BC Lions happy the home dome is no more

The BC Lions kicked off their official team training camp June 06, 2010, at Thompson River University in Kamloops. CTV

It was hot, dark and sometimes it felt like you were playing football inside the walls of a prison.

The memories BC Lions centre Angus Reid has of playing under the artificial dome at BC Place Stadium are not all rainbows and puppies.

So it's not surprising Reid is thrilled the Lions are moving outdoors this CFL season and will play at a temporary facility built on the site of old Empire Stadium. The Lions' first game in their new digs will be an exhibition match Sunday afternoon against the Edmonton Eskimos.

"I'm happy we're getting back to outdoors," Reid, a Vancouver native, said Friday. "It's the way football should be done."

The 27,500-seat Empire Field cost $14.4 million to build and was assembled in 111 days. The facility is located on the Pacific National Exhibition grounds in East Vancouver. The change in venue was necessary because of construction of the new $458-million retractable roof at BC Place Stadium in downtown Vancouver.

For the Lions, it's a return to their roots. Empire Stadium was the team's home from Aug. 11, 1954, when they played the Montreal Alouettes, until 1982.

"There is something special when you walk into the stadium," said Dennis Skulsky, the Lions president and chief executive officer. "This is going to bring back a lot of fond memories."

The media was given a tour of the new facility Friday.

While local politicians made speeches workers were busy putting up the goal posts and sweeping the stands. In the middle of the field the Lions' bright orange logo had been painted in the green grass of the new artificial turf. The turf meets standards for FIFA, soccer's international governing body.

The Vancouver Whitecaps will play their first Major League Soccer games at Empire Field next year. The renovations at BC Place are expected to be completed by July 2011.

"This is as close as I think you will get to an English soccer stadium in North America," said an impressed Paul Barber, the former executive director of Tottenham Hotspur who is now the Whitecaps CEO.

"This is going to be a really exciting place for us to be."

The stadium will feature 12 private boxes, which can seat up to 18 guests each. The press box will seat up to 45.

A 6,200-square-metre roof will cover about 45 per cent of the seats. Two dressing rooms are located inside the stadium, but all bathroom facilities and concession stands for fans are located outside the facility.

The stadium offers a view of the snow-capped mountains on Vancouver's North Shore and the blue waters of Burrard Inlet.

A warm sun was shining in a clear sky during Friday's tour. The weather conditions could be much different this fall when temperatures drop and a cold rain falls on fans not protected by the roof.

Reid said it's time for Lions fans to man up.

"I think we have a lot of pansies here on the West Coast if they are going to complain if it rains a little bit," he snorted. "You go to Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. They fill those stadiums up and there are a lot harsher conditions there."

It might have been dry in old BC Place, but it wasn't always comfortable.

"The way the dome was made, in summer it would heat up like a greenhouse," Reid said. "It was real muggy.

"The lighting was terrible. It was so grey and so (much) cement, it looked prisonesque. It didn't have a lot of life inside of it. It looked old and tired."

Reid is looking forward to playing outside on warm nights with a breeze blowing in off the ocean. He's not worried about squalls or wind.

"I've dealt with snow, I've dealt with freezing," he said. "That is part of football.

"It's an outdoor game played by men in whatever conditions are there."

The stadium was constructed of 1,000 tonnes of steel, much of it recycled from temporary venues built for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is held in place by 550 concrete blocks weighing 1,100 tonnes. The building is wrapped in 15,800 square metres of fabric mesh cladding.

The 9,600 square metres of artificial turf has more than one trillion grass blades.

The 8,000-kilogram video scoreboard can show videos in both standard and high definition.

Once construction is finished on BC Place, the stadium will be removed but the field and some lighting will remain.

Skulsky admitted some Lions fans, accustomed to the controlled environment of BC Place, won't enjoy the stroll down memory lane.

"If you look at the Olympics (there) were many temporary venues," he said. "People accepted that.

"They know it's not forever. Give us one year of nostalgia. I think it's worth it if there's an inconvenience."

Empire Stadium was opened July 30, 1954, and was built for that year's British Empire and Commonwealth Games.

During the Games both Roger Bannister and John Landy ran the mile race in under four minutes. A statue honouring the race stands at the entrance to the PNE grounds.

The stadium had an illustrious history.

It hosted seven Grey Cups, including the 1955 game which was the first CFL championship played west of Ontario.

The first soccer match was staged there in June 1956 with Everton of the English First Division playing Scottish League champions Aberdeen.

Elvis Presley performed on Aug. 31, 1957, one of only three appearances he made outside of the United States. The stadium also hosted the only Canadian date on the Beatles' first North American tour on Aug. 22, 1964.

Empire Stadium was demolished in January 1993.