{"id":10364,"date":"2010-04-07T10:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T14:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=10364"},"modified":"2010-04-07T14:06:27","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T18:06:27","slug":"vancouvers-empire-strikes-bland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/07\/vancouvers-empire-strikes-bland\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver&#8217;s Empire strikes bland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/football.ballparks.com\/CFL\/BC\/oldaerial.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE:<\/strong> <em>Spacing will be eventually heading out west with the launch of Spacing Vancouver. We still don&#8217;t have a set date yet, but it&#8217;ll be soon, we promise. In the meantime, Spacing&#8217;s editors thought it would be good to acquaint our Toronto readers with some Vancouver urban issues news. Spacing contributor Liam Lahey recently relocated to Vancouver and filed this post.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>The Canadian Football League\u2019s (CFL) <a href=\"http:\/\/bclions.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">B.C. Lions<\/a> are going back to their roots for the  coming season by returning to the site on which historic <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Empire_Stadium,_Vancouver\" target=\"_blank\">Empire Stadium<\/a> once stood in Hastings Park in East  Vancouver. It\u2019s just too bad the Lions have called for building a drab,  uninspiring structure to discourage their fans from becoming emotionally  attached to the outdoor field.<\/p>\n<p>The original Empire Stadium, built in 1954 for the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/1954_British_Empire_and_Commonwealth_Games\" target=\"_blank\">British Empire and Commonwealth Games<\/a>, was the  reason Vancouver landed a CFL franchise in the same year. At one time,  it was Vancouver\u2019s premiere outdoor amphitheatre. Among its many  highlights: it was the site of the first televised sports event  broadcast live to all of North America (The Miracle Mile) and The  Beatles played there in August 1964. After the Lions and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitecapsfc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver  Whitecaps<\/a> soccer club moved to BC Place in 1983, Empire Stadium was without  tenants and it was demolished 10 years later.<\/p>\n<p>The Leos\u2019 move back to Empire Stadium was necessitated by the  forthcoming installation of a retractable roof at the cavernous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bcplacestadium.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">BC Place<\/a> stadium in downtown Vancouver. The Whitecaps will also play at Empire  Stadium this summer as a result of the renovations.<\/p>\n<p>BC Place is a horrible place to witness a football match or any game  for that matter. It can accommodate 60,000 fans but it usually lacks  enough people to form even a modest-sized crowd, which might speak more  to the state of the CFL than the building itself. The situation is akin  to how Torontonians are quick to dismiss <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerscentre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">SkyDome<\/a> (a.k.a.  Rogers Centre) as a wretched place to see sports that should be played  outdoors (thousands of empty seats, pain in the butt to access,  uninspiring surroundings). Like Toronto&#8217;s SkyDome, BC Place provides about as much  atmosphere as a concrete slab possibly can (read: none at all).<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As outlined in a recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vancouversun.com\/sports\/2010wintergames\/Stadium+rises+from+Empire+ashes\/2679882\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Vancouver Sun<\/em> article<\/a>, due to stringent  building and seismic codes, the temporary 27,500-seat coliseum being  built on Empire Stadium\u2019s grounds will have a steel-framed, metal-clad  roof able to withstand wind and snow loads for many years to come. But  in November 2011, it will be dismantled.<\/p>\n<p>Reportedly, the Lions specifically told the structure\u2019s builders to  ensure it\u2019s as dull as can be, lest fans realize watching a CFL or  soccer game outdoors with a glorious view of the North Shore\u2019s mountains  beats the bejeezus out of trying to stay awake inside ugly, stale,  barren BC Place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey want it to look utilitarian and deliberately low-key,\u201d the  co-owner of Clearbrook Iron Works, the Fraser Valley steel fabricating  company assembling the structure, told the Sun.<\/p>\n<p>If the Lions and Whitecaps are keeners to return to BC Place in 2011  to play their games, let them! But the teams\u2019 fans ought to encourage  other Vancouverites to collectively rally behind permanently  resurrecting Empire Stadium and restoring it to its former glory.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo from Vancouver Archives<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: Spacing will be eventually heading out west with the launch of Spacing Vancouver. We still don&#8217;t have a set date yet, but it&#8217;ll be soon, we promise. In the meantime, Spacing&#8217;s editors thought it would be good to acquaint our Toronto readers with some Vancouver urban issues news. Spacing contributor Liam Lahey recently<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/07\/vancouvers-empire-strikes-bland\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Vancouver&#8217;s Empire strikes bland&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4079,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[14708,14711,10835,14706,14712,14713,14709,14710,14707,12259,14714,1154,5384,569,5861,762,14715,19,54,14117],"class_list":["post-10364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spacing","tag-bc-place-stadium","tag-bland-editor","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-clearbrook-iron-works","tag-co-owner","tag-commonwealth-games","tag-empire-stadium","tag-football","tag-fraser-valley","tag-liam-lahey","tag-metal-clad-roof","tag-north-america","tag-rogers-centre","tag-skydome","tag-soccer","tag-steel","tag-steel-fabricating","tag-toronto","tag-vancouver","tag-vancouver-sun"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Vancouver&#039;s Empire strikes bland - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2010\/04\/07\/vancouvers-empire-strikes-bland\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vancouver&#039;s Empire strikes bland - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EDITOR&#8217;S NOTE: Spacing will be eventually heading out west with the launch of Spacing Vancouver. 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