Thunderbird Stadium is an outdoor stadium on the

University Endowment Lands The University Endowment Lands (UEL) is an unincorporated area that lies to the west of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and adjacent to the University of British Columbia and the lands associated with that campus. Pacific Sp ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. It is located west of

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

's city limits, and is primarily used for soccer and football by the

UBC The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top three ...

Thunderbirds. It seats 3,500 in the main grandstand, plus grass seating for about 5,000 people on the west side and ends of the stadium, and by using the surrounding grass embankment the facility can accommodate up to 12,000 spectators. The stadium was opened on October 7, 1967.Thunderbird Stadium Construction Information
/ref> It features 12 80-foot-high concrete support towers, all topped with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

thunderbird statues created by renowned

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

artist

Bill Reid William Ronald Reid Jr. (12 January 1920 – 13 March 1998) (Haida) was a Canadian artist whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. Producing over one thousand original works during his fifty-year career, Reid ...

. Later renovations include the replacement of a few original benches with fold-down seating directly below the press box.

History

Sports

The facility is also used for Canadian

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international matches, and the B.C. High School Rugby Championships. In 2009, the stadium was used to host the Ireland national rugby union team playing against the

Canada national rugby union team The Canada national rugby union team (french: Équipe du Canada de rugby à XV) represents Canada in men's international rugby union competitions and is governed by Rugby Canada. Canada is classified by World Rugby as a tier two rugby nation an ...

. Since 2006, the stadium has been used for Australian rules football matches, including the West Coast Challenge tournament, and in 2007 as the venue for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's international games against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and Japan which drew 2,500 spectators. In 2008, it became home to the Vancouver Cougars club. In 2013, the Vancouver Nighthawks, a professional ultimate team competing in

Major League Ultimate Major League Ultimate (MLU) was a North American semi-professional Ultimate (sport), Ultimate league from 2013 to 2016. It was composed of eight member teams, seven in the United States and one in Canada. It was formed in 2012, and began its inaugu ...

, became tenants of Thunderbird Stadium. A total of five home games were played at Thunderbird Stadium for both the team and the league's inaugural season. The team ceased operation when the

(MLU) ceased all operations on December 21, 2016. From 2015-2017, the USL soccer team,

Whitecaps FC 2 Whitecaps FC 2 is a professional soccer team based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada that serves as the reserve team of the Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer. History Prior to the MLS Next Pro iteration the team played its h ...

(part of the

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

) played their home games at the stadium. In June 2015, a

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

preseason game was to be held at the stadium on June 19, 2015, between the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

and Edmonton Eskimos. This was due to Women's World Cup soccer being held at the Lions' usual home,

BC Place BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a crown corporation of the province. The venue is currently ...

. The highest attendance for a Thunderbirds game at the stadium came on September 17, 2017 when UBC played their annual homecoming game in front of 9,542 fans, the third highest attendance for a Canada West football game in History

Cultural events

The facility was also used for cultural events and rock festivals. However, with the installation of artificial turf in 2010, concerts are no longer permitted. Thunderbird Stadium hosted

Ozzfest Ozzfest is an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband Ozzy Osbourne, both ...

Lilith Fair Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 ...

, Lollapalooza, Area:One Festival,

Another Roadside Attraction ''Another Roadside Attraction'' is the first novel by Tom Robbins, published in 1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The worl ...

and the Arts County Fair. It also held individual concerts including " Midnight Oil/ Hunters & Collectors/

Art Bergmann Arthur Frank Bergmann (born February 8, 1953 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter who was one of the key figures in Canadian punk rock in the late 1970s.Michael Barclay, Ian A.D. Jack and Jason Schneider, '' Have ...

" in 1991. From 1995 into the 2000s it was used for the

Vans Warped Tour The Warped Tour was a traveling rock tour that toured the United States plus three or four stops in Canada annually each summer from 1995 until 2019. It was the largest traveling music festival in the United States and the longest-running tourin ...

. Up to 25,000 have attended individual concerts and/or festivals at the stadium.

References

External links

Official Page
{{Authority control Canadian football venues in British Columbia USL Championship stadiums Soccer venues in British Columbia Sports venues in Vancouver UBC Thunderbirds Rugby union stadiums in British Columbia University sports venues in Canada 1967 establishments in British Columbia Sports venues completed in 1967 Ultimate (sport) venues College football venues Whitecaps FC 2