Brampton Kabaddi players to get new stadium

The corner of the Brampton Sports Park is just a grassy expanse, but by next year it will be home to the province's first Kabaddi stadium.

This week Brampton city council approved funding for a 2.35 million dollar stadium that will seat 2,500 and include more than 200 parking spaces. The stadium will consist of a grass field, surrounded by bleachers.

The stadium has been six years in the making. Money had been set aside in previous budgets, but the green light to put the project out to tender only came to council this week. Brampton Coun. Vicky Dhillon said the city discussed complaints from neighbours about noise and increased traffic but in the end, only one councillor voted against the project.

"I think this was very important for our community … because Kabaddi is growing in the Region of Peel, especially Brampton," Dhillon said. 

Kabaddi is a sport imported from India that dates back four centuries. The modern version consists of 10 players a side, usually wearing only tights.

It's a mix of rugby and wrestling. To score points one player, called the raider, crosses in to opposition territory. His goal is to touch one of four "stoppers" and return to his side without being tackled and wrestled violently to the ground. Adding to the speed and challenge, the raider has just 30 seconds to complete the task.

"Brampton is diverse, we have all kinds of games, we have soccer, rugby, cricket, baseball, softball, and Kabaddi is part of the city's games," Dhillon said.

It's estimated there are between 200 to 300 players in the Greater Toronto Area. Jas Tatla plays with the Springdale International Sports Academy. His father was a Kabaddi player and Tatla has travelled to India to train in the sport. He relishes the chance to show his skills in a new stadium here in Canada.

"I'm very excited to actually have a ground to go play, to have our own ACC to play at," he says.

Sport has lacked a permanent home

The sport has been around the Greater Toronto Area for years, but has never had a permanent home. Organizers have had to criss-cross the city looking for grounds, playing everywhere from universities to city parks, even the Rogers Centre has hosted matches.

There are two major groups in the Brampton area. Randhir Singh is with the Sports and Culture Federation of Ontario and organizes weekly matches. He's glad the city has approved the new stadium.

"They took so long, now we are happy at least now they decided to put something here for Kabaddi," he says. "This is a really interesting game and it's part of our heritage too."

He estimates the community spends $2.5 million on the sport in tickets, sponsorships and other related activities. He sees the sport growing and the quality of play increasing with a dedicated stadium.

The players say the new facility is a sign of the sports growth and acceptance.    "It's actually showing that for Canada basically it's growing other than India, that we have our own stadium to come play at and people will come to look at us here," Tatla says.

Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in July with the aim to have the stadium ready by the Spring of 2013.