Building out the Apple Bowl
Photo: BC Lions
Stadium configuration and ticket prices unveiled for Touchdown Kelowna
Plans for the build out of Kelowna’s Apple Bowl to accommodate a pair of BC Lions games this summer is moving ahead quickly
The BC Lions, who will play two regular season CFL games at the stadium on June 27 (against Calgary) and July 4 (Edmonton), have been busy configuring seating designs and other infrastructure requirements.
With tickets going on sale soon, the seating configuration for more than 17,000 fans has been basically nailed down.
The seating build out includes 30 rows of seats along the east side of the stadium stretching from goal line to goal line.
Team president Duane Vienneau told Castanet News recently those are standard builds used at similar neutral-site CFL games on Vancouver Island and in Atlantic Canada.
“On the north and south end zones, it’s essentially the same structure just divided in two,” said Vienneau. “There is a little bit more room there so it stretches the numbers a little bit more.”
Vienneau said that U-Shaped configuration will provide about 14,000 seats.
It’s the west side of the stadium where the current grandstand is located that Vienneau said will see the most change.
“We are taking the real estate on that entire side up to about the 20 yard lines, we are adding infrastructure to create a premium section.
“High top tables and seats… we’re adding sections in the corner that would be more like casual seating.
“The seats are inside the premium section, but that whole area will hold about 2,500 people in essentially a VIP section.”
Seats on that side will also be “really, really close to the benches.”
Seating will be augmented by the Coors Lite Party Zone and The Fieldhouse on the northeast corner, a more premium area with unlimited food and beverage service.
Vienneau said while the team and the city are working together on other infrastructure solutions, the build out to turn the Apple Bowl into a CFL venue is the team’s responsibility.
That includes everything from locker room space to press boxes and a video scoreboard.
“Our job is to bring the CFL experience to Kelowna,” he said.
“The fun part of this is it’s not a regular CFL experience, it becomes a different experience which a lot of CFL fans really like because it’s different.”
Many of those details, he said, are still being worked on.
Tickets will be available in three phases with BC Lions season ticket holders getting first dibs. Those will go on sale soon, according to the team.
Okanagan Sun season ticket holders will be next in line with an early bird window from Feb. 20 through Feb. 25. The Sun have already sold just under 300 season tickets with the deadline to purchase those now moved to Feb. 17.
Tickets for the general public go on sale Thursday, Feb. 26 and are expected to go fast.
Ticket prices for Touchdown Kelowna range from $50 (end zones) to $220 (Fieldhouse) for Lions season ticket holders to a regular price of $65 (end zone) to $250 (Fieldhouse).
While some on social media have complained the prices are high, Vienneau said that is simply not the case.
He said the highest priced tickets ranging from $190 to $250 are for the premium sections along the west side of the stadium and the Fieldhouse which both include unlimited food and beverage service.
“But, if you look at just the party zone to the midfield bleachers and end zones, the main seats you are buying, that average ticket price is in the $65 to $75 range, and that is right in line with every piece of business CFL wide.”
In fact, midfield seats for the two games in Kelowna are priced lower than those comparable tickets at BC Place.
The City of Kelowna is also expected to make improvements to the Apple Bowl, a facility built for the 1980 BC Summer Games.
However, the scope of those improvements, or how much money is being set aside, has not yet been announced.
Castanet reached out to Mayor Tom Dyas to find out if those details have been worked out.
We did not hear back prior to publication.