Cadillac Fairview is leveraging its status as the Official Home of Team Canada to transform CF Toronto Eaton Centre into an interactive Olympic experience, bringing winter sports directly to one of Canada’s busiest retail destinations.
Running Feb. 6-22, CF Play Makers features three main activations—a family-friendly curling experience on the Victoria Secret Corridor, an interactive hockey shooting and stickhandling station at Trinity Court, and a ski simulator at MAC Court—alongside a Team Canada viewing lounge at Queens Cross Food Hall where shoppers can watch the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan, Italy.
The initiative launches across 10 CF properties nationwide, marking one of the most ambitious experiential retail programs tied to the Winter Games.
At the Feb. 5 media preview, Cadillac Fairview brought five decorated Canadian Olympians to demonstrate the experiences and discuss the program’s broader community impact: Jennifer Botterill (hockey, three-time gold medalist and 2025 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee), Jennifer Jones (curling, 2014 Olympic champion), Patrick Chan (figure skating, three-time world champion, 2018 Olympic Champion), Damian Warner (athletics/decathlon, 2020 Olympic champion) and Brian Stemmle (alpine skiing, Canadian Ski Hall of Fame).
Building Experiences Beyond Retail
For Jodi Clare, Senior Director of Partnerships and Business Development at Cadillac Fairview, the program represents a fundamental evolution in how shopping centres engage their communities.
“We believe in building vibrant communities, and we want Canadians to understand that we are creating meaningful experiences within our properties,” Clare said. “In this instance, we’re leveraging our Olympic partnership to create accessible opportunities for play and connection through sport. However, our commitment extends well beyond any single partnership or event—we’re dedicated to fostering spaces where communities can gather, share in moments of national pride, and experience the sense of unity that the Olympic Games inspire.”
The distinction between retail destination and community hub has become increasingly central to CF’s strategic positioning, particularly as the company manages $26 billion in assets across 52 landmark properties throughout Canada.
The Inspiration Factor
The caliber of athletes assembled for the preview underscored the authenticity CF seeks to bring to the initiative. Jones, who went undefeated en route to Olympic gold in Sochi 2014 and was named by TSN as the greatest Canadian female curler of all time, represents the level of credibility that elevates the program beyond conventional experiential retail.
“People fundamentally seek inspiration, and these athletes embody precisely that quality,” Clare said. “Whether they’ve earned gold medals or represented Canada across multiple Olympic cycles, they continue to inspire us through their dedication to competing for our country at the highest level. Our objective is to build genuine community—to demonstrate that Olympians share the same values and aspirations as the rest of us. We should all draw inspiration from one another, because each person contributes something valuable to our collective experience, regardless of whether they’ve competed on the world stage.”
For Jennifer Botterill—who won three consecutive Olympic gold medals from 2002-2010 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2025—the activation creates what she describes as “light bulb moments” for young people discovering sport for the first time.
“You can never predict when a single experience might prove transformative for a child—when they suddenly grasp the full scope of what’s possible for themselves,” Botterill said. “That’s the profound power of sport. It becomes a formative life experience, instilling lessons you carry throughout your entire journey. Watching young people pick up a hockey stick for the first time, attempt their first shot, navigate their first stickhandling challenge—I’m deeply honored to help create those pivotal moments of discovery.”
Botterill, who was the youngest member of Canada’s first women’s Olympic hockey team in 1998 at age 18 and delivered the assist on Marie-Philip Poulin’s gold medal-winning goal at Vancouver 2010 in her final international game, sees clear continuity between her competitive career and her current work as a broadcaster and community ambassador.
“The lessons I internalized as an athlete and competitor have proven invaluable in broadcasting and public engagement,” she said. “Remaining connected to hockey and sport in this evolved capacity has been profoundly fulfilling. I experience genuine gratitude every day for the opportunity to still participate in this world. What initiatives like CF Play Makers represent is fundamentally about expanding choice and opportunity—ensuring young Canadians understand the full spectrum of possibilities available to them.”
Breaking Down Barriers to Entry
Jennifer Jones articulated a critical challenge the activation directly addresses: accessibility. While basketball courts and community skating rinks are commonplace across Canada, curling remains sequestered behind both physical and cultural barriers for most Canadians.
“Having curling positioned prominently here in the Eaton Centre, featured front and centre during the Olympics when the sport receives significant media coverage and enters people’s living rooms, represents a tremendous opportunity,” Jones said. “Curling isn’t mainstream yet, though I believe one day it will achieve that status. Seeing the sport included in this activation is genuinely inspiring, and I’m hopeful it will encourage substantial participation.”
