King George V Park is a

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-pu ...

St. John's, Newfoundland St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North America ...

, located at the head of

Quidi Vidi Lake Quidi Vidi Lake is a long body of water located at the east end of the city of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Local people commonly pronounce its name as ''kiddy viddy''. Water flows into the lake from the Rennies and Virginia Rivers, along wi ...

downtown St. John's Downtown St. John's is the historic core, and central business district of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Located north of St. John's harbour, it is the business, entertainment, and tourism centre with office buildings, hotels, r ...

. The stadium was built in 1925 as the

National stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

. It is the oldest surviving soccer specific stadium in North America, and hosts the

Memorial Sea-Hawks The Memorial Sea-Hawks are the athletic teams that represent Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. There are varsity teams in men's and women's basketball, cross-country, soccer, swimming, and voll ...

soccer teams.

History

The most famous game played at King George V was on 14 September 1985 when over 13,000 people witnessed

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's 2–1 victory over

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

to win the

1985 CONCACAF Championship The 1985 CONCACAF Championship was the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Championship. It also served as the qualification for the 1986 World Cup. A total of 18 CONCACAF teams entered the competition. The North, Central American and Caribbean zone w ...

; the match also qualified Canada for their first World Cup ( Mexico, 1986). It was a momentous occasion and is considered to be the first high point of Canadian soccer history. The stadium played host to the

1987 FIFA U-16 World Championship The FIFA U-16 World Championship 1987, the second edition of the tournament, was hosted by Canada and held in the cities of Montreal, Saint John, St. John's, and Toronto between 12 July and 25 July 1987. Players born after 1 August 1970 could p ...

. In 2005 construction began on a major renovation involving widening and lengthening the field surface, installing an underground irrigation system, constructing new locker room facilities as well as expanding the bleacher seating. In 2006, the natural grass playing surface was replaced with a FieldTurf pitch. It seats 6,400 for soccer. In 2008, KGV played host to the

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

and the Jubilee Trophy.

References

External links

Satellite view of King George V Park on Google Maps

Pictures of King George V Park
{{coord, 47, 34, 39.95, N, 52, 42, 05.03, W, region:CA-NL_type:landmark, display=title Sports venues in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador Soccer venues in Newfoundland and Labrador