An artistic rendering of what BC Place Stadium will look like once interior renovations are complete. (CBC)BC Place Stadium is getting a $65-million interior upgrade in time for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
B.C. Pavilion Corp., the provincial Crown corporation responsible for the stadium, hopes to spruce up everything from concession stands to lighting to the facility's washrooms.
Much of the stadium's outdated interior will be replaced with a modern new colour scheme and wood accents, designed to give the facility a warmer, more comfortable feel, according to PavCo chair David Podmore.
"The work we're doing right now we can comfortably complete before 2010. I have no concerns about that at all. And it's also an enhancement for the uses of the building for 2010," he said.
The $65 million for the interior upgrade will come from cash reserves and money from future real estate sales around the stadium. The renovations will be completed well in advance of the Winter Games, Podmore said Thursday.
However, one thing that won't be finished in time for the Games is the stadium's new retractable roof.
The B.C. government decided in May to replace the inflatable dome after it collapsed during a windstorm on Jan. 5, 2007. One of the panels ripped and had to be replaced.
However, the retractable roof is not expected to be completed until 2011. Instead, the province will refurbish the 25-year-old marshmallow-like roof in time for the Olympics.
Podmore said the corporation is about one third of the way through the design process for the new retractable roof, but he refused to discuss the price tag.
"I don't know the cost. I don't think it's relevant … I will not answer questions on the cost of the roof," Podmore told reporters.
According to previous proposals by PavCo, a retractable roof could cost $200 million.
Share Tools
Latest British Columbia News Headlines
- Adrian Dix to stay on as B.C. NDP leader despite election loss
- Embattled B.C. NDP Leader Adrian Dix says he will stay on as head of the party despite last week's surprise election defeat. more »
- Wait time and primary care reforms stalled
- Shortening wait times for hip and knee replacements, increasing electronic health records and starting a national pharmacare strategy are stalled, according to a new progress report. more »
- Man stabbed in Vancouver
- Vancouver police are investigating after a man was stabbed in the city's Downtown Eastside on Wednesday night. more »
- B.C. teen's heroics save pet dog in 'terrifying' cougar attack
- A teenager who says he heard a horrible "scream" from his beloved black labrador outside the family home in Belcarra, B.C., looked out his window and then went into action to save the dog from a vicious cougar. more »
Must Watch
Top News Headlines
- Neil Macdonald: Harper no Obama when it comes to dealing with scandals
- Beset by three so-called scandals at the moment, Barack Obama has been meeting his accusers and the press head on, Neil Macdonald writes. The same cannot be said for how Stephen Harper operates. more »
- Court freezes assets in widening SNC-Lavalin probe
- The RCMP are moving to freeze millions of dollars in bank accounts and real estate holdings in Montreal and Florida in their expanding probe into Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin. more »
- Needed: New approaches to defuse 'suicide contagion' among teens
- Mental health experts say we need to find new ways to refer to and discuss suicide, particularly now that a large medical study has confirmed that teens are more susceptible to the idea if they know a schoolmate who died that way. more »
- 2nd suspect in Tim Bosma case in court today on murder charge
- A second man arrested in the death of Tim Bosma, a Hamilton father who disappeared after taking two men on a test drive, is due in court today to face a charge of first-degree murder. more »
- Plumber's car explodes near Vancouver apartments
- B.C. teen saves dog from cougar
- Man stabbed in Vancouver
- Adrian Dix to stay on as B.C. NDP leader despite election loss
- 2 men found in Kalamalka Lake near Vernon, B.C.
- End solitary confinement, says former female inmate
- Greyhound bus caught going twice the speed limit in B.C.
- Wait time and primary care reforms stalled
- Former B.C. MLA Harold Long killed in plane crash
