Saturday March 10th is the beginning of Soccer season for the Vancouver Whitecaps, whom are opening up their first game of the season at a Jam packed BC Place with 23,000 faithful supporters coming to cheer the Whitecaps on against The Montreal Impact…………. there is more!!!!
To cap off this sporting weekend, the Vancouver Canucks are also entertaining Montreal just across the road at Rogers Arena in the NHL, where the faithful Canucks Supporters will fill Rogers arena with almost 20,000 in attendance. It is quite literally a doubleheader battle between East Vs West, Anglophone vs Francophone…so bring it on!
This year will also mark the beginning of the first full season of soccer games at the newly renovated BC Place Stadium, a few of the last games were played immediately after the renovations were completed in mid 2011. Whilst the majority of games of the 2011 season were played at at the temporary home for the Whitecaps, out at The Empire Field in East Vancouver, which is next to the PNE fairground attraction. BC Place is also home to the BC Lions Football team of the CFL League.
BC Place stadium has been a very famous landmark on the Vancouver Skyline, built in 1984, the Stadium was famous for its unmistakable Inflated roof. The roof itself made the headlines back in January 2006 when due to severe weather and the weight of Rain and Snow, the elements managed to tear a large hole in the roof, which marked the only time the roof had to be temporarily deflated in its history.
The stadium went through some major and massive renovations during 2011, it was time to say goodbye to the old inflated roof, and a welcome to a more modern structure. The stadium now literally looks like a huge Crown and further more it now boasts a stylish retractable roof. As sad as it was to see the Inflatable roof disappear, the venue has not lost its dominance on the Vancouver skyline and is still just as unique today as it has been years gone by. The renovations have really brought this venue into the 21st century and is proud to boast of some impressive facilities which is sure to impress any visitor here.
The Whitecaps are now in their 17th year. For many of the staff at The Sunset Inn and especially one Micheal Wright, the Whitecaps are now quite the institution in the Vancouver Sporting world. The fans are really what make up the atmosphere at this Stadium, specifically the famous ‘Southsiders’ who are the largest group of supporters here, who feature regularly at events associated with the team and can be seen and heard very clearly at the home games, there are some that come to the game just to witness the Southsiders at play! Also, a recently formed group called “La Doce’ were created in January 2011, these are fans who are made up from the old Spanish group of supporters, formally known as the ‘Spanish 12’ adopting the idea that they are the 12th member of the Whitecaps, the group is made up of Latin American and Spanish Fans from all over.
The Whitecaps V Montreal Kicks off at 3PM at BC Place.
Then the Vancouver Canucks vs Montreal kicks off just across the Georgia Street Viaduct at Rogers Arena at 7pm.
If you will like to see them on the TV you can catch these games on Sportsnet and in HIGH DEFINITION, we are proud to announce that as of this week the hotel now is now HD.
