An aerial rendering of the new roof.
SHANE: FOR
No question – BC Place was in drastic need of an upgrade. Drab would be an apt description of the stadium. BC Place was state of the art in when it opened in 1983...but so were DeLoreans and Sony Walkmans.
And Vancouverites might just be a little jealous of how Seattle tore down the Kingdome and got two beautiful stadiums as a result. So we need a new stadium? Great. Where are you going to put it?
You have to put it downtown. Downtown is the only place that makes any sense. You can’t have it in Burnaby or the near PNE – the local residents can barely stand the traffic caused by events at the PNE and Coliseum respectively. Putting the stadium out in Surrey or the Maple Ridge area kills any walk-up sales you intend on getting (which for the Lions, can be a considerable portion of the crowd) so the stadium needs to be somewhere downtown. In case you haven’t noticed, there's not a whole lot of room in downtown Vancouver anymore. If you look up you’ll see highrise buildings. Everywhere. Lots of people live there. Some of those people can even walk to BC Place to see a game.
