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Ryerson continues its search for a field to call home

By Sierra Bein

Ryerson is no longer interested in renting Central Technical School’s (CTS) field after finding out that it’s contaminated with high levels of zinc and lead above provincial safety standards. Soccer teams are now back at Monarch Park Stadium, a place they want to call home.

“We were thinking about potentially renting out the field but it was deemed an environmental hazard,” athletics director and Rams soccer coach, Ivan Joseph, said via email. “We will still be at the field we used last year at Monarch Park.”

Ryerson began using Monarch Park Collegiate Institute’s field in 2011 and is now looking to make it a permanent field.

“We’d like a lease, we are trying to negotiate,” Joseph said. “We were looking at it as a long term [option].”

Ryerson has been in search of a field to call home for about two years and the majority of its soccer games have been played at Monarch Park.

“As long as we have a place we could constantly go to, if we had that it would be awesome,” Alex Braletic, captain of the men’s soccer team, said.

Razor Management, Inc. is the company that built the facility at Monarch Park with a varsity track and a seasonal dome so that teams could operate all year long.

“We took a field that was in a state of disrepair and we now have a fantastic FIFA-grade soccer, rugby, football field and state-of-theart track and the only indoor track that is longer than 200 metres in Toronto,” Matthew Raizenne, entrepreneur and spokesperson for Razor Management, said.

The company now has plans to develop CTS’s field to the same varsity standard that Monarch Park has.

“We’re optimistic that Central Tech will get built this year to open Sept. 1 and will give more flexibility,” Raizenne said. “If Ryerson was interested in more time at Monarch we could give them more time.”

“Having the students to be able to call a place home to have change facilities [gives them] the same types of opportunities that they would have at U of T or York to play soccer,” said Ryerson president Sheldon Levy. “We’re not going to give up until we’re successful.”

1 Comment

  1. kwok pun chan

    soccer field in Kerr Hall Quad ??

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