BC LIONS vs SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS : EMPIRE FIELD – 31October2010
Finally, on the last home game of the season, I made it to Empire Field!
While BC Place is under renovations the CFL’s BC Lions have ventured across town to their old East Van stomping grounds and encamped at a temporary 27,000 stadium at Empire Field.
I’d heard all season about the great views and audience experience and I must agree they have done an exceptional job for a temporary venue. We had great seats (thanks Pam!) in the second row, right behind the Lions bench but it looked like every row had great sightlines of the field. There was decent, fast service at the concession stands and beer stalls around the outside of the stadium. Since it was a dry, warm afternoon when the game started it made the experience even better.
The Half-Time show on this day was a tribute to Veterans in commemoration of the upcoming Veteran’s Week. It was a really well done half time experience. I know from speaking with Lion’s management that there were a lot of other great half time shows over the season. So even though at the begining of the season the Lions weren’t putting on a lot of winning shows they still entertained the audience. This seems to have paid off, if the looks and sounds of the boisterous Halloween day crowd is anything to go by, they were still firmly pro-Lions (much to the dismay of the many wearing ’Riders green in the crowd)
Next season Empire Field will be temporary home to another football club as Whitecaps FC begin their premier MLS season at the field they also played on back in the NASL era. Once BC Place is completed, scheduled for June, the Whitecaps and Lions will play under its new retracable roof and Empire Field’s temporary structures will come down and it will revert back to a public field.
I look forward to seeing more games at Empire!