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The BC Lions club started playing in the CFL during the 1954 at Empire Stadium. The Lions played their first game on August 11, 1954 against the Montreal Allouettes. During the olden days of football at Empire Stadium, 30,000+ fans would brave the cold and wet weather and crowd into the stadium on a evening. The BC Lions franchise moved to BC place before the 1983 season.
Empire Stadium
BC Place Stadium was built to host the opening and closing ceremonies of EXPO 86. It is the largest air-supported domed stadium in the world, and has a seating capacity of roughly 60,000. At first, Lions' games were filled with excited fans who were glad to be indoors for a change. Tens of thousands of people would pack the stadium every Lions game, however, that soon lost its appeal. As the Lions started losing games, the same went for the fans. However, the team has managed to turns things around, and the fans have started to come back, especially this season. With the absence of the NHL, people in the City of Vancouver have turned to the Lions for their sport entertainment. The Lions had a great season, but came up short at the Grey Cup losing out to Toronto.
BC Place Stadium
I was fortunate enough this season to go and watch some games at BC Place Stadium. While there I was able to converse with fans from the previous generation, the ones who witnessed the Lions play at Empire Stadium. They told me that the atmosphere at Empire Stadium was much better. Although people sat in the cold, people were excited to be there and cheer on their team. Then I thought to myself, I would not want to freeze my butt off in order to watch a football game, but then I saw fans from Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and other cities, and they full of excited to be freezing their butts off in the -20°C weather to watch a football game. The Lions could learn a lesson from the Montreal Alouettes who used to play at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, but then they upgraded McGill Stadium, and ever since the crowds have been great.
Earlier this year, I was excited to hear that owners of a few sports team came together and proposed a plan to build a new 30,000 seat outdoor stadium for the city of Vancouver. The venue would be used to house teams such as the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps. Ever since the days when the Lions moved to BC place stadium, it never felt right to play inside, and there was always a cry from the fans since the days when Empire Stadium was shut down, that football was meant to be played outdoors.
The purpose of this project is to find the most suitable location for a new open-air stadium in the Lower Mainland using a geographic information system. The main software that will be used is IDRISI, I will also be using ArcGIS to do some data manipulations. The most suitable location will be determined through a process called Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE).
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