- Story and Photos by Bill Currie

Empire Fields and Plateau Sports Park is the lofty and formal name given to Vancouver's newest addition to the soccer scene. Yet, anyone who's ever kicked or carried both kinds of footballs around these parts knows the place by heart. Of course, many will remember the old Empire Stadium that was home to the BC Lions, Vancouver Whitecaps, and classic PNE concerts for three decades. Many also remember how it was left to rot when BC Place opened in 1983. More recently, the site was home to a portable stadium of scaffolding and tarp that allowed the MLS version of the Whitecaps to launch in 2011. Now, the sports fields have been rebuilt and soccer players young and old alike can get a taste of what it might have been like to play amongst the legends of old. After all, it's still Empire.