Empire Field home opener mixes old and new

Empire struck back Saturday night.
For many fans and scribes of a certain vintage, the B.C. Lions’ 2010 CFL regular season home opener against the Saskatchewan Roughriders evoked memories of Empire Stadium.
With BC Place getting a new retractable roof and out of commission until 2011, the Lions are playing this season at temporary Empire Field, where Empire Stadium once stood. It was the Lions’ first outdoor home regular season game since November 6, 1982.
The first thing you noticed, aside from the scorching sun in the early going and clear blue sky until darkness fell, was the missing scoreboard. It used to hang over the south end stands and even, in the stadium’s final years, had a replay screen that was dodgy but ahead of its time. Now, the replay screen is of much better quality and rests over the north seats.
Other observations: The track, on which Britain’s Roger Bannister edge Australian John Landy ran their Miracle Mile at the 1954 Empire Games, is also gone, the dark green field was as flat as the Saskatchewan prairie – not like the old one with the crown in the middle and slight slopes on each side.
The end zones are much smaller and the fans much closer as a result. But roof support beams on each side still block views, making it difficult for Saskatchewan’s radio crew.
More seats spell higher stands in the north end zone, obstructing views of the North Shore mountains.
And, all of the seats have backs while all of the ones in Old Empire consisted of bleachers. But while Old Empire had a sense of openness, New – crammed – Empire feels like you’re sitting in a giant Bento box.
However, portable stands and all, the new place has an indescribable charm and an old-time aura of a packed house that the former facility failed to produce often – especially after the weakened east stands were condemned in its final years.
A lot has happened in the CFL since then. Don Matthews, first with B.C. and then with a host of other clubs, and Wally Buono, first with Calgary and then B.C. set all-time coaching records. Most of the league’s players careers came and went and a new generation of players merely entered the world. Many of Saturday’s participants were not born or were mere toddlers when the Lions last play outdoors at home.
However, as the presence of Dal Richards and his orchestra might have shown (although the Beefeater Band was nowhere to be seen), Saturday’s game at the New Empire was a testament – yet again – to the endurance of the CFL.
As occurred in the early 1980s, fathers took their sons to games, some moms and daughters went, too – along with grandparents. Next year, the new stadium will be gone – or maybe it won’t be, if political leaders wisen up to the importance of a large outdoor community facility on the PNE grounds.
Sometime in the future, kids will tell their kids about the year they went to New Empire one Saturday night, and something purely personal and highly meaningful happened. They will forget that the Lions played poorly in a 37-11 setback, although it will take Buono a while to get over the chance to win on an historic occasion.
“When you have a game like this in front of a sellout crowd, first game at Empire …,” he lamented afterwards.
Eventually, the bad plays will be erased by time, but the tradition of families going to games together will continue.
And, years from now, enabling that to happen, by mixing old and new with a special twist, will be New Empire’s biggest contribution to the B.C. Lions and CFL in 2010.