In 2015, the City of Fort Saskatchewan, AB, updated their Recreation Facility and Parks Master Plan. During this process, the city identified the need for a multi-purpose, high performance, artificial turf field to support a variety of field sports users, including minor and high school football and soccer, as well as rugby and field hockey.

The city’s existing fields could host local school and minor sports practices during daylight, but facilities were not suitable for local high school football and other high performance field sports. Local teams could not host games or tournaments. The existing facilities did not have score clocks, lights, and dressing rooms, and had limited seating for spectators, officials, and athletes. 

The community wanted new site amenities, including 1,000 seats for spectators, washrooms, team and officials change rooms, concessions, field lighting, score clocks, and hard and soft landscape features. The site selected for the new high performance field was the Dow Centennial Centre.  The ‘Dow Centennial Centre Master Plan Report’ contained a series of site master plan options for both an expansion to the Centre and for the desired high performance field.

Project Manager, Patrick Mastromatteo, tells us, “One of our challenges was to design and build an artificial turf field that is FIFA certified. We designed a special gravel base and drainage system for the field that meets FIFA’s high standards. A specialized firm tested the field base and artificial turf during construction to certify the field meets FIFA standards.”

Associated, along with JSA Sport Architecture, delivered conceptual design drawings and 3D renderings of the high performance field and two 5,000 square feet buildings. Our team designed spectator stands, the main entrance building, the change room building, access, a service road, parking lot, utility services, stormwater management facility, and a Park-n-Ride facility.

“....the field is one of the best designed in the region for high school and minor sports. It will be a source of pride for the community for years to come.” - City of Fort Saskatchewan 

Key personnel on this project included Patrick Mastromatteo, Chris Parfitt, Ann Stephenson, and Kevin Danyluk.