1951
A group, led by Ken Stauffer and Tiny Radar, inspired by Vancouver Sun columnist Andy Lyle, sent representatives to the off-season WlFU meetings to initiate Vancouver's bid for a team. The representatives (Radar and Orville Burke) were told to return to the meetings the following year with a $25,000 good-faith bond if they could generate sufficient interest at home. The first meetings were held at the Arctic Club in November and a committee headed by Burke and Harry Spring set out to sell memberships at $20 each.
1952
Even though Burke, Vic Spencer and John Davidson offered the good-faith bond to the WIFU the idea was rejected when both Winnipeg and Regina voted against the idea of a fifth team. The group in Vancouver did not give up and continued their efforts.
1953
The first annual meeting of the club, held on January 22, 1953 saw Arthur E. Mercer named as the first President, and later in the year Mercer, Bill Morgan, Bill Ralston and Whit Matthews went back to the WlFU meetings. This time they sold the idea of a fifth team on the West Coast, and Vancouver was granted a conditional franchise, on the requirements of a 15,000 seat stadium, selling 6,500 season tickets and guaranteed travel expenses of the visiting teams. All the pieces began to fall into place when it was announced that Vancouver would host the 1954 British Empire Games, and that it would mean the building of a new stadium – Empire Stadium. By Easter of ‘53, Annis Stukus was lured away from Toronto, to return to the West as the first Head Coach of the B.C. Lions.
