Empire Today

[QB Club 63]

I went by Empire Field on Thursday & brought my camera. Made up a stitched-together panorama shot taken from near the southwest gates.

http://s566.photobucket.com/albums/ss10 ... norama.jpg

[MexicoLionFan]

Thanks for posting...

[B.C.FAN]

I drive past there every day but have never seen anyone using the field and didn't know if it was completely fenced off. The image you posted suggests that pedestrian access is allowed. Do soccer players use the field?

[Bosco]

Great photo

Playing there once again seems like distant memory.

[Lions4ever]

Whew. For a minute I thought this was going to be about that carpet place.

[Mikemike]

Playing there once again seems like distant memory.

Yeah, a distant BAD memory.

[WestCoastJoe]

Many memories from Empire. Willie and Joe bringing us some great years. The Bombers of Grant, Ploen, Pitts and Funston beating the Lions. The Riders of Lancaster and Reed beating the Lions. So many great running backs over the years ... Fleming, Beamer, Evenson, Harris, Eley, Musso, on and on ...

The Whitecaps beating Pele and the Cosmos, the stadium jam packed and electric.

Living in the neighborhood as a kid ... Seeing Lions like Nub Beamer going into the Admiral Hotel for beers. Extroverted, loud, confident athletes, from another world.

Thanks for the photo.

I drove by BC Place. It is just beautiful IMO. I love the way they can change the colours. The support columns are awesome.

[David]

I will always have special memories of Empire Stadium from when I was a kid, but I thought Tempire as a temporary facility wasn't half bad (to which some of you will say, "yea, it was ALL bad." ). I still maintain one's impression was tainted not by the lack of amenities, but by the lack of entertaining football!

I am going to miss the view of the North Shore mountains, the glorious sunsets, great tailgating so close to the stadium, the close proximity to the field from my seats on the 50 yard line, all the fans packed in tight, and the players high-fiving all the fans as they made their way from the locker room trailer to the tunnel.



DH

[TheLionKing]

Who weren't beating the Lions at Empire Stadium ? Ah memories of that old lady......Woodward's Quarterback Club, Dal Richards and the Beefeaters, pregame shows and the annual inter high track meets

[TheFanWithTheFlag]

I am probably not the only one that misses Empire Stadium. I was going through my pictures today and came across this photo i took last year with my phone. Then i felt alittle sad that this is what is was last year to what it is now. Even though it wasn't a very sunny day in this photo but how can you miss the view, where else can u sit at a stadium watch some football and see mountains in the background. Priceless
RIP Emipre Stadium

[QB Club 63]

Often the way we remember things is influenced by how we perceived them at the time. Like you, I remember Empire Stadium - both versions - with great fondness. Certainly there were negatives, but there was such a great atmosphere, a unique character to the setting and to the location.

When it comes to Empire 2.0, my worst memory has nothing to do with the stadium or the final score. It has to do with Translink's utter failure to provide reasonable service. How else do you explain it taking 3 hours to get home to North Van after a game? I'm sure I could have walked home faster! And the most aggravating part was standing at the bus stop on E Hastings watching SIX buses roll by marked "Sorry, not in service"!!!

But there are plenty of good 2.0 moments - seeing the players interact with the fans (was P Jack the first to climb the end zone wall?), tailgating on my birthday, taking a pre-game walk around the PNE in my Lions gear and seeing HUNDREDS of other fans doing the same, and just watching other fans having a great time.

Rick, you should see about putting together a t-shirt that combines the 2 tribute shirts from 2011. The back of the shirt (representing the past) would be like the photo above, End of an Empire on a black background, and the front (moving forward) would be orange, with the Return to BC Place logo on it. I'll take an XL. please!

[sj-roc]

When it comes to Empire 2.0, my worst memory has nothing to do with the stadium or the final score. It has to do with Translink's utter failure to provide reasonable service. How else do you explain it taking 3 hours to get home to North Van after a game? I'm sure I could have walked home faster! And the most aggravating part was standing at the bus stop on E Hastings watching SIX buses roll by marked "Sorry, not in service"!!!

Not sure if you're referring to any specific route, but for the shuttles that ran non-stop to skytrain, you had to be in the right place to board them. Those post-game buses would initially approach from the east and pass Empire empty and NIS, not letting anyone on until they reached their boarding location up near Windermere. I think the rationale was to allow space for other shuttles to queue up behind it on Hastings, west of Cassiar. I recall many people standing just outside the stadium expecting to board right there and you sometimes had to negotiate your way through them all to get up to the boarding location.

I think the Empire 2.0 era proved that the PNE location would never work today as a long term home for the Lions. There just simply aren't enough transit options compared to what fans travelling downtown have become accustomed to in the last 25 years.

[TheFanWithTheFlag]

Rick, you should see about putting together a t-shirt that combines the 2 tribute shirts from 2011. The back of the shirt (representing the past) would be like the photo above, End of an Empire on a black background, and the front (moving forward) would be orange, with the Return to BC Place logo on it. I'll take an XL. please!

I AGREE I WILL TAKE A XL

[Sir Purrcival]

I have to disagree on the analysis of the transit situation. When they built BC place back starting in 81, Skytrain wasn't in that local either. If they hadn't had the benefit of a rail tunnel already being in that location, who knows if they ever would have? Had they built BC Place at the PNE, I think it is highly likely that some better transit infrastructure would have evolved to service the area. Translink wasn't really going break it's back trying to sort out the congestion issues for what amounted to about 20 or so Lions games over the course of a year and a half. As it stands, Translink still doesn't really get this neck of the woods. A tram line or light rail line going along the length of Hastings would still be the best solution IMO and it could carry out easily as far as PoCo. The WestCoast Express doesn't service that area at all and doesn't run at times that it would be useful. In an ideal world, they could also carry something like this across the Inlet to the North Shore. For reasons that elude me, there appears to be an almost ridiculous resistance to putting anything at grade in Vancouver. It works fabulous in Portland and is clean and quiet and much cheaper than Skytrain. It was what they had before the brighter lights of the day decided to scrap the Interurban system. Translink would rather provide dingy old buses instead which are often packed to the brim and hardly scale-able. Having said all that, the Lions for whatever reason seem to play very poorly at the Empire site. I remember those long suffering seasons, the 21 years until 85. I would rather go downtown despite the inconvenience rather than have them continue their losing ways.

[TheFanWithTheFlag]

[quote="Sir Purrcival"]Having said all that, the Lions for whatever reason seem to play very poorly at the Empire site.quote]

I will agree with you on this one. BC Place is the place for the Lions, i just miss the outside experience of football, the atmosphere.