Stadium
Whitecaps FC plays its home matches at BC Place in Vancouver, which it shares with the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League. Whitecaps FC has played at BC Place since the final month of the 2011 MLS season, having spent the majority of that year at Empire Field. Whitecaps FC has a five-year lease on BC Place which will keep the club there through 2015. For Whitecaps FC matches, the pitch is called "Bell Pitch at BC Place" as part of the club's sponsorship deal with Bell.
BC Place is a 55,000-seat multi-purpose stadium designed for both Canadian football and soccer. The stadium opened in 1983, but underwent a complete two-phase revitalization project between 2009–2011. The stadium now features the largest cable-supported retractable roof in the world and polytan artificial turf, which is certified by FIFA with a 2-star rating. Whitecaps FC artificially reduces the stadium's capacity 21,000 for matches by using white sheets to close off the upper bowl. Club ownership initially hoped to build Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium in Gastown in time for the 2016 season, but the club has committed to BC Place in light of stadium opposition.
Whitecaps FC played most of its inaugural season at Empire Field, a temporary stadium built at the former site of Empire Stadium to house Whitecaps FC and the BC Lions while BC Place was being renovated. Empire Field was a 27,500-seat multi-purpose stadium that featured FIFA 1-star rated FieldTurf. Whitecaps FC played its final match at Empire Field on September 24, 2011, a 3–1 loss to Seattle Sounders FC. The following week, Whitecaps FC played its first match at BC Place, a 1–0 loss to Portland Timbers on October 2, 2011.
Whitecaps FC does not have a permanent training facility, opting instead to use facilities around Greater Vancouver. However, the club has partnered with the Government of British Columbia and the University of British Columbia (UBC) to built a $32.5 million National Soccer Development Centre on the UBC campus. The facility will be constructed in time for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.
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Famous quotes containing the word stadium:
“It’s no accident that of all the monuments left of the Greco- Roman culture the biggest is the ballpark, the Colosseum, the Yankee Stadium of ancient times.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
“The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“In their eyes I have seen
the pin men of madness in marathon trim
race round the track of the stadium pupil.”
—Patricia K. Page (b. 1916)