BC Place has been home to some of the biggest events in the province over the last 40 years.
From the 2010 Olympics to a visit by the Pope to the biggest Punjabi concert outside of India, it's hosted a huge variety of events.
It's the main place Taylor Swift has played a concert in Vancouver; in 2013 she played the stadium as part of her Red tour (where some lucky fans even met her mom), and she took it over again in 2015 for the 1989 World Tour. Her only shows not in BC Place were in 2011, when she played a pair of dates on the Speak Now World Tour.
Soon her Eras tour will wrap up there with three shows on Dec. 6, 7, and 8.
Despite Swift's popularity, it's unlikely she'll break the record set by Ed Sheeran last year for the biggest concert ever at BC Place with 65,061. While she's sold out her shows, Swift's stage is much larger, leaving less room for fans.
With that said, here are five (more) facts you probably didn't know about BC Place.
1. Locals wanted to call it Terry Fox Stadium
BC Place seems like a natural name for the stadium built and owned by the Province of BC, but when it was being designed and built, there was some debate over the name.
Construction started in 1981, and at the time it didn't really have an official name. In June 1981, Terry Fox, one of Canada's most popular figures, passed away after losing his fight with cancer.
Given Fox was from Burnaby, and his status, there was significant pressure to name the new stadium after him.
It wasn't the only name suggested; the Vancouver Province reported in 1981 that other names suggested by the public included everything from the Rain Bowl to the Cost-a-lot Stadium.
2. The original roof was about as thick as a credit card
It was the world's largest roof of its kind, a Teflon-coated fibreglass blanket stretching 10 acres, but in some ways, it was very small.
That's because it was only about .85 mm. Credit cards are about .76 mm thick.
3. It has hosted exactly one exhibition NFL game
While BC Place is set up for football games, and there's a substantial population here who are fans of the NFL, Vancouver has only hosted a single NFL game, and it was an exhibition.
BC Place was the site of a tight game on August 15, 1998, as part of a series of games called the American Bowl. The American Bowl lasted almost 20 years and saw games played around the world to expand the sport outside of the USA.
The final score saw the San Francisco 49ers beat the Seattle Seahawks 24 to 21.
4. Roberto Luongo's last game was played at BC Place
Roberto Luongo may forever be associated with hockey at Rogers Arena, but it's not the last place he suited up in Canucks' gear.
In 2014, the Vancouver Canucks hosted the Ottawa Senators for the annual Heritage Classic game.
Those who saw the game probably recall Luongo wasn't in the net for the team; coach John Tortorella decided to bench the future Hall of Famer and started Eddie Lack.
Luongo sat on the bench as the backup goalie and never took the ice.
Two days later, he was the biggest piece of a trade with the Florida Panthers, which saw Jakob Markstrom come to Vancouver.
5. One game there saw just 728 tickets sold
The whole thing about BC Place is its size. It's massive, with room for more than 54,000 people, depending on how it's set up.
It can be set up for smaller events, like when only the lower bowl is used. Even then, it holds well over 20,000 people, and the teams that play there regularly have significant crowds. According to Sports Business Journal, the Whitecaps are seeing around 26,000 per game show up, while the BC Lions saw around 24,000 per game, according to Sports Illustrated.
That said, not every team to play there has drawn thousands of people.
Back in 1988, the Vancouver Nighthawks were a part of the World Basketball League, an upstart league that had the odd requirement that no player be taller than 6'5".
It seems the Nighthawks fell a bit short of their goals. By their second game, they were only drawing a fraction of the number of fans they'd hoped for, with 932 tickets sold, according to the Vancouver Sun, hardly making a splash in the cavernous stadium.
A box score from August 4 shows even fewer, with 728 in attendance.
And it was a pattern; other box scores show attendances of 819, 732, and 1,422.
They were put up for sale, no one bought them, and the team was shut down after one season. The league itself only lasted until 1992.
Bonus Fact:
BC Assessment has regularly assessed the value of BC Place over the years. It peaked in value in 2019 when it was assessed at just over $307 million. That dropped a lot in 2021, and it's slowly rising again, with the last assessment almost hitting $271 million.
$69 million of that is building, while over $201 million is the land value.
