Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 02:30:00
The stadium hosted a continental Games' opening ceremony before it ever hosted a season - built for one summer, then handed a permanent job. York Lions Stadium, at 4700 Keele Street on York University's Keele Campus in North York, was constructed between 2012 and 2014 as the CIBC Pan Am and Parapan Am Athletics Stadium for the Toronto 2015 Games. The $45.5 million facility by CannonDesign staged the Games' track and field competition and the Parapan Am athletics program, with temporary bleachers swelling capacity to 12,500 before the venue settled back to its 4,000 permanent seats. The post-Games decade brought more international sport - the 2017 North American Indigenous Games, the 2017 Invictus Games and continental masters athletics championships all used the track before a 2021 conversion changed the stadium's character entirely. That $8.2 million renovation removed the running track, expanded the artificial turf to a FIFA Quality Pro surface sized for a full CFL football field and international soccer dimensions, and moved the playing surface closer to the stands for a tighter matchday feel. A 450-by-250-foot air-supported dome - among the largest in Ontario - now covers the field for roughly five months of the year, turning the open-air Games venue into a year-round facility for varsity, professional and community sport. The tenant list has become a small census of Toronto soccer: Toronto FC II of MLS Next Pro, Inter Toronto FC and AFC Toronto of the Northern Super League all play here alongside York's varsity Lions football and soccer programs. The stadium also moonlights as an outdoor events ground for the campus, its videoboard and sound system handling ceremonies, community festivals and the occasional concert - the Pan Am legacy paying rent in every season.
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