MINI-SOCCER FESTIVAL

The BC Soccer Association introduced the first-ever Mini-Soccer Festival in 1987. Canada Safeway was the title sponsor of the event through to its premature demise in 1998. The inaugural Festival, held at the 60,000-seat BC Place Stadium, was a 3-day soccer extravaganza that involved approximately 800 players and 200 team officials connected with the 60 teams that took part.

The event was originally initiated to coincide with the introduction of a nation-wide mini-soccer development program for players in the 6-10 year age group. Prior to the mid-80’s, players in this age bracket were required to play 11-a-side games on adult-sized fields.

The Festival ran successfully for 11 years before the BCSA decided to move out of BC Place Stadium and into the 8-rinks facility in Burnaby, where the event was scaled down and participation was reduced. The BCSA eventually dropped the event when Premier Soccer Experiences decided to resurrect the tournament at BC Place in 2003.

Traditionally staged between Christmas and New Year’s, the 2006/07 edition attracted 220 teams from around the Greater Vancouver area, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island. Several teams from Washington State also took park. Some 30 teams had to be turned away from last year’s Festival, as there was not enough room to accommodate all the teams who wanted to take part.

Approximately 3500 players, coaches, team managers, and referees take part in this event every year, which is heralded as a welcome opportunity for teams to play at a time when they are not able to get onto the weather-beaten outdoor grass fields. Given that most soccer clubs in the Greater Vancouver area do not schedule games from mid-December to mid-January, teams are anxious to find an outlet to play and compete at that time of year. The Mini-Soccer Festival provides that opportunity in the warm confines of the country’s only forced-air, teflon-roofed Stadium.

The 6th Annual BMO Financial Group Mini-Soccer Festival is planned for December 26, 2008 to January 2, 2009 at BC Place Stadium.

Entry forms will be posted October 1, 2008.

Click here to download the list of group champions from the 5th Annual (2007-08) BMO Financial Group Mini-Soccer Festival.