View source for Empire Stadium (Vancouver)

{{Short description|Former sporting venue in British Columbia, Canada}}
{{For|the later temporary home of Vancouver Whitecaps FC and the British Columbia Lions|Empire Field}}
{{Infobox venue| stadium_name=Empire Stadium
| image= File:Empire Stadium Vancouver Hastings Park July 1954.png
| caption= The stadium in July 1954
| location=East [[Hastings Street (Vancouver)|Hastings Street]], Vancouver
| opened=start {{start date and years ago|1954}}
| demolished={{start date and years ago|1993}}
| surface=Natural grass (1954–1969)<br />[[Artificial turf]] (1970–1993)
| owner=City of Vancouver
| construction_cost=
| architect=
| tenants=[[BC Lions]] ([[Canadian Football League|CFL]]) (1954–1982)<br />[[Vancouver Whitecaps (NASL)|Vancouver Whitecaps]] ([[North American Soccer League (1968–84)|NASL]]) (1974–1983)<br />[[Vancouver Royals]] ([[United Soccer Association|USA]]/[[North American Soccer League (1968–84)|NASL]]) (1967–1968)
| seating_capacity=32,729
}}

'''Empire Stadium''' was a [[multi-purpose stadium]] that stood at the [[Pacific National Exhibition]] site at [[Hastings Park]] in [[Vancouver|Vancouver, British Columbia]], Canada. Track and field and [[Canadian football]], as well as soccer, [[Rugby football|rugby]] and musical events, were held at the stadium. The stadium was originally constructed for the [[1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games]]. The stadium (which sat 32,375 upon opening, but 30,229 after 1974) hosted both [[Elvis Presley]] and [[The Beatles]]. It saw most of its use as the home of the [[BC Lions]] of the [[Canadian Football League|CFL]] from 1954 to 1982, in which the venue also played host to the first [[Grey Cup]] game held west of Ontario in [[43rd Grey Cup|1955]]. Empire Stadium also hosted the Grey Cup game in [[46th Grey Cup|1958]], [[48th Grey Cup|1960]], [[51st Grey Cup|1963]], [[54th Grey Cup|1966]], [[59th Grey Cup|1971]], and [[62nd Grey Cup|1974]]; seven times in total.

== History ==
With Vancouver holding the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, a main stadium venue was required to hold the opening ceremony and the athletics events. However, as the games approached, the city council were $400,000 short and it required a compromise which resulted in work starting on 4 September 1953 on a 25,000 seater venue to the cost of $1.5-million.<ref name=TT>{{cite web |url=https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2014/07/31/1954-Commonwealth-Games/ |title=The Mega-event that Set a Pace for Vancouver |publisher=The Tyee |date=31 July 2014 |access-date=25 September 2025}}</ref>

The two most famous events of the games were the One mile race, in which both [[John Landy]] and [[Roger Bannister]] ran the distance in [[four-minute mile|under four minutes]]. The race's end is memorialized in a statue of the two (with Landy glancing over his shoulder, believing Bannister was on his inside), that stood outside the stadium until its demolition. The statue formerly stood near the south end of Hastings St., but has since been moved to the [[Pacific National Exhibition]] north entrance just metres from where the feat took place at the new [[Empire Fields]]. The second event was the heart-breaking final stages of the [[Athletics at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games – Men's marathon|marathon]], which saw [[Jim Peters (athlete)|Jim Peters]] collapse several times and despite having a near 17 minutes lead he failed to finish and was stretchered away and never raced again.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Keating |first=Frank |date=2007-01-07 |title='Two steps forward, three to the side. Oh, he's down again' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/jan/07/athletics.features |access-date=2024-02-18 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

After the games, BC Lions took control of the venue and it hosted seven Grey Cup games from 1955 to 1974.
[[File:Grey Cup football game VPL 43943 (15708775209).jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[1955 Grey Cup]] at Empire Stadium]]
The Stadium was often home to the [[Shrine Bowl Provincial Championships|Shrine Bowl Provincial Championship]] for provincial senior high school<ref>teams.http://www.bchighschoolfootball.com/bcfootball/docs/Varsity_Champions.doc</ref> and was also home to the [[Vancouver Whitecaps (NASL)|Vancouver Whitecaps]] of the [[North American Soccer League (1968–84)|North American Soccer League]] during the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as the [[Vancouver Royals]] of the same league for their only year of play in 1968.

