Clarke Field

Clarke Field, the home of the FC Edmonton is a great little stadium. It’s right in the middle of the sketchiest, roughest part of town. No where you want to be after dark. But for a afternoon soccer match, it’s A-​OK — Just make sure to park right in the lot and not a block or two away.
The stadium is sponsored by Molson’s so you can drink beer, and choose from Canadian, Coors, Rickard’ Red and I believe cans of Corona. They have a hot-​dog stand that’s pretty darn good dogs. The washrooms seem to always be clean and there are lots of staff/​volunteers around so you can feel safe bringing the kids.
The blue bleachers have new plastic seating that is just as good as any major league seats. Here’s my seating tips: If it’s Spring or Fall the East bleachers will keep you warmer (ie sun on you much longer then the West Bleachers) for evening games. But, there are only washrooms located on the West side of the bleachers. In the height of summer the West side will provide a bit of needed shade — best bet, West bleachers!
And don’t forget to cheer!

Came to Clarke Field yesterday for the first time to attend a FC Edmonton Game.
The building was clean, plenty of seats, friendly staff and fans that are passionate about soccer.
I definitely would not hesitate to purchase tickets for any future events at this stadium. Parking was a breeze and reasonable at only $ 5!
Go Blue and Black!

Did you know you can rent out Clark Stadium for $ 125 hr? I knew it got rebuilt back in the early 2000s, but have never had a chance to see it up close until now. It looks marvelous! I used to work in the concession area when I was 14 for Edmonton Wildcat games. Back it was much more a concrete jungle and held a lot more people. I remember working in the back rooms being surrounded by concrete and little ventilation thinking this is what a jail cell looks like.
There is so much football history in this little stadium. I love how open they decided to make it. After all Edmonton does get the 5^th most sunlight of Canadian cities per year (Calgary is in first place). This open area allows one to soak up all the rays. The grandstand can hold 1,300. Which is a lot less than it used to hold, but then again you don’t have so many empty seats.
The thought did occur to me to capture the field with a sea of people in a Harlem Shake video, but that was so 2012.

You wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at it, but Clarke Field is actually probably one of the oldest sporting facilities in the city. It’s been around since 1938 and was the former home of the Edmonton Eskimos. Now it is the home of Edmonton’s pro soccer team, FC Edmonton. It’s also a popular venue for high school football games and I believe the Esks still practice there.
The facilities basically consist of one building that has washrooms, dressing rooms and a concession. The building doubles as stands with a press box at the very top. I’m not sure when it was built (definitely not 1938!) but it’s pretty modern. I actually overheard someone commenting that the stadium was built in the last year. Although that’s definitely not true, it speaks to the shape that it’s in.
It had a capacity a little over 1000 people all on bench seating, until last week. Since it’s now the home to FC Edmonton, the team has invested in expanding the number of seats. They’ve put in fixed-​back seats on the east side of the field which increases the capacity to more than 4000.
The sight lines are all good and the stands are very close to the field, so you do get to hear a lot of the banter that goes on between players if you sit in the closer rows.
For FCE games, there are usually a few options for food. There’s always Fat Franks at the very least but other local food trucks make appearances too.