New stadium in City Centre area of Mississauga is among mayor’s priorities

It hasn’t been talked about much lately, but Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish says building a new soccer stadium in the City Centre area remains a key item on her list of priorities.

Such a facility, which would likely take the form of an outdoor sports stadium that would seat 7,500 spectators (and ideally attract a professional soccer team), is a central part of Parrish’s vision for a revitalized downtown core in Mississauga — though no formal plans have yet been tabled.

And with six World Cup 2026 matches being staged in nearby Toronto next summer, that can only help generate additional interest for such a project in the coming years, the mayor believes.

“We’ve got the land lined up, we just have to find a team,” Parrish told INsauga.com in a recent interview, adding “the actual building of the stadium is not exorbitantly expensive” as such a project would involve a pre-fabricated stadium.

In an earlier interview, Parrish estimated the cost of such a venue to be around $32 million, and it would be built just to the north of Square One and the City Centre Transit Terminal/Mississauga Transitway hub on Rathburn Road West.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says a new soccer stadium in the City Centre of Mississauga remains on her priority list.

Building a large soccer stadium in Mississauga has been on the radar of some city councillors and members of the sports community for years. 

Supporters of the idea have said it would help attract a Canadian Premier League expansion team to Mississauga in addition to allowing the city to host numerous major soccer tournaments.

City council briefly discussed the matter in late 2021, when it was estimated a new soccer stadium could cost $50 million. At the time, officials were looking at city-owned land off of Ninth Line in the northwest corner of Mississauga as a possible site.

Beyond the tourism and financial benefits, several councillors said during discussions in October 2021 that Mississauga’s soccer community badly needs a landmark facility.

Could Mississauga support a pro sports team?

However, talks of a new soccer venue stalled at that time given other major infrastructure costs the city was facing.

The CPL, Canada’s top soccer league, indicated in 2021 it would like to double its membership from eight to 16 teams by 2026, when Canada will be the site of 10 FIFA World Cup games as part of the United States-hosted tournament. 

However, those plans have been reined in for the time being and the league’s immediate intentions in that regard include only a ninth team, Montreal, joining the CPL next year.

Even if the CPL were looking to expand beyond a ninth club, could Mississauga support a pro sports team?

That question was posed to INsauga.com readers this week in an informal poll.

In response to the question, “Do you think Mississauga can support a pro sports team?” 62 per cent of respondents (2,773) said “no” while 38 per cent (1,700) said “yes” (results as of Dec. 3).

New stadium would bring energy back to City Centre, mayor says

Should Mississauga build a major soccer stadium in the City Centre, as Parrish insists will happen in the next several years, she hopes it would also entice the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts to use it as their practice facility. For decades, the Argos have held their practices at the University of Toronto Mississauga, on Mississauga Road several kilometres to the west.

Additionally, a new stadium would go a long way toward bringing much-needed energy back to the City Centre, Parrish said earlier, identifying the revitalization of the area surrounding city hall and Square One as among her top priorities, just after building more affordable housing.

“The City Centre has languished for a very long time; nothing’s happened here,” she said in an earlier interview.

Aerial photo of Mississauga’s City Centre. Possible site of a new soccer stadium would be just to the north of Square One, top centre-left of photo.