

 intended to replace the decades-old minimalist baseball scoreboard. The scoreboard is situated on the northwest side of the park, or just beyond left field using the main baseball diamond configuration. Aside from a large full-colour video screen, the scoreboard also features prominently the name 'Royal Athletic Park' in large, arcing letters overhead.

Capacity

The park has a permanent seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

of 4,247. Depending on its configuration and the event, it can hold a larger capacity, often listed as a max capacity of 9,247. Temporary bleachers were added to expand seating for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup games. (In the above picture, one can see some examples of added temporary seating behind the shorter bleachers on the right half of the picture). An announced total of 14,500 was later altered to 10,500, as temporary grandstands were not erected behind the goal on the east side..

External links

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