B.C. Place Press Conference Today

[Vancouversoccerman]

According to CKNW, B.C. Place is going to unveil the interior renovations planned for 2010 and the Whitecaps. The plans reportedly include moveable seating that will go down to field level and curtains that will circle the upper level. Capacity for the lower bowl will be 30,000 for soccer.

There's not expected to be any word on the roof, cow farting or bear attacks.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

What about farting attack bears on my roof?

[Vancouversoccerman]

quote:Originally posted by Loud Mouth Soup

What about farting attack bears on my roof?

Hold your own press conference!

[Johnnie Monster]

If it's on the news, it's TRUE!

[Johnnyranger]

Can you hear Bill sing?!

No-Oh! No-Oh!

Can You hear Bill sing!?

No-Oh! No-Oh!

Can you hear Bill sing!?

I CAN'T HEAR A BEAR FARTING!!!!!!

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

[Tintin]

pfffffffffft

[morbital]

[smiddy]

Do you think it is easy to stop farting bears?

[DarnCherry]

By blakeybuses at 2008-09-04

[Vancouversoccerman]

Personally, I find the bear most offensive. Throw it down to a lack of "Truthiness"

FYI, the $65 Milliom retrofit did not seem to include the roof; only the 2010 & MLS renovations, according to the the media.

NEWS FLASH:

MEDIA DISAPPOINTED NO BEARS ON ROOF...

[Richard]

The $65 million refit DOES NOT include a new roof. The PAVCO representative today was very explicit on that one. They are still busy with the engineering study and are nowhere near having a roof design finalised let alone any cost estimates. Won't be any news on that front until next year.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

quote:Originally posted by smiddy

Do you think it is easy to stop farting bears?

Give this a try. I know it's for dogs, but bears are just bigger, furrier, killinger version of dogs, aren't they?

[Bill]

If you lit a match behind a cow that had just farted and the cow was sitting on a railway car, I propose that the methane in the cow's fart would explode and give enough propulsion to send the cow and the railway car about a mile down the track.

If they light the Olympic cauldron inside BC Place, the heat from the Flame will cause the dome to expand and burst.

Movable seating? How's that possible? The Lower Level seating inside BC Place is concrete, and if you removed those pillars you'd remove the structural integrity of the Stadium.

Furthermore, BC Place will need retrofits and additional support pillars to withstand the weight of a new Retractable Roof.

Are they proposing 30,000 bleacher seats around the Lower Level?

[Bill]

http://www.bcplacestadium.com/newsreleases/Backgrounder_Sep4_2008.pdf

$65-million reno to 'add more life' to aging B.C. Place stadium

Frank Luba, The Province

Published: Friday, September 05, 2008

The first $65-million phase of renovations to B.C. Place Stadium began this week.

The 25-year-old building will see upgrades to concessions, bathrooms and suites. It will get a new coat of paint and have the lighting changed, and will have improved accessibility and directional signage.

Renovations are scheduled to be complete late in 2009.

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Font:****"The work we're doing now can be comfortably completed before 2010," said David Podmore, chairman of B.C. Pavilion Corp., (PavCo) the government Crown corporation that runs the stadium.

"It's work we would do irregardless of the Olympics."

Bill Bennett, provincial minister of tourism, culture and the arts, praised the building -- which was the first covered stadium in the country when it was built in 1983 at a cost of $126 million.

"The aim is to add more life to the facility," said Bennett. "It's been a remarkable stadium."

A new roof, which will replace the inflatable dome that deflated during a storm in January last year, won't be installed until after the Olympics. Podmore said the decision not to rush the roof was made to ensure the government got the best value for its investment.

"We know this building can accommodate this particular roof system," he said. "We know we can do it at a reasonable cost."

He was unwilling to divulge the price tag for a new roof, although there have been estimates of up to $200 million.

The renovations will be paid for through several means.

PavCo owns more than a million square feet of land around the stadium that will be developed. Rights to the stadium's name will also be sold, likely for a 20-year term, although Podmore said the intention is to retain B.C. Place in the new name.

There will also be cost savings from energy efficiencies in the renovated building, including as much as $700,000 from no longer having to run fans to keep up the roof.

fluba@theprovince.com

- - -

B.C. PLACE RENOVATION: A TIMELINE

The stadium's facelift will take place in seven stages:

- September 2008 -- $65 million worth of refurbishments that include new concessions, washrooms, suites, improved accessibility and directional signage begin. Club seats will also be added. Everything to be completed by November 2009.

