Petition calls for multi-sport stadium for Waterloo Region
Posted Jun 17, 2026 04:53:31 PM.
Last Updated Jun 18, 2026 11:25:42 AM.
Waterloo Region is well known for its collective love of sport.
However, some say the community is lacking the facilities to make it a prime destination for major sporting and cultural events.
About a year ago, Peter Baxter started a petition calling to plan and build a state-of-the-art, multi-sport stadium and an accompanying indoor multi-sport performance facility. The key feature being a 200-metre running track and training space.
Baxter, who is the Chair of the Kitchener-Waterloo Sport Council Facilities Committee and the former Director of Athletics and Recreation at Wilfrid Laurier University, was a guest on The Mike Farwell Show, where he continued to push for such a facility. He said, a space like this is about more than athletics.
“Facilities like sport and recreation, cultural events, and multi-purpose facilities bring a lot of health benefits to the community but really a sense of belonging. And I think social infrastructure is really needed in this community.”
Baxter spoke about the various uses for a multi-purpose stadium. Things like concerts or cultural events, like an outdoor powwow.
The region has been without a municipal outdoor stadium since the demolition of Centennial Stadium at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium in 2013. Built in 1967, Centennial played host to provincial and national high school track and field competitions and even Olympic tune-up events.
There are track and field facilities in the region at some local high schools, but Baxter explained why that’s not a great option.
“They’re given money to build facilities from the Ontario government, but they’re not given money to maintain it. And it’s also a community asset because municipal/community groups use that track.”
Baxter pointed out that upper levels of government have been making money available for sport, but they require the communities to be ready when they pass the cheque.
“The Ontario government has put out some money to it. The federal government just put some more money into sports. But if we’re a community that’s not ready, then we’ll miss those opportunities for funding.”
In the petition, it states: “Kitchener-Waterloo Sport Council’s Facilities Committee has identified the preferred location for this project as the site behind the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, where the former Centennial Stadium once stood.”
Baxter said that to ensure they’re eligible for funding, the site would need to be shovel-ready.
Since it launched about a year ago, the change.org petition, Support the Vision: A Multi-sport Stadium for Waterloo Region’s Future, has garnered over 2,000 signatures.
