New stadium coming to downtown Mississauga

An outdoor sports stadium that would seat 7,500 spectators — and possibly attract a professional soccer team — is in the works for the City Centre area in Mississauga.

While no formal plans have yet been tabled for such a facility, Mayor Carolyn Parrish told INsauga.com in an interview a new soccer stadium is a key part of her vision for a revitalized downtown core in Canada’s seventh-largest city.

And she wants it built sooner rather than later — at an affordable cost she estimates would be around $32 million — just to the north of Square One and the City Centre Transit Terminal/Mississauga Transitway hub on Rathburn Road West.

Parrish describes what she envisions as “one of those stadiums that’s modular,” which would allow for faster and less expensive construction.

Her preliminary plan would see the stadium built “where that car track is,” the mayor continued, referencing the GyGo games/entertainment facility that includes the Mississauga Mini Indy go-kart track.

That location is ideal, Parrish noted, in part because plenty of parking is already in place at the nearby public transit terminal.

Once built, she hopes the stadium 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.

“We would love to get the Argos, too,” Parrish said.

Mayor Carolyn Parrish says a new soccer stadium would help revitalize Mississauga’s downtown core.

The mayor suggested the City of Mississauga could pay for a stadium by selling a parcel of city-owned land in the downtown core and working with partners such as Oxford Properties, which owns the proposed site in addition to Square One Shopping Centre and other properties in the area.

“I’m not too worried about paying for that,” Parrish said, looking out her city hall office window that faces to the north where she envisions a number of projects that’ll enliven Mississauga’s downtown core in the coming years.

Asked if a soccer stadium would rise up in the next five years or so, the mayor quickly clarified: “No, I don’t have that time. I want to do it faster.”

A new stadium would go a long way toward bringing much-needed energy back to the City Centre, Parrish said, 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.

New soccer stadium is not a new idea

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.

However, talks of a new soccer venue stalled 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 more recently been taken off the table for the time being.

Canadian Soccer Daily reported earlier this year the CPL will likely not pursue any expansion plans in 2025 and is now looking at a timeline of 10 years to double the number of clubs.

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.