Spectator Sports
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- Best of Vancouver and Victoria
- Vancouver Island: High Tea to Low Tide
- Vancouver’s Totem Poles
- Vancouver’s Best Hiking
- Family Fun in Vancouver & Victoria
- Focus on Vancouver and Victoria
- Vancouver Weekend Getaway
- Victoria Weekend Getaway
- A Tour Through Time
- Inside Passage Cruises
- Outdoor Adventures
- Winter Fun in Vancouver & Victoria
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Vancouverites love their sports—not just being involved themselves, but supporting local teams. With a long season and outside activities curtailed by the winter weather, ice hockey—known in Canada simply as “hockey”—draws the biggest crowds, but the city also boasts professional football, baseball, and soccer teams.
Hockey
In 1911 the world’s second (and largest) artificial ice rink opened at the north end of Denman Street, complete with seating for 10,000 hockey fans. The local team, then known as the Vancouver Millionaires, played in a small professional league and in 1915 Vancouver won its first and only Stanley Cup, the holy grail of professional ice hockey.
Joining the National Hockey League (NHL) in 1970, the Vancouver Canucks (604/899-7400, www.canucks.com) play out of General Motors Place (across from BC Place Stadium on Griffith Way), which was built for the now defunct Vancouver Grizzlies NBA franchise. The season runs October–April; ticket prices range $45–200.
Football
The BC Lions (604/589-7627, www.bclions.com) are Vancouver’s Canadian Football League franchise. Home games are played at BC Place Stadium, on the south side of downtown at the corner of Robson and Beatty Streets. The season runs June–November, with most games played in the evening; tickets range $32–84.
© Andrew Hempstead, from Moon Western Canada, 3rd Edition
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