Stadium Drawings Show Seawall Extended, Crab Park Untouched & Unaffected

The Vancouver Whitecaps have released renderings of the proposed Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium on a revised site located next to the seabus. While there still won't be a design for the stadium until the project goes to rezoning, there's a couple of potentially exciting things the drawings reveal.


First, the drawings have confirmed that the Whitecaps intend to use the stadium to extend the city's seawall. This alone should be enough of a reason for every city councillor to get actively behind the stadium. An extended seawall would provide the first public access to this part of the downtown waterfront in almost a century. It could also allow the seawall to link up with the new Carrall Street Greenway, which would provide cyclists and pedestrians a continuous loop around downtown, False Creek, Stanley Park and Coal Harbour. Those of us who live or work downtown have been wanting this for a very long time, and it's great to see the Whitecaps offerring to deliver yet another public amenity with this project.

Second, the drawings show conclusively that Crab Park will be completely untouched and unaffected by the stadium. In fact, the drawings show the stadium will be located more than 100 metres away from the park; enough room to place another soccer field there if you wanted to. This should come as a great relief to the few stadium opponents left that feared for the future of Crab Park. Many of them were worried that the stadium would be right up against the edge of the park, or even worse, replace the park itself. Of course, neither of these was ever going to happen. Once again, the Whitecaps have shown that they're willing to address the stadium opponents' issues, even if the opponents are still unwilling to meet with them.

Please show your support for the Whitecaps Stadium by writing City Council today! You can e-mail them now at mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca .

(Just an editor's note:

Someone has correctly pointed out to me that these drawings are not "new" and have been on public record with the City of Vancouver since July, 2007. For the record, what I meant is that these are renderings that have appeared recently on the Whitecaps website.)

Cheers,
Bill Currie