In May 2016 the Vancouver Giants announced that they would be leaving the nearly 50 year old former home of the Canucks, the Pacific Coliseum. The move to the Langley Events Centre was rumoured to save the team $300,000 or more. They do have some specialty games still scheduled for the Pacific Coliseum, but their full time home is now south east of Vancouver in Langley. They played their first home game at the LEC on September 23, 2016. I was able to attend their fourth home game at LEC and I took a look around.
I’ll preface this entire post by saying I’ve only been in 3 other WHL arenas (4 if you include the Saddledome in Calgary) so take my opinion on the LEC how you may.
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The main entrance to the LEC will take you in to the base of a large flight of stairs. An Elevator is available for those unable to manage the stairs. Up the stairs will take you to a very vast concourse in the North West corner of the rink that the Giants defend twice. All the seating fits in a lower bowl with the concourse above it. I’ve always been a fan of arenas with the concourse having a view of the ice surface. I love the option of standing and watching a game from the concourse. One of the best features in the LEC was the bar height stainless steel counter that resides behind the last row on seats along the concourse. Perfect for the standing room crowd to place drinks or food. The concourse was nice and wide, I never felt claustrophobic while wandering around during the intermission, which I do often feel in many other arenas. Concessions seemed very limited however, but they do a very good job of keeping concession line ups out of the main concourse.
The west end of the LEC also houses a decent size conference room with big screens. The screens were playing MLB during the game while I was there. Above the concourse sits 24 individual suites along with broadcast booths. The west end of the rink above the concourse/conference room is a sports lounge. The east end and north side of the rink have very little on the concourse and it almost feels like wasted space. They do have a “pop up” Giants store on the north concourse, but there is nothing permanent on those two sides.
The LEC is lit entirely by LED lights. Which is absolutely excellent. The brightness and the versatility of the lighting is something that every arena needs, and from what I hear something that every arena will be doing by 2019.
The Langley Events Centre is only 8 years old, so it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that it has newer features. It is a nice building. I can’t truly compare it to the Pacific Coliseum, as I’ve never been in that arena. Capacity of 5,276 obviously is dwarfed by the capacity of the Pacific Coliseum’s 16,281. Just less than 4000 people in a building with a capacity of just over 5000 probably creates a better atmosphere than 6000 in an arena of 16,000. Obviously the Giants wont be able to reach the higher attendances they had in Vancouver while in Langley, but hockey is a business and saving $300,000 is a big savings either way.
No matter what the opinion on the LEC may be, the Giants by far have the best arena blimp in the WHL. Gretzky wine for everyone!
