Empire Stadium will be reborn in 2010.
B.C. Pavilion Corporation is taking over a corner of the Pacific National Exhibition grounds at Hastings Park as a temporary home of the Canadian Football League's B.C. Lions and North American Soccer League's Vancouver Whitecaps while B.C. Place Stadium undergoes a half-billion-dollar, retractable roof installation.
A news conference is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. PavCo sought companies to build a 30,000 to 32,000-seat temporary stadium with grandstand coverage for spectators. Switzerland-headquartered Nussli, the supplier to VANOC of temporary Olympic seating and bleachers, was among the bidders. Cost of the temporary stadium is expected to exceed $10 million.
Empire Stadium opened July 30, 1954 for $2 million and stood until it was demolished in October 1992. It was effectively replaced in 1983 when B.C. Place Stadium opened in downtown Vancouver by False Creek.
Empire was built on a golf course to host the ceremonies and athletics events for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The nine-day Games climaxed on Aug. 7, 1954 with the famed Miracle Mile. England's Roger Bannister beat rival John Landy of Australia, marking the first time two men finished the same mile race in less than four minutes.
The Games were called "miniature Olympics" in the debut Aug. 16, 1954 edition of Sports Illustrated.
Empire was home of the B.C. Lions from 1954 to 1982 and hosted seven Grey Cups. The Vancouver Whitecaps played at Empire from 1974 to 1983. Elvis Presley performed in 1957 while the Beatles came seven years later.
The 1992 demolition and Victoria's 1994 Commonwealth Games were a catalyst for Sport BC to study an Olympic bid. Vancouver was chosen in 2003 to host the 2010 Winter Games.
B.C. Place is the site of Olympic opening and closing ceremonies in February.
Its air-supported, fabric roof ripped and collapsed in January 2007 because the snow-melting system was not used. The provincial government decided in May 2008 to replace it with a retractable system after the Olympics. The cost has ballooned from $365 million to nearly $600 million.
