Some are bemoaning that CBC's beloved Hockey Night In Canada is going off the air after decades.
But this has been in the works since soccer achieved parity in participation numbers in the early 80's.
Soccer , NOT HOCKEY is Canada's most popular participatory sport, especially among youth and diverse communities such as Rideau Rockcliffe.
Canada's appearance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup is only its third time:1986 (Mexico),2022 (Qatar):
2026 is the first time the men's World Cup has been played in Canada.
Soccer is already Canada's top participatory sport (nearly 700,000 registered players, ~50% of youth), having surpassed ice hockey in registration numbers since the 1980s–90s.
It is accessible, inclusive, and popular across immigrant communities. The World Cup amplifies this growth, inspiring the next generation and showcasing Canada's multiculturalism.
Expectations are high Canada will secure its first-ever World Cup win(s), and advance from its group stage and possibly reach the knockout rounds.
What is the significance to Ottawa's hockey facilities and soccer fields? You do not need to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing!
We need to improve and expand soccer facilities!
Hockey gets more money. Soccer has a clear cost advantage: Families spend roughly $325/year per child vs. ~$1,400 for hockey.
This drives the higher participation (soccer now tops hockey as Canada’s most-played youth sport, with roughly twice as many kids involved).
Hockey gets more money. Soccer has a clear cost advantage: Families spend roughly $325/year per child vs. ~$1,400 for hockey.
This drives the higher participation (soccer now tops hockey as Canada’s most-played youth sport, with roughly twice as many kids involved).
For example, there's no single authoritative "ward facility inventory" I could pull a hard utilization number from, so this is built from community association sites, league listings, and the city's general parks info rather than one official source.
**What exists in Rideau-Rockcliffe:**
New Edinburgh Park, along the Rideau River between Beechwood and the river, has playing fields and a fieldhouse that's been the neighbourhood's hub since 1998.
Rockcliffe Park Public School's field and The Rockeries (Hillsdale Park)
These host the Rockcliffe/Lindenlea children's soccer league, which draws kids from Rockcliffe Park, Lindenlea, Manor Park, and New Edinburgh together — meaning multiple communities are already sharing a fairly small number of pitches.
Overbrook Community Centre and Manor Park Public School
These turn up as bookable fields in city-wide adult league location lists.
Carson Grove Park is used similarly.
**Are they enough?**
Compared to other parts of Ottawa, the ward looks thin.
Millennium Sports Park in Orleans alone has 15 dedicated soccer/football fields on one 34-hectare site — there's nothing remotely comparable in scale within Rideau-Rockcliffe.
What the ward has instead is a scattering of school fields and small park pitches shared across several community associations, which is consistent with the pattern in my "Hockey Night" post: participation has grown faster than dedicated capacity has been built out.
**On utilization**
As usual we do not have a hard booking-rate or occupancy data — that would live in the city's recreation/parks permitting system, not in anything publicly indexed.
If you want a real number (e.g., "X% of permit slots booked" or average wait time for a league to get a weekday evening slot), that's the kind of thing you'd likely need to FOIA or request directly from Parks Permitting (parks@ottawa.ca), or ask the community associations how oversubscribed their seasonal signups are — that anecdotal pressure
(e.g., the multi-community sharing arrangement at Rockcliffe Park PS) is probably your most concrete, citable evidence of demand outstripping supply without needing to wait on a data request.
This time around, inform yourselves, vote differently, vote wisely, vote for Peter Karwacki for Rideau Rockcliffe
REGARDING the old Rideau High School site at 815 St. Laurent Blvd — it's within Rideau-Rockcliffe, and councillor King's office refers to it as the "St-Laurent Complex" in newsletters.
ReplyDeleteThe school closed in 2017 after OCDSB shut it (and five others) due to declining enrolment, with students redirected to Gloucester High.
Rather than sit empty, it was converted into the Rideau Community Hub — the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre became anchor tenant, and the building now houses a mix of social services:
childcare,
a food bank,
immigration support,
Inuit arts programming (Isaruit), elder services, and
rentable community space.
OCDSB still owns the building; it never went to private sale.
On the soccer-field question specifically: there is a "Sports Field" on the grounds, listed as a venue by community groups (the Council on Aging has used it for a fundraising walk, for instance).
It's actively used as a soccer pitch
. —but more as a generic green space used for community events than a maintained, bookable soccer field in the way New Edinburgh Park or Rockcliffe Park PS's field are.
If that grounds space isn't being put to organized sports use, that's arguably a missed opportunity given the capacity gap — a school board property that's already publicly owned and centrally located in the ward.
One thing worth flagging
As of February 2026, OCDSB's provincially-appointed supervisor (Bob Plamondon) has been directing staff to move quickly on selling off "unused" board properties, and that's already drawn criticism from a city councillor and an MPP for happening without trustee or municipal consultation. I
There is no confirmation that 815 St. Laurent is specifically on that disposition list — the named properties so far are elsewhere (e.g., the former Grant Alternative School) — but given the board's posture toward "legacy structures," it's the kind of citywide pattern that could eventually touch the Rideau Hub site too, especially since it still costs the board $200,000–$300,000/year to operate per the original 2017 figures.