Just before the [[1966 Grey Cup]] game, the stadium had the new "gooseneck" or "slingshot" goal posts erected invented by Jim Trimble and Joel Rottman, marking the first time these goalposts were used at any level of football in a championship game. They were first used a week earlier at Montreal's [[Autostade]] for the 1966 Eastern Conference final; this model goalpost would soon become the standard design in the NFL and CFL. In 1970, it became the first facility in Canada to have artificial playing surface installed made by [[3M]], under the brand name "[[Tartan Turf]]".

By the late 1970s the stadium began to show its age and Erwin Swangard the PNE president suggested a new stadium and convention centre for Hastings Park. False Creek was chosen as the area for the stadium and Coal Harbour for the convention centre, leading to Expo 86 and SkyTrain.<ref name=TT/> Both the Lions and Whitecaps moved to [[BC Place Stadium]] for the 1983 season. 

The stadium was demolished in the early 1990s. The site served as a parking lot for the neighbouring Pacific National Exhibition as well as [[Playland (Vancouver)|Playland]] for many years before being converted to a soccer field and track on the site of the old field.

With [[BC Place Stadium]] undergoing renovations in 2010 and 2011, the [[BC Lions]] and [[Vancouver Whitecaps]] played their home games at [[Empire Field]], a temporary field constructed on the former grounds of Empire Stadium.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://vancouversun.com/sports/Lions+return+original+site+Empire+Stadium/1723001/story.html |title=B.C. Lions may return to original site of Empire Stadium |last=Kingston |first=Gary |date=2009-06-23 |publisher=Vancouver Sun |access-date=2009-06-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090625002648/http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Lions+return+original+site+Empire+Stadium/1723001/story.html |archive-date=2009-06-25 }}</ref><ref name="soccer">{{cite web
 |url         = https://vancouversun.com/sports/Soccer+Whitecaps+complaining+about+home+fields+2011/2159427/story.html
 |title       = Whitecaps not complaining about two home fields in 2011
 |date        = October 29, 2009
 |access-date  = 2009-11-01
 |publisher   = Ian Walker, [[Vancouver Sun]]
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20100520051241/http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Soccer+Whitecaps+complaining+about+home+fields+2011/2159427/story.html
 |archive-date = 2010-05-20
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nussli.com/en/projects/project-details/news/temporary-stadium-empire-fields-vancouver-1160/334.html
|title=Temporary Stadium, Empire Fields Vancouver|publisher=[[Nussli Group]]}}</ref>  After the renovations to BC Place were complete, the temporary stadium was removed.  The park and sports fields were restored for community use.

== See also ==
{{Portal|Sports}}
*[[List of Commonwealth Games venues]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://football.ballparks.com/CFL/BC/oldindex.htm Empire Stadium]

{{BC Lions}}
{{Vancouver Whitecaps FC}}
{{Commonwealth Games stadia}}
{{Grey Cup}}
{{Simon Fraser Red Leafs football navbox}}
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[[Category:1954 establishments in British Columbia]]
[[Category:1993 disestablishments in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Canadian Football League venues]]
[[Category:Defunct soccer venues in Canada]]
[[Category:Defunct sport of athletics venues]]
[[Category:Defunct Canadian football venues]]
[[Category:Defunct sports venues in Canada]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Hastings Park]]
[[Category:History of Vancouver]]
[[Category:Soccer venues in British Columbia]]
[[Category:Simon Fraser Red Leafs football]]
[[Category:Sports venues completed in 1954]]
[[Category:Sports venues demolished in 1993]]
[[Category:Sports venues in Vancouver]]
[[Category:Stadiums of the Commonwealth Games]]
[[Category:Demolished sports venues]]
[[Category:North American Soccer League (1968–1984) stadiums]]
[[Category:Canadian football venues in British Columbia]]