August 19 marks not only the BC Lions’ first home game since fall 2019, but the largest opening of any venue in the province since the pandemic put a stop to large gatherings at BC Place for more than a year.
“It’s going to be very different,” said Carolyn Cody, the Canadian Football League (CFL) club’s director of business operations and marketing.
Leading up to the home-opener, the Lions have been consulting with teams such as the National Football League’s (NFL) Kansas City Chiefs and the Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Pittsburgh Pirates to help navigate a restart that will result in changes to everything from tickets to the stadium’s retractable roof.
“This is the closest I’ve ever worked with teams in the NFL or MLB,” Cody said.
“They’ve been incredibly generous with us.”
BC Lions fans can start arriving at the stadium 90 minutes prior to kickoff rather than the usual 60 minutes to keep entries more staggered. The upper bowl will remain closed and, as per the province’s four-step reopening plan, the stadium’s capacity will remain at 50% while B.C. is still in Step 3.
“We are intending to have our tickets scattered throughout the lower bowl, but if you have a group of 20 people that you want to go to the game with, you can have that group of 20 sitting together,” Cody said.
About 99.9% of the tickets will be digital, according to Cody, although a small number of exceptions for paper tickets will be made if a long-time season ticket holder or someone who doesn’t possess a smartphone calls ahead and explains their situation.
Otherwise, fans will be admitted through digital tickets featuring a moving barcode on a smartphone display so that the tickets cannot be copied through a screenshot.
Any items that fans bring with them will have to be stored in clear plastic bags, save for medical bags and diaper bags.
Wallets and small clutch purses are fine, but fans will need to pay a fee for bag check if anyone brings a backpack or large bag with them.
Once inside, fans might notice all the ATMs have disappeared as stadium vendors will be restricted to cashless transactions only.
While the lower bowl seats won’t face limitations on physical distancing, the usual on-field entertainment such as drum-lines and cheering squads will be moved into the stadium seating areas to ensure the players and support staff are kept at a distance.
“Because of the way that our locker rooms are situated, we’re switching our home bench to the opposite side of the field,” Cody said, noting that teams can’t cross when entering the field.
But the most contentious issue — the one that always generates the most emotion from visitors to the stadium, according to Cody — is the state of the BC Place’s retractable roof.
Because of the need to keep the venue well ventilated during the pandemic, the roof will remain open even into the cooler months of the year — unless, of course, Vancouver is hit with rain.
“Because the Delta variant is a wild card, and no matter how vaccinated we are in B.C., it’s always good to have precautions,” Cody said.
The reopening strategy for B.C. sports teams and others from across Canada stands in contrast to other markets.
Even amid surging COVID-19 cases in the U.S., all 32 NFL teams have been given clearance to operate at 100% capacity when the NFL season kicks off next month.
And sports fans in the U.K. and Australia face the prospect of showing proof they’ve been fully vaccinated before visiting stadiums in their respective countries, according to reports from The Independent and the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Meanwhile, since that last home game nearly two years ago, long-time Lions owner David Braley passed away, and the economic impacts of the pandemic saw the club furloughing workers.
“Even though this has been the most stressful, difficult execution of games and marketing I’ve ever experienced, we’re so excited to actually be able to be playing on the field,” said Cody.
“So I’ll take that stress any day if it means we’re going have football played in a couple days.”
