Vancouver, B.C., residents better not fall too deeply in love with the 27,500-seat Empire Field, which is on course for a June 20 completion. The stadium, built to host the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions while the team’s current home, BC Place, is under renovation, will only exist in its current form until November of next year. Then, like recyclable scaffolding, North America’s first-known temporary stadium for professional football—constructed from some 15,000 parts shipped from Switzerland in 70 containers—will be dismantled and shipped home, where it will be reincarnated as another temporary sports facility.
This type of recyclable stadium may be foreign to North America, but it is common in Europe, says Martin Blackburn, Vancouver branch manager for Switzerland-based Nussli Special Events (Canada) Ltd. Nussli is erecting and removing the stadium under a $12-million contract, which is 24% of the cost of building a venue from scratch.