The Lions may have lost the game but once again the tailgate party was a winner! Tailgate Empire kicked it up a notch with some outstanding food. Take a look at some of the fun in this photo slideshow!

With today’s news that the 99th Grey Cup championship is now officially sold out, we thought it was time for another photo update on the facility where the game will be played. BC Place (soon to be renamed) is really starting to take shape and football fans across Canada are going to be in for a treat when the big game goes down in November.

The fixed fabric portion of the roof is now being installed and every day it seems a new section or two is added.

New progress appears to show that the interior finishing is also well underway, with what appears to be the installation of the new seats. Unless the seats are covered in some sort of wrapping, tthere would appear to be two different colours of seats. One a reddish/orange/maroon colour and the other grey.

From the exterior, looking from Science World, you can really see the shape of the building and can start to visualize the finished product. In the early stages many people suggested the design was ugly and going to be an eyesore. My opinion was wait to see the finished project before making your judgement. Looking at the photo below, I personally think this design is going to become an attractive focal point of our skyline, much more so than the previous roof.

With our time at Empire Field winding down, BC Lions fans and Vancouverites are going to soon have a first class state f the art stadium to attend events in once again. It all starts on September 30th, when the BC Lions take on the Edmonton Eskimos in the first sporting event to grace the new facility.

Personally, I can’t wait! Stay tuned for more updates!

It’s a pretty exciting year to be a fan of the BC Lions and for that matter the Vancouver Whitecaps. On September 30th the BC Lions will host the Edmonton Eskimos in the first sporting event at the newly renovated BC Place Stadium. It likely wont be called that by then and will probably have a fancy new sponsor but regardless it’s going to be a sight to behold. Personally I can’t wait, as the new digs will give fans the comfort of BC Place and the pleasure an open roof on beautiful Vancouver sunny days.

During the construction there have been times when myself and others have wondered about the design. Seeing the finished model restores your faith and I’ve always told people who say it’s ugly after driving by it to wait for the finished product. The product is starting to take shape, and I’ve even found a shot that shows the fabric roof has started to go up.

I thought I would share these for folks who are out of town and would like to see the progress. I’ll try and do this every couple of weeks or so leading up to September 30th.

Summer has arrived in the tournament capital of Canada and BC Lions training camp is in full swing at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops BC. It was our first look at the 2011 crop of hopefuls looking to become BC Lions and it didn’t take long to see there was some impressive talent out on the field.

Let’s get you up to speed on some of our observations from our first day here in Kamloops. We’ll also answer some questions you sent us on Twitter.

Tempo:

The first thing you notice at camp this year is that there is a very high tempo. Players are being moved from drill to drill to keep the pace up and the teaching constant. There is very little standing around and this is probably a good plan. Players coming to Canada for the first time need to adjust to a shorter play clock and the faster pace of the game. This is a smart move by the team.

Solomon Elimimian:

Last year’s CFL rookie of the year has come to camp looking like he wants to add to his trophy case. Elimimian was flying out there in the drills we watched and opposing offences had better be ready to deal with #56. The hard hitting linebacker, who the Lions tried to sign to extension in the off-season, is going to open some more eyes this year. The Lions are going to feature a 3-4 defense for many plays and combined with Adam Leonard, Anton McKenzie and Korey Banks should sport a very effective linebacking core with Elimimian as the centerpiece.

Receivers:

When Emmanuel Arceneaux left for the NFL dream this off-season, it certainly left the team with a hole to fill. The Lions have some options to look at in the returning Nick Moore and Akeem Foster and both had some nice plays on Thursday. But the club also looks to have found some nice options in newcomers Dobson Collins, Kierrie Johnson and Jared Perry. Collins in particular is an intriguing option with his height and speed and he received some reps with the first team, looking good doing it. He beat his defender more than once on deep routes despite not getting the ball thrown his way. Both Johnson and Perry also showed promise. 1st round draft pick Marco Iannuzzi looks like a solid pick, running solid routes and showing good hands.

Lulay leads:

There is one thing you notice right away this season. Lulay is going to be the leader of this team. He is vocal and supportive in the huddle and everyone has his attention. His passes were crisp and despite one interception during redzone drills, there was lots of reasons to feel excited watching Lulay work today.

The returners:

With the release of Yonus Davis because of his legal issues the hunt is on for a new kick returner. Auditioning today were Tim Brown, Kierrie Johnson, Andrew Harris, Marco Iannuzzi and Michael Smith. Of that group Andrew Harris and Tim Brown stood out to me.

Your Twitter Questions:

@the4jenkins asked: “@BCLionsDen How is Corey Leonard doing as QB? Will he be a good addition to the Lions?”