Jones, who has captured six Canadian championships and represented Canada at both the Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 Olympics, emphasized the importance of showcasing athletes’ complete journeys beyond the brief moments of Olympic competition.
“Reaching the Olympic stage requires a lifetime of dedicated training—navigating the inevitable ups and downs that every athlete experiences,” she said. “The trials and tribulations are universal across sports. Curling athletes face the same challenges, the same demanding path to excellence. That’s precisely why telling their stories matters—sharing their dreams and dedication with all of Canada, with the global community, and elevating them on the world stage they’ve earned.”
Jones also reflected on how the evolution of digital platforms has transformed athlete visibility between Olympic cycles.
“When we won Olympic gold in 2014, Twitter was just emerging as a platform—people were still asking, ‘What’s that?'” she recalled. “The landscape has evolved dramatically. Today, it’s substantially easier to cultivate your profile and brand, provided you maintain an active social media presence. Of course, that’s an additional responsibility layered onto your training regimen, so there are both advantages and trade-offs. The benefit is that social media enables you to sustain public awareness and keep curling—or any sport—visible to audiences throughout the four-year cycle leading to the Games.”
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Strategic Sport Selection
Determining which sports to feature across 10 locations required extensive collaboration with the Canadian Olympic Committee and National Sports Organizations, balanced against the practical constraints of indoor retail environments.
“We worked closely with our partners at the Canadian Olympic Committee and the National Sports Organizations across the country,” Clare said. “We face certain practical limitations—we operate indoor malls without skating rinks in the center concourse, so some sports simply wouldn’t be feasible. However, we consider ourselves extraordinarily fortunate to bring these Olympic sports that people rarely encounter in their everyday lives. I’ve spoken with numerous visitors today who have never experienced curling, despite it being such a quintessentially Canadian sport. We’re privileged to bring curling indoors and provide people with the opportunity to participate.”
The program extends well beyond the three sports featured at Toronto Eaton Centre. CF Market Mall in Calgary and CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa will host biathlon experiences in partnership with Foothills Nordic and Chelsea Nordiq respectively, while CF Richmond Centre will feature a bobsled photo opportunity staffed by personnel from the Richmond Olympic Oval.
Additional participating properties include CF Sherway Gardens, CF Fairview Mall, CF Chinook Centre, CF Carrefour Laval, CF Fairview Pointe Claire and CF Polo Park, each featuring various combinations of curling experiences through Curling Canada, hockey activations and viewing lounges.
“The Olympics cultivate a unique curiosity about sports that individuals may never encounter in their ordinary lives,” Clare said. “If we can begin introducing people to these disciplines, we generate excitement about physical activity and enthusiasm for the Olympic movement itself.”
Looking Ahead
CF Play Makers represents a test case for how retail landlords can generate community value beyond transactions. By combining high-traffic locations, Olympic credibility and accessible sport experiences, Cadillac Fairview is positioning its properties as cultural destinations rather than purely commercial spaces.
The Feb. 6-22 activation at CF Toronto Eaton Centre runs concurrent with the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan, with viewing lounges providing dedicated spaces for shoppers to watch competitions while engaging with the on-site sport experiences.
For Botterill, the measure of success extends far beyond foot traffic metrics or social media engagement.
“I vividly remember watching the Olympics as a child, and the first time I heard an Olympic athlete speak in person was Mark Tewksbury at a soccer tournament when I was in Grade 8,” she said. “That moment remains crystallized in my memory decades later. If even a single young person here today, or throughout these coming weeks, experiences that same sense of possibility—physically engaging with these sports, absorbing the energy and excitement—that brings me immense joy. The most beautiful aspect of the Olympics is the sharing. This activation represents an opportunity to share the joy of sport with every Canadian who walks through these doors.”
@cadillacfairview This is your sign to come out and play! 🏒 🥌⛷️ We were thrilled to kick off our CF Play Makers activations alongside Canadian Olympic legends @damian_warner, @jennibotterillr, Patrick Chan, Jennifer Jones, and Brian Stemmle at CF Toronto Eaton Centre From now until February 22, we invite you to try Olympic-inspired sports indoors and cheer on Team Canada together at select CF shopping centres across Canada! #CadillacFairview #Meetyouthere #CFPlayMakers #TeamCanada ♬ original sound – Cadillac Fairview
Dustin Fuhs is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail, Toronto’s premier source for retail and hospitality industry news. As the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication, Dustin brings over two decades of expertise spanning retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality sectors. His experience includes roles with industry giants such as The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, The Canadian Opera Company, Starbucks Canada and Blockbuster.
Recognized as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024, 2025 and 2026, Dustin delivers insider perspectives on Toronto’s evolving retail landscape, from emerging brands to established players reshaping the city’s commercial districts.