- End of October 2008 -- awarding of contract for strengthening of columns and structure to accommodate a new roof.

- January 2009 -- Information goes out for contract for new roof.

- February 2009 -- Awarding of contract for roof.

- April 2010 -- Work begins on installation of steel for new roof.

- December 2010 to June 2011 -- Installation of new roof.

- 2011 -- Replace artificial turf.

So the Retractable Roof and new Field will be ready for the Whitecaps inaugural MLS season in 2011

[Vancity Tim]

Has anyone heard a peep about any waterfront stadium news?

[Tractor Boy]

I really wish more people would stand up and say "NO, we don't want BC Place"

[Calgary Boomer]

I think BC Place will be a great interm solution. Guaranteed good conditions, seats going right down to the pitch...which will put the fans CLOSER than they currently are at Swanny.

I understand that discussions are on-going with the WF Stadium...but they're WAY under the radar.

[Richard]

^ Planning and lobbying work continues on the Waterfront stadium but for the present the Whitecaps focus is on winning an MLS franchise which in itself will add considerably to their push for their own stadium.

[brownbear]

quote:Originally posted by Bill

If you lit a match behind a cow that had just farted and the cow was sitting on a railway car, I propose that the methane in the cow's fart would explode and give enough propulsion to send the cow and the railway car about a mile down the track.

If they light the Olympic cauldron inside BC Place, the heat from the Flame will cause the dome to expand and burst.

Movable seating? How's that possible? The Lower Level seating inside BC Place is concrete, and if you removed those pillars you'd remove the structural integrity of the Stadium.

Furthermore, BC Place will need retrofits and additional support pillars to withstand the weight of a new Retractable Roof.

Are they proposing 30,000 bleacher seats around the Lower Level?

Wrong answer, Bill. Have you ever seen BC Place Stadium in its baseball alignment? Have you ever stomped your feet on the lower level stands? Have you ever seen stacks of removable seats sitting in the parking lots adjacent to BC Place Stadium. It seems as though you know just as much about the structure of the stadium as you do the methane content of bovine excretory explosions...

[Bill]

You dumb ass, I sure have seen those pullout bleachers. One thing you may not know, and I'll enlighten you here, is that seating amounts to a measley 4,500 seats and serves as the outfield in the rare baseball game that has happened in there.

They clearly are going to be restructuring the entire lower bowl so many more seats will be able to be pulled in closer to the sidelines.

If it's simply a matter of pulling forward the bleacher seats they already have, then what has been all the fuss up to this point?

If they're going to jackhammer out some concrete sections and add bleacher seats to the other side, then I'd say this is significant.

[brownbear]

quote:Originally posted by Bill

You dumb ass, I sure have seen those pullout bleachers. One thing you may not know, and I'll enlighten you here, is that seating amounts to a measley 4,500 seats and serves as the outfield in the rare baseball game that has happened in there.

I guess basic social etiquette isn't one of your strongest personal attributes...

quote:They clearly are going to be restructuring the entire lower bowl so many more seats will be able to be pulled in closer to the sidelines.

[\quote]

No restructuring is necessary. An official soccer field is wider (average 75 yards) than even the wider (than NFL) CFL field (65 yards).

I don't know where you've noticed all the fuss. That's exactly what they'll do. As for the area behind the goals, the first row of seats in the end zones at BC Place is at least 3 metres off the ground, so you can get in a bunch of rows that will make the bleacher first added bleacher row very close to the goal and much closer to the ground that 3 metres.

I don't see why they would have to jackhammer out concrete sections when the seats don't reach far enough--on any of the four sides--as it is.

[Bill]

When they designed BC Place, in order to accomodate the deeper CFL end zones (20 yards), Rows A - F in each end zone had to be made removable.

For CFL games those first 6 end zone rows (A - F) are absent. The Concrete Rows start at Row G.

Those first 6 rows in each end zone are in fact removable bleacher seats. One section of those was actually installed for the first ever event in the Stadium on June 19, 1983 between the Whitecaps and Sounders and is one reason why the attendance for that game, 60,342, is still the biggest crowd ever in BC Place to date.

It's a simple matter to reinsert those end zone bleachers for soccer and that would bring the first row of end zone seats about 10 feet off the playing surface, which is the case for the first row right around the lower ring.

Yet I don't see the need for such a big fuss about people sitting in the end zones unless the Whitecaps expect to draw more than 20,000 a game, which I think is a stretch.