The city of Vancouver actually broke ground on BC Place more than 30 years ago, but the BC Place that opened this weekend might as well be a brand new stadium. The old roof has been replaced by a retractable roof and the supports and exterior can now be lit up in any number of colors. All of the seats have been replaced, the turf has been replaced and now there is a huge videoboard hanging from the roof. Besides the fact that it is a two-tiered bowl, BC Place looks nothing like the place that opened in 1983 and hosted the Winter Olympics just 20 months ago.
Vancouver Whitecaps Open Up A New BC Place
On Sunday, the Vancouver Whitecaps moved into their new home. The expansion club played most of their first season at Empire Field while BC Place was being renovated, but they made the move downtown on Sunday and here are the initial reviews on the Caps' new digs from a very qualified perspective of "I watched 90 minutes of soccer at the stadium on TV."
Pros
- The exterior is gorgeous. The supports that hold up the roof give the stadium a distinct look and the glass that rings the upper portion of the stadium, along with the lights that illuminate it, make for a fantastic looking stadium. Being right on the water doesn't hurt either.
- As far as turf goes, the turf at BC Place is as good as it gets. Everyone would prefer grass, but it isn't always possible and the Whitecaps made sure BC Place would have the best, most advanced turf available. It is much better than anything else in MLS and was so good that the ball moved around on it much more like grass than the turf elsewhere in the league.
- The retractable seating behind the goals is great. At Empire Field, the seats behind the goal were a mile from the endline because Canadian football uses a longer field. The Whitecaps are sharing BC Place with Canadian football too, but there is retractable seating behind the goals that covers the extra space and puts seats in right behind the endline. On Sunday the retractable seating was only in use behind one goal, but by next season it will be working on the other end and all will be well.
Cons
- The curtains that cover the upper deck look awful. The come out from the first row of the upper deck and are supposed to create a lower roof effect that makes it feel like just the lower bowl, which is all that is used for soccer, is part of the stadium. It's a good idea, but the "roof" looks like cheap curtains. Maybe it is better in person when you are sitting in the stands, but on TV it looks awful.
- Vancouver is an awful team. They have just four wins this season, which would be an all-time MLS low for a season. Stadiums don't mean much without winning.
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