Commonwealth Stadium
Commonwealth Stadium is an open-air, multi-purpose stadium located in the McCauley neighbourhood of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It has a seating capacity of 56,302, making it the largest stadium in Canada. Primarily used as the home field of the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League, the stadium also hosts athletics, soccer, rugby union and concerts.
Construction commenced in 1975 and the venue opened ahead of the 1978 Commonwealth Games, hence its name. The stadium replaced the adjacent Clarke Stadium as the home of the Elks, then known as the Eskimos, that same year. It received a major expansion ahead of the 1983 Summer Universiade, when it reached a capacity of 60,081. Commonwealth Stadium has hosted five Grey Cups, the CFL's championship game.
Soccer tournaments include nine FIFA World Cup qualification matches with the Canadian men's national soccer team, two versions of the invitational Canada Cup, the 1996 CONCACAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament, the 2002 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship and the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup and the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup. FC Edmonton played its Canadian Championship matches at Commonwealth Stadium from 2011 to 2013.
Other events at the stadium include the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, the 2006 Women's Rugby World Cup and three editions of the Churchill Cup.
History
Prior to Commonwealth Stadium, the main stadium in Edmonton was Clarke Stadium, which opened in 1939 and was built on a plot of land. Work on applying to host the 1978 Commonwealth Games started in the early 1970s. With both federal, provincial and city funding backing the bid, it called for a massive renovation of the city's various sporting venues. The original plans called for Clarke Stadium to be rebuilt and expanded to host the athletics events. By 1974 there was consensus that Clarke Stadium would not be sufficient and that an all-new stadium should be built. Several locations and sizes were discussed, with Edmonton City Council in January 1975 landing on building a 40,000-seat venue next to Clarke Stadium. The venue was designed by Ragan, Bell, McManus Consultants. The city also decided to build additional new venues: Kinsmen Aquatic Centre and Argyll Velodrome. They based their design on Jack Trice Stadium in the US city of Ames, Iowa.Part of the public support for the stadium came from it being built to also support being used by the Eskimos. The plans were met with opposition from local residents. There were also discussions regarding the necessity of a $50,000 royal retirement room and the allocation of training and office space to the Eskimos. The largest discussion was related to whether the stadium needed a roof or dome. As the roof would cost $18.2 million, there was limited public support, and the stadium was built without one. In an attempt to further the roof process, the Eskimos offered to pay $1.6 million towards the roof. The Commonwealth Games did not permit an enclosed stadium, so the design would have to call for the roof to be added afterwards. Among the opponents of the roof was Commonwealth Games Foundation President Maury Van Vliet, who said experience from construction of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal showed the necessity of building a simple structure. An alternative design, which would have cost an additional $7.3 million, was launched by the Eskimos in August 1975, but rejected by the city council. A major concern for the city council was the large cost overruns being experienced in Montreal at the time.
Excavation started in December 1974 and saw the removal of of earthwork. A local action committee, Action Edmonton, demanded in early 1975 that construction be halted and the venue relocated. The city estimated that this would cost an additional $2.5 million and delay the process with eight months. The decision to not enclose the stadium was taken on December 10, 1975. The venue was thus not designed to allow a roof, air-filled or stiff, to be retrofitted. The venue was built on the former site of the Rat Creek Dump and the Williamson Slaughter House. During excavation, remains from the dump were struck, resulting in archaeological surveys being carried out. Construction of the Edmonton LRT's inaugural line commenced in 1974 and was opened in time for the Commonwealth Games, which allowed spectators to take the LRT from Stadium station to downtown Edmonton.
Construction of the stadium was completed within budget and time. When the venue opened it had a capacity for 42,500 and a natural grass turf. Unlike most other major stadiums in Canada, Commonwealth Stadium elected for a natural grass turf. The original configuration included 39,384 bucket seats and 3,200 bench seating on the north end. The venue was officially opened on July 15, 1978, in an event which attracted 15,000 spectators. The venue went through a slight expansion in 1980, when the seating capacity was increased to 43,346. Additional proposals for a roof, ranging from $10 to $32 million in cost, were presented in 1979, but since then the discussion of covering the stadium died out.
Edmonton was selected to host the 1983 Summer Universiade, and in 1981 the city council approved an $11 million upgrade to the venue, which added a further 18,000 seats to the upper tiers and the north end zone; this gave a capacity of 59,912 in 1982 and 60,081 from 1983. For special events, such as the Grey Cup, additional seating could be added. This made it the second-largest stadium in Canada, after Montreal's Olympic Stadium, and the largest without a dome. After Winnipeg Stadium, home of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, installed AstroTurf on their field for the 1988 CFL season, the stadium was the last in the CFL to have a natural grass surface ; it would have this distinction for the next 21 years.
