BC Place

Is it a spider web? A crown? What is the top of BC Place supposed to be? I miss it's marshmellow fluffy top.

BC Place is host to the BC Lions, Vancouver Whitecaps, Canada Sevens, as well as the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

The building itself was completed in the early 80's and is showing it's age. While the sound system was upgraded and paired with HD screens when the top was replaced in after the 2010 Olympics, the building itself still feels old. The good news is that it hasn't lost the ability to get loud. With a capacity of 54,000 when the upper bowl is opened up, it's by far our largest stadium/arena.

I have fond memories of visiting BC Place for auto shows, the exhibition baseball (Go Mariners!), and more... I'm glad to see during my recent visit for Lions games that it still stands strong.

Great place to watch a soccer match! The stadium is massive so it's only partially utilized for a match. The weather was great this evening, with the beautiful blue skies overhead. There are a bunch of food options, even some vegetarian ones. The deals they have on some food are amazing compared to my home stadium. I was able to find the $5 spot and get a veggie dog (yes veggie!), small soda, and popcorn for $13 USD. That's how much one of these items would cost at my soccer stadium. The tickets for the matches were also reasonably priced so it's a fun and affordable place to spend an evening. And there are lots of places to have a pregame or post game drink as it's conveniently located near lots of things.

Came here for a Whitecaps game and thought everything was organized very well and kept very clean! The stadium seating, food stalls and washrooms were spotless. And we really enjoyed the variety of food stalls they have here! We tried a few - the Porky Pine Sandwich The Beast (loved the creativity but the pork was a little mushy), Korean Fried chicken from Seoul Food (a fun take on stadium food but no replacement for restaurant quality Korean Fried Chicken), Mini Donuts from City ( can't go wrong with mini donuts)! Overall, a great experience here!

I was there for The Weekend concert. The music and entertainment wise, it was fantastic evening. After the entrance gate, we were provided a wrist band with some devices. Nobody know what it is. As I assumed it might be needed when I leave there for security reason, I took it. However it was NOT!
It was flashing device for certain music and verse. It was programed for colour and pattern and automatically flash. It was magically beautiful and cool senary. So don't forget to take it next time!

The worst part was deadly hot inside of BC Place. For opening act hours like between 6:30pm to 9pm, it was very hot inside and purchased 1L of water for just in case. And because of the laser light attraction, they didn't open the roof. Not much AC either. Everyone sweating and can you imagine your arm touch sweaty stranger?? It was happening everywhere until you leave the venue.

Very nice stadium. We visited for the rugby 7s. Staff for the venue and for the food venues were extremely nice and helpful. Surprised how clean the stadium was as well.

If you need a tarp to cover your truck, get a "Van Cover." This is not that.

They don't wear black caps or grey caps, that's for sure.

So Vancouver are using an old name and an old team and have launched their brand new MLS team and a wonderful one at that. They do a really great job and I'm happy that the Pacific Northwest of the USA now has a nearby rival in Canada because it really adds something to the league. They just need to be a little bit stronger sporting wise to compete with the likes of Seattle and Portland.

As for the store... While admittedly it is quite expensive to buy merchandise from the Vancouver Whitecaps, it's still a great symbol of Vancouver and something which this city doesn't really do in some of the other sports, so it's great that the people of Vancouver have their own sport and their own crest and their own shirts now.

They play at BC Place.

BC Place is an absolutely beautiful Stadium where the Vancouver Whitecaps play, as well as the CFL team here. They get wonderful crowds up here and it's a very tough team to come and beat. Having said that it still doesn't quite have the energy of its local rivals Seattle and Portland and hopefully in time it will build that up.

It's a weird, different, unusual stadium, but it has so much soul that I can't not love it. The retractable roof is weird AF but cool.

It only houses 22k or so when MLS is playing, but it gets really intense and it's great. It can go up to 55k which I assume will start happening when this team eventually starts doing well in playoffs. They need that second tier and a bigger fan base to make it a fortress, around your heart, as Sting would say.

#ontherun2 #beyonce #jayz

On the Run 2 - Beyoncé & Jay-Z

10 STARS for Queen Bey & Shaun Carter!

4 Stars for BC Place - sound continues to be an issue for these major concerts! More on that later in my review.

What a spectacular show! Queen Bey & Jay-Z put on a master performance that had the whole of BC Place shaking! The floor was literally moving on my level!!!

They came to slay & did they ever! This musical spectacle had us on our feet for almost 3 hours!

Getting in was surprisly smooth. I went to that fiasco & shambles of a gate entry if ever there was one - the U2 concert last year & what a difference it was to enter BC Place this time!

So well done on that front & thank you BC Place for not having us line up for 2 hours just to get in!

Surprisingly the longest lineups were for merchandise - Tshirts, hats, tops etc. Wow! Never seen so many $50 (starting at!) tshirts get scooped up like that. Hello eBay! LOL

40,000 fans were not disappointed! This is how a show should be done!!! Bravo to the Carters indeed!

The band & dancers were all on point & performed to high level! The stage & lighting complimented the show!

Now regarding the sound quality - BC Place continues to be notorious for being the venue that 'sucks the sound' out of the performance!

