For those of us that grew up in the Vancouver area Empire Stadium at the corner of Hastings and Cassiar was a fixture on the city skyline. The stadium was built in 1954 to host the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and was, at various times, home to the BC Lions football club of the CFL and the Vancouver Whitecaps soccer club of NASL/MLS. Other notable events held at Empire Stadium; performances by The Beatles and Elvis Presley; “The Miracle Mile” where two men ran a sub 4 minute mile in one race during the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. Growing up, I remember going to several BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps games at Empire Stadium. I remember being at field level for high school football games as well. The old stadium was demolished in 1993.
Fast forward to today and the site where the stadium once stood is now home to Empire Fields and Plateau Park which is part of the larger site of Hastings Park. I walked through part of the area on my way to Hastings Racecourse and was impressed with what I saw. The site has several full size community playing fields with synthetic playing surfaces and spectator seating and a 560 meter walking/running track with rubberized surface. There are also walking and biking trails running through the park. In the Plateau Park area there are basketball courts, a bike skills area, playground, beach volleyball area, ping pong tables and parkour area (“parkour” is like an obstacle course). I plan to check out more of the larger Hastings Park area in the future so stay tuned for those entries and photos.
More information about Empire Fields and Plateau Park is available at the City of Vancouver website: http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/hastings-park.aspx
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