Kadie Smith
For the first 29 years of BC Lions 61 years in the CFL, the team played at Empire Stadium, an outdoor venue at the PNE site at Hastings Park. With bench seating and a track running around the field…a rare sight at a football game.
Back in the, ‘60s when a bag of Nally’s chips could get a kid free entrance at a Lions’ game and a seat on the grass in the endzone, to
the Beatles’ first concert in Canada, Empire Stadium housed special memories for both the BC Lions and the city of Vancouver.
First constructed for the 1954 Commonwealth Games, the stadium was the first to hold the Grey Cup game west of Ontario, and in1970, became the first facility in Canada to use artificial turf. In 1982, the Lions moved to their new digs at BC Place, and Empire sat unused until the early ‘90s when the stadium was demolished as used as a parking lot for the neighbouring PNE and Playland sites, finally converting to a community sports park years later.
Nostalgia set in when the roof deflated at BC Place in 2007 and Lions had to move to a temporary site for their 2010 season, and with the already-constructed field at the old Empire site, it made sense to head back to the place where it all began, complete with several rows of bench seating. The new temporary home was renamed Empire Field.
While you couldn’t grab a seat on the grass in the endzone anymore, the renamed Empire Field felt just like Empire Stadium, where the Leos qualified for the playoffs in ’59 for the first time, where they had a perfect 8-0 record in 1963, where they laid out an 11-2-3 record in ’64, winning their first Grey Cup that year over the rivaled Ti-Cats.
2010 was a step back in time for many Lions’ fans, and the first time new-era fans were treated to outdoor football in BC…and yes, you did get rained on. The Lions sold out their inaugural-season-opener game vs. the Riders and despite their 5-10 record there, fans flocked to Empire in strong numbers finally saying goodbye in 2011 with a 28-6 win over the Argos where Geroy Simon broke the team TD record at 88 on a 33-yard snag from Travis Lulay, breaking Willie Fleming’s record set back in the 60s…fitting that both were set on the same site by two of the greatest player to ever don the Orange and Black.
The sentiment around Empire is still mixed. There were challenges. There was the home record, one that had stood so strong at BC Place, the only domed stadium in the CFL, and a challenge for opposing teams. There was the transit, not as convenient as BC Place’s 
downtown locale. And there was the trek from the locker rooms to the field. Said Paul McCallum at the time, “you were sweating by the time you got to the field because you had to trek up and down the hill to get to the portable. It seemed like it was 200 yards to get off the field,” of course sporting the classic Paul grin.
But it was an intimate setting that fans and players didn’t have at the then 60,000-capacity Dome. “You could sit there and hear conversations the fans were having,” said McCallum. “I’m glad I had a chance to play there, but now we get to experience the new one.”
The Lions would go on to hoist the Grey Cup at home that year at the newly-renovated BC Place, and Empire Field was dismantled, eventually reverting back to a community sports park. The lighting masts and locker rooms are still there, evidence of summer nights spent outdoors as the Lions hit the field, of a season and a half when fans got a glimpse into the Lions’ past, when just a fence separated them from the players.