Ahead of the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, the stadium received a $24-million facelift. Major investments included a new façade, an enlargement of the concourse, improved lighting, a new scoreboard and an all-new all-weather running track. Ahead of the 2008 season the stadium underwent a reconfiguration, reducing its capacity to 59,537. For the nine seasons prior to 2010, the natural turf was replaced eight times, costing $50,000 each time. The natural grass turf was replaced with FieldTurf Duraspine Pro in May 2010, making the Eskimos the last CFL team to switch to artificial turf, and the last team to play on grass until the Toronto Argonauts began playing at BMO Field for the 2016 season. The investment cost $2.6 million and was split evenly between the city and the Eskimos. The work included the removal of of soil, and the turf has a life expectancy of 8 to 10 years. It will cost $500,000 to replace. The reasons for the replacement were to reduce injuries, reduce the need for watering and fertilizer, allow a green turf for the entire season, including at Grey Cups, allow the venue to host more events, as concerts and the like will not damage the field, and that turf is recycled and recyclable.
Commonwealth Stadium underwent a $112-million facelift starting in 2009. The main investment was a field house, new locker rooms, a hosting area and two floors of office space. The complex, named the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre and designed by MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects and HIP Architects, also has an aquatic centre and a fitness centre. The complex was completed in February 2012.
Following the 2010 Grey Cup, the program to replace the seating at the stadium commenced. All seating was replaced with new and wider seats, and the color changed from red and orange to green and yellow—the Eskimos' colors. Approval of the $12 million upgrade was made by the city council on May 18, 2011, and it took 11 months to select a supplier, with installation starting in June 2012. The upgrade removed all bench seating, which had been in place in the corners and end zones, resulting in an all-seater stadium. Because of wider seats, wide instead of, capacity for the venue as reduced to 56,302. The process reduced the number of seats in each row by one. With the seating installed, the total investment in the venue exceeded $200 million. Before the start of the 2014 CFL season, the track surface was stripped off, thus giving the football end zones a squared-off look; they were rounded off prior to this.
On June 15, 2016, the Edmonton Eskimos announced a five-year field naming rights partnership with The Brick to name the field "The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium" during CFL events. A naming rights deal with Play Alberta was signed in 2025, and the field renamed to "Play Alberta Field at Commonwealth Stadium".
The Edmonton Elks will not sell upper bowl tickets at Commonwealth Stadium for the 2024 CFL season, reducing the stadium's capacity to 31,000 seats.
Facilities
Commonwealth Stadium has a seating capacity of 56,302, in an all-seater configuration. The stadium has two twin-tier grandstands along each side, and single-tier stands on the corners and ends. The sides feature 44,032 seats, with the remaining 12,386 in the corners and ends. The side seats are wide and have a cup holder, a feature lacking on the narrower end zone seats. The seating is laid out in a colorized mosaic pattern, with dark green at the bottom, yellow in the middle and lighter green at the top. In the sides there are 14,203 dark green seats, 19,019 yellow seats and 10,810 light green seats. In the corner and end zones there are 8,672 dark green and 3,713 yellow seats. There are 15 executive suites on the east stand, 7 on the west stand and 8 on the south end zone. There is a limited amount of covered seating on the upper sections of the lower tier on the sides; half of this section on the east stand is a media centre.The stadium has a Shaw Sports Turf Powerblade Elite 2.5S artificial turf system, installed in 2016 by GTR turf, which covers an area of. It contains additional cushioning through the installation of an extra shock pad. The turf lacks permanent line markings; this allows the markings to alternate between football and soccer. Because of the running track, the corners of the end zones were partially cut. In 2014, the end zones were squared off. The track and field segment consists of a Sportflex Super X all-weather running track manufactured by Mondo of Italy. The International Association of Athletics Federations has certified the stadium as a Class 1 venue, a certification only two other stadiums have in Canada: Moncton Stadium and Université de Sherbrooke Stadium.
At Commonwealth Stadium complex is the Field House, an three-storey training facility which includes a running track, a artificial turf training field, a fitness and weight room, locker rooms and a running track. It is part of the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre, which also includes a aquatics centre with a four-lane lap pool, water slides and a recreational pool; of administrative offices; and a fitness centre. The building features a central lobby with each of the facilities in an annex. The centre has Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver certification. Adjacent to Commonwealth Stadium lies Clarke Stadium; it seats 5,000 and is used as a training field and as the home ground of the Canadian Premier League side FC Edmonton until it was dissolved in 2022.
The stadium is served by Stadium station of the Edmonton Light Rail Transit Capital Line. During Elks games, the service frequency is increased. The City of Edmonton and the Elks cooperate on the Green & Go program, which provides free transit rides to the venue from six park and ride lots throughout Edmonton. Any holder of a pre-purchased game ticket can travel free on the buses from these lots to Commonwealth Stadium. The program was initiated by the city to minimize parking and congestion in the stadium's neighbourhood. Game tickets are also valid fare on the LRT service from two hours prior to games to two hours after games. The city bans on-street parking in the vicinity of the stadium during games, excepting cars with residential permits.