Unfortunately it’s tough to answer that mainly because Leonard didn’t get a lot of reps today. Travis Lulay, Jarious Jackson and Mike Reilly got the majority of them from what I saw. Leonard and Matt Johnson will battle it out for the 4th QB position and we’ll have to watch more closely as camp progresses.

@allezlabluesca asked: “@BCLionsDen Ask Joash Gesse how he envisioned its second season with the Lions.”

I don’t have access to the players but I can tell you Gesse looked good in special teams drills, and saw some reps at linebacker. With the depth the team has here I think it will be tough for him to get defensive minutes when the bullets start to fly. Like James Yurichuk before him Gesse is going to earn his keep on special teams for another year I think.

@KieranM37 asked: “@BCLionsDen good to hear! How are the DBs doing?”

The DB’s looked very solid today. Marsh, Phillips and Banks looked in fine form. Davis Sanchez was present but didn’t take part in drills. J.R. LaRose has returned and didn’t show any effects from his season ending injury last season and is working with Jason Arakgi at safety. Hamid Mahmoudi struggled today, getting beat deep on more than one occasion while Stanley Franks looked solid.

@BushmanGarth asked: “@BCLionsDen Wondering how Ben Archibald looks on the O-line and the O-line in general.”

Lions fans can look forward to big things from the offensive line if it stays healthy and the big reason will be Archibald. The man is massive, and the Lions now have to solid bookends at tackle with Jovan Olafioye moving to the right. The line looked good in drills and a few running backs hit some nice holes in drills.

@Padre35 asked:@BCLionsDen How is Matt Johnson and Edgeson looking in practice? Muamba as well?

See above for Matt Johnson, Edgeson is no longer with the team and Muamba looked ok, but didn’t stand out today.

We won’t be attending the morning session tomorrow, as the defense will be practicing indoors where we can’t see, and the offense will be doing a walk-through and teaching session.

Photos: Thursday June 9th, 2011

The BC Lions held an open house for their season ticket holders on Sunday and the early reviews are in. Football is going to be a lot of fun this season.

When you walk into Empire Field, you have to be pretty impressed at what has been constructed there in such a short period of time. The stadium is going to provide an up close and personal view of the game for football fans this season, that will put them right on top of the action. The side line seating is similar to the look of the original stadium with its column supported roof. The seats along the sidelines and in the corners are a black molded plastic seat while the end zones are bench style aluminum seating.The seats are completely filled in so there is no danger of dropping your wallet into the scaffolding maze under the seats.

The replay screen sits in the north end zone. It’s fairly small and the picture didn’t look that great and it also may get washed out in the sun at certain times of the day. There are two scoreboard style clocks that show the time, down, and score that are in opposite corners that should be visible to all fans.

The real surprise was the presence of a new field turf playing surface. Original plans had called for the turf from BC Place to be used, but it’s clear this surface is new by the colour of it. The surface looks great but if you’re hoping for the advertising free field we’ve enjoyed at BC Place, word is this surface will be painted up with sponsorship. Hopefully they can find room for a Lions logo as well.

Cons? Well washroom lineups could be long as only 150 portable toilets are on the site, in addition to washroom trailers. There will also only be three concessions maximum on the east side of the stadium, and the ticket person I talked to said they still didn’t know the exact locations.

Overall, I was very impressed with the facility and what they were able to do in such a short period of time. Many football fans in BC will be getting their first outdoor game experience and on a day like today, it’s hard to imagine them not thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Here’s a look at all our photos from the day for those that couldn’t make it out today!

Photos from the afternoon session of BC Lions training camp on June 8th, 2010 in Kamloops, BC

A recap of our live blog of the session can be found here.

Here are the photos from the June 8th morning session of BC Lions training camp in Kamloops, BC. The morning live blog recap is here.

The afternoon session of June 7th was less physical than the first three of camp, and that was understandable with three fights in the first three sessions, the coaches decided to throttle the boys back a bit with less contact drills, more focus on systems, and a pad-less scrimmage to close things out.

There weren’t really any standouts in the afternoon, as the drills weren’t really telling as far as evaluating talent. But we can tell you this, Emmanuel Arcenaux is going to have a huge year.

Here is our live blog of the afternoon’s proceedings, and of course a gallery of photos.

The morning session on June 7th produced some physical football on day two of training camp. Big hits, and a some heavyweight punches by Justin Sorensen on Jeremy Gibbs showed the intensity on the field was reaching new levels.

Here are some photos of the morning session, and you can review our live blog of the session here.

It was a crisp morning but the weather was perfect to kick off day one of BC Lions training camp in Kamloops. The Lions took to the field in a very workmanlike manner, and the intensity was high for the first practice of camp. There were great catches, interceptions and even a few big hits in the morning session of day one, a session that had the defense looking a little sharper than the offense early on. We have some highlights of the first practice here, and you can see some pictures below.

Be sure to check back this afternoon as we will live blog from the afternoon session as well.