Sobeys Stadium, formerly Aviva Centre and Rexall Centre, is a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

stadium in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The 12,500-capacity Stadium Court is the largest stadium at the tennis complex. Sobeys Stadium is the venue for the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, a professional tournament on the ATP World Tour and WTA circuits, held annually. Sobeys Stadium hosts the men's tournament in odd-numbered years and the women's event in even-numbered years, with the other gender's event held in Montreal in those years. The facility also is a year-round tennis training facility. The main stadium is occasionally used for seasonal concerts. Sobeys Stadium is located on the grounds of

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

's Keele Campus in

North York North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...

, Toronto.

Description

Built in 2004, the main venue holds 12,500 spectators. There are 11 other small courts next to the stadium. All twelve courts use the

DecoTurf DecoTurf is a brand of tennis hardcourt constructed from layers of acrylic resin, rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic c ...

cushioned acrylic surface, the same surface as the US Open Grand Slam event. The stadium has 39 executive suites and two party suites. Sobeys Stadium is also the home of the Toronto offices of Tennis Canada and the Ontario Tennis Association. The grounds serve as the national and provincial tennis training centre year-round, offering 16 courts (eight of which are indoors). The stadium is also used for the staging of interuniversity competitions and practices and winter training. During the academic year, a discounted fee on indoor courts is offered to York students weekdays during daytime hours. This is the venue for York University's Convocation Ceremony every year. The facility is located on the northwestern edge of York University's, south-east of Jane Street and

Steeles Avenue West Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from Appleby Line in Milton in the w ...

, at the intersection of Shoreham Drive, and Pond Road. To the west of the facility are forested park lands along the Black Creek. The Saywell Woods and Stong Pond are located to the south and east of the facility.

History

The stadium was built to replace the National Tennis Centre, which was demolished in 2003. The facility opened on July 26, 2004 as the Rexall Centre in a

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

deal with Rexall pharmacy chain. The first match at the stadium was an opening round match between

Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ach ...

and Tommy Haas attended by 10,500. The Sobeys Stadium is one of two venues for the Canadian Open. The tennis tournament alternates venues year-to-year, between the Sobeys Stadium, and the

IGA Stadium IGA Stadium (French: Stade IGA) (formerly Stade Du Maurier and Stade Uniprix) is the main tennis court at the Canadian Open (tennis), Canadian Open tournament in Montreal, Quebec. Built in 1996, the centre court stadium currently holds 11,815 sp ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. In 2011, the stadium became the venue for the BlackCreek Summer Music Festival, a series of concerts of jazz, opera, popular and symphonic music. In 2014, the venue was named as the host of the tennis events at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

. In 2015, the venue was renamed the Aviva Centre after reaching a new naming rights deal with British multinational insurance company

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

. In 2017, the Sobeys Stadium hosted the opening ceremonies for the 2017

North American Indigenous Games The North American Indigenous Games is a multi-sport event involving indigenous North American athletes staged intermittently since 1990. The Games are governed by the North American Indigenous Games Council, a 26-member council of representatives ...

. In 2022, the stadium was renamed Sobeys Stadium after Canadian supermarket chain

Sobeys Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales o ...

was given the naming rights to the venue.

Mystery tunnel

In February 2015, Toronto Police Service announced the discovery of a "mystery" tunnel located a few hundred metres from the facility, a story which later became popular. It was later revealed to be a " man cave." The two men in their mid-20s who excavated the cave had no criminal intent and are not affiliated with York University, Rexall Centre (as it was then called), or the Pan Am Games. The ''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Pos ...

'' identified one of the men as 22-year-old Elton McDonald. He faced an $800 fine instead of receiving a criminal record. McDonald's employer said that he borrowed and lost his tools used to dig the tunnel.

Access

The facility is located on Shoreham Road, which connects to Jane Street, just south of Steeles Avenue. There are an estimated 7,000 parking spaces in the vicinity. subway station is situated a short walk from the stadium, or transit users can take the 106 Sentinel bus between the stadium and the subway station.

References

External links