I'm not saying it was all that bad however, having attended shows at Rodgers Arena, The Jazz Alley & Century Link Field - the last two both in Seattle - there's a massive difference in sound output. The tone & quality needs vast improvement at BC Place!

I saw both JayZ last December & Janet Jackson prior to that at Rodgers Arena & I tell you the sound output difference is noticeable!

I'm wondering if sound is escaping through the large side openings on the floor where teams & equipment come through?

When Beyoncé sang a powerful solo in a white wedding dress, I found the sound to be slightly muffled.

Perhaps it's time to set up large roof hanging canopies that could perhaps bounce the sound back downwards for a better listening experience!

BC Place like other venues needs to better manage & get control on the no smoking ban inside their venue! A good start would be a ban on - matches & lighters! Why are these items still allowed at concerts!?

As a true sign to me of a massive sound performance I need to leave an arena with - 'Rae Sremmurd' which translates to - my ears need to be ringing like crazy after the show - equals high quality sound output!!!

Overall & above the sound hiccups - a super fantastic concert nonetheless & one I'll remember for a long time!!!

I'm already longing for - On the Run 3!!!

I toyed with giving one star but I'm going to be generous since the event we attended here was incredible despite how inept they were. I will point out that it's not often that you attend an event at a venue where they screw up so badly that it makes the national news of the country you're in the next morning.

I brought my daughter up from WA to see the opening night of the U2 Joshua Tree Tour to celebrate her 18th birthday. Some of our friends from Bellingham drove up as well and let us know that things were pretty messed up at the venue so we skipped dinner and got there as quick as we could. What a mess! There was no clear lines, or order. We fought our way back and forth through the crowd a couple of times and still had no idea what line or entrance we were supposed to use. I'm a big guy so I had my daughter get behind me and I just plowed through the mass of people like a bulldozer. A bunch of people saw this and fell in line behind my daughter to bulldoze through the crowd with us. We went half way around the building and back before I gave up and snuck us in through a side door that I noticed was open and unattended. We never did show our tickets or have them scanned.

The venue was fine and the acoustics were good. It wasn't a bad large venue at all but they need to fire everyone in charge there and start over. We ultimately had one of the greatest nights ever but that first part was frustrating. If I liked Mumford and Sons, I would have been annoyed that I missed part of their show because of all of this but I don't so I'll let it ride. This is the first time I've seen U2 where they had an opening act I didn't really like but they more than made up for it with their own show.

The next morning we woke up at our hotel and turned on the CBC morning news and this mess was the lead story. Believe it or not, this isn't the first time I've woken up the morning after a U2 concert and found the show to be the top story on the news for bad reasons. I saw them at Rice Stadium at the University of Utah with Rage Against the Machine in 1997. My buddy I went with was friends with Miss UT from the Miss America Pageant and we sat with her which was cool but the show started super late and we didn't know why until we turned on the TV in the morning and found out there was a very credible bomb threat that delayed U2's entrance. That wasn't the top story on the national news but it was locally and it did make the national news. What are the chances I die at a U2 concert someday? I'd say it would probably be worth it...

I went to the Weeknd concert, he was amazing, he put on a great show, despite how uncomfortable the venue was. It was very difficult to fully enjoy the experience due to feeling like I was in a sauna with 54,000 of us in the arena. There was absolutely NO AIR CONDITIONING in this arena, so disappointing and not a good experience. A lady that was a bit older beside me I thought I would have had to call EHS for her worried she was going to pass out from the heat. BC Place, with all that money you spent on such an expensive upgrade, this is unacceptable and you should refund or give patrons a discount if you want them to come back in the future.

Never would I have imagined that I'd be going to a rave, let alone one across the border! My friends and I attended Contact Festival 2015 this past weekend, which was held at BC Place.

The highs of the night:
- Plenty of standing space and seating for the expert and new raver. As this was my first time at a rave, I didn't really know what to expect in terms of the crowd. Thankfully, BC Place was a large enough venue that we could avoid the crowd altogether if we wanted to. :)
- Stage setup, sound and lighting - Great stage setup! Whether you're up in the crowd or just chilling in the back, I loved how you can see and hear it all.
- Restrooms - I was surprised with how relatively clean the restrooms were, even at the end of the night! It might have helped that they had porta-potties down on the main floor.
- Parking - The supposedly sketchy looking outdoor parking lot right by the stadium turned out to be one of the best decisions we made that night. Note: The nearby Costco also had event parking in their garage BUT it was about $35 per car. PASS.

The lows of the night:
- BC Place, why are you so cold?! I know that it's winter and all, but the stadium was FREEZING the entire night.
- $8 beers........ Note: You needed two forms of ID to get your alcohol wristband!
- Lack of trashcans on the main floor - At the end of the night, you were walking through all sorts of garbage. Blech. :/
- End of event exiting - Four or five sets of stairs up to the gates, but of course everyone chose the one or two. I think there could have been better direction/traffic flow at the end of the event.

Overall, I can see why BC Place is a popular choice for large-scale events. I think the next time I visit will have to be for a summer event when it's a tad warmer inside, haha. :)