Project background

In cooperation with the Vancouver School Board (VSB), the Park Board is developing a Sport Field Strategy to improve our outdoor fields, ball diamonds, and associated amenities.

The Sport Field Strategy builds on the recent Playing Field Upgrade project and addresses feedback from over 2000 people heard during that process, including the need for more synthetic turf fields across the city.

The Strategy is part of VanPlay - Vancouver's Parks and Recreation Services Master Plan, and was created with a goal to improve the quality, quantity, use and access of the city’s outdoor sports facilities and associated amenities.

The Sport Field Strategy will help us support a range of field users, including competitive athletes. It will focus on equitable delivery of high quality, safe and inclusive facilities. It will also ensure sustainable maintenance, administration, allocation and pricing of these facilities. The Sport Field Strategy will reflect the Park Board’s Mission to provide, preserve and advocate for parks and recreation to benefit all people, communities and the environment.

The Sport Field Strategy will:

• Undertake comprehensive community and stakeholder engagement, including forming a city-wide advisory group
• Explore and recommend innovative directions to meet city-wide sport field needs
• Review the condition and performance of existing Vancouver Park Board sport fields
• Identify optimum city-wide service levels and project future needs
• Propose priorities and phasing for replacing and renewing existing facilities
• Identify new facilities needed over the life of the strategy
• Assess surfacing options for sport fields, including environmental and human health impacts
• Develop a field use allocation policy

Sport fields include rectangular fields (for soccer, football, rugby, etc.), ball diamonds, and cricket pitches. They can have grass or synthetic turf; they can also be all-weather (gravel) surfaces. Vancouver sport fields are located at school sites and parks of various sizes. The project study area includes all Vancouver owned and managed parks as well as some VSB sites.