The Open Database of Sports and Recreational Facilities

The Open Database of Sports and Recreational Facilities (ODSRF) (formerly known as the Open Database of Recreational and Sport Facilities (ODRSF)) is a collection of open data containing the names, types, and locations of sports and recreational facilities across Canada. It is released under the Open Government Licence -– Canada and is a component of the Linkable Open Data Environment.

The ODSRF includes open data primarily from federal, provincial and territorial, and municipal governments, with the goal of offering a harmonized collection of sports and recreational features across Canada.

Data sources and methodology

Source data collected for this project are made available under various  open data licences. Each dataset was harmonized, including adopting a common table schema, removing duplicate records, conflating features to a province or territory and census subdivision, classifying features by type, and cleaning datasets when needed.

The ODSRF type classification is represented by 54 unique feature types:

• arena or stadium: facilities called arenas or stadiums where sports or recreational activities take place;
• ball or field hockey: locations for ball or field hockey;
• baseball: features related to baseball, including baseball fields, diamonds, dugouts and batting cages;
• basketball: features related to basketball, including full and half basketball courts, and hoop locations;
• beach: waterfront beach areas;
• beach volleyball: facilities for playing beach volleyball;
• bocce: locations for playing bocce;
• bowling: bowling alley facilities;
• camping: facilities related to camping, including campsites, campgrounds, and camping amenities;
• cricket: locations for playing cricket (e.g., cricket pitches and fields);
• curling: facilities for playing curling;
• cycling: recreational cycling trails and facilities that are typically not part of the road network (i.e., not including road bike lanes);
• disc golf: locations for playing disc golf;
• dog park: parks and facilities for dogs;
• equestrian: locations related to horseback riding;
• fishing: sites dedicated to fishing related activities;
• football: facilities for playing football;
• gardening: locations for community gardening activities;
• golf: golf courses or golf related facilities (e.g., golf club facilities);
• greenspace or open space: areas that provide green or open spaces but are not formally named parks. (e.g., conservation areas, green corridors, and ecological reserves);
• gymnasium or fitness centre: both public and private gym, fitness centers, and larger gymnasium facilities;
• horseshoe: horseshoe pit locations;
• lacrosse: facilities for playing lacrosse;
• lawn bowling: locations where lawn bowling is played;
• marine: facilities related to marine sporting activities, including boat launches and marinas;
• motorized trail: trails dedicated to motorized vehicles (snow mobiles, all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes, etc.);
• park: areas designated as parks, including national, provincial and municipal park locations;
• path or trail: urban and rural trails or pathways for recreation purposes; this does not include all pedestrian paths that are part of the transportation network (e.g., sidewalks are not included) and is limited to recreational features located away from the road network (e.g., forest hiking trails or walking paths in recreation features like parks);
• pickleball: court locations for playing pickleball;
• picnic: features specifically related to picnic activities, including picnic sites and shelters;
• ping pong: facilities for playing ping pong;
• playground: designated play spaces and playground equipment;
• pétanque: facilities for playing pétanque;
• recreation centre: recreation or community centres or halls where recreation activities occur;
• rink: ice rink locations for skating or hockey activities;
• rugby: facilities for playing rugby;
• shooting or archery range: locations related to shooting or archery ranges and gun facilities;
• shuffleboard: facilities for playing shuffleboard;
• skateboard park: parks used for skateboarding;
• ski: facilities related to cross-country or downhill skiing;
• snowshoe: trails designed for snow shoeing activities;
• soccer: locations for playing soccer;
• softball: fields specifically used for playing softball;
• specialty park: spaces with a specific recreational purpose (e.g., zoo, fairgrounds, and rodeos);
• splash pad: urban areas for water play, including splash pads, and water parks;
• sports court: sports courts on which sports can be played;
• sports field: sports fields on which sports can be played;
• swimming: locations used for swimming including indoor and outdoor swimming pools;
• tennis: court locations for playing tennis;
• toboggan: designated areas for tobogganing or sledding activities;
• track and field: facilities for track and field activities, including running tracks, shot put facilities, and jump facilities;
• ultimate frisbee: locations for playing ultimate frisbee;
• volleyball: locations for playing volleyball;
• miscellaneous: facilities that do not fall into any of the above categories.

The ODSRF coverage is not exhaustive, and it may not contain all facilities in scope for the current version. While efforts have been made to minimize these issues, facility type classification and geolocation errors are also possible, and in some cases, locations may have multiple uses but only one assigned type. While all data are released on the same date, the dates as of which data are current depends on the update dates of the sources used.

The current version of the database (version 2.0) contains approximately 249,000 records. Data were collected by accessing sources in 2025 and 2026.

The variables included in the ODSRF are as follows:

• id: a unique identifier for the record;
• source_id: the identifier provided by the source;
• source_class: the class or type of feature defined by the source;
• category: the broader sports and/or recreation asset classification level (level 1);
• group: the sports and/or recreation sub-category asset classification level (level 2);
• type: the specific sports and/or recreation asset classification detailed level (level 3);
• provider: the name of the provider of the source data;
• name: the name of the feature if available;
• address: the physical address of the feature;
• prov_terr: the two-character code representing the Canadian province or territory the feature is associated with;
• dguid: the 16-character code representing the dissemination geography unique identifier the feature is associated with;
• csdname: the 2021 census subdivision name;
• amenities: a list of amenities associated with the feature record, commonly associated with parks or playgrounds;
• accessible: an indication of whether the location is defined as accessible;
• material: the physical make-up of the feature, commonly used to describe the surface of a structure;
• year_built: the year the facility or feature was created;
• ownership: the name of the owner of the facility;
• status: the status of the feature, if provided;
• width: the width of the feature;
• geometry: the geometry of the feature.

For more information on how the variables were compiled, see the metadata that accompany the ODSRF.

Changes from version 1 of the Open Database of Recreational and Sport Facilities

Extensive changes have occurred between ODSRF version 2.0 and its predecessor ODRSF version 1.0.

• Spatial coverage increased across the country, up from about 182,000 features to about 249,000.
• New spatial geometry types were included. The previous release was limited to only point features, which have expanded to include lines and polygons as well. This has resulted in many previous collections of points (e.g., points along a trail) being replaced by line features.
• Data are now published in two open spatial file formats.
• Attribute data beyond name, type, and geometry were added. New additions include material, year built, ownership, accessibility, and amenity information.  Address information was condensed to a single field.
• Feature types increased from the original 18 to 54 unique types.
• The previous type of athletic parks was replaced by sport-specific types.
• Casino features were removed because of changes in project scope.

Downloading the Open Database of Sports and Recreational Facilities

The ODSRF is provided in two compressed formats for easier downloading; GeoPackage and GeoParquet.

• ODSRF v2 (GeoPackage)
• ODSRF v2 (GeoParquet)