{"id":824680,"date":"2026-07-25T06:08:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824680\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T06:08:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T06:08:46","slug":"b-c-lions-owner-amar-doman-interested-in-purchasing-bc-place-from-province","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/824680\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman interested in purchasing BC Place from province"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGraphic: 3DownNation (Photos: Jeff Vinnick\/B.C. Lions)<\/p>\n

B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman has officially expressed his interest in purchasing BC Place Stadium from the Government of British Columbia, 3DownNation has confirmed. TSN\u2019s Farhan Lalji was the first to report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The news comes after B.C. minister of jobs and economic growth Ravi Kahlon said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia that the province would be open to selling the stadium to the Vancouver Whitecaps<\/a>. The MLS franchise has been actively negotiating with various levels of government for the past several months in an attempt to solve their financial issues and avoid a potential relocation, with greater control over stadium revenue becoming a key sticking point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to the conversation if the parameters are there,\u201d Kahlon stated.<\/p>\n

3DownNation Newsletter<\/p>\n

\t\tToday\u2019s CFL news in your inbox every day at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n

\t\tBy signing up you agree to receive daily emails from 3DownNation, as well as our
\n\t\tterms of service<\/a> and
\n\t\tprivacy policy<\/a>. Unsubscribe anytime.
\n\t\t1900 Rose St, Regina SK S4P 0A9.<\/p>\n

Lions\u2019 president Duane Vienneau told 3DownNation via telephone on Friday evening that Doman\u2019s interest in purchasing the stadium pre-dates the Whitecaps\u2019 report and is not meant as a response to that organization. However, recent events have made his ambition seem more realistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a whim. It\u2019s been something that he first brought up at least two, maybe three years ago, and he just never thought it was on the table,\u201d Vienneau said. \u201cI think some of the recent developments that have happened have made him think, \u2018Oh my God, maybe it is on the table?\u2019 And he has sent a document to the province stating that he\u2019s interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lions are slated to return to BC Place on Saturday after being forced to spend the first seven weeks of the CFL season on the road due to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The franchise signed a new three-year lease<\/a> for the stadium with PavCo, the Crown corporation that operates the venue, on Friday.<\/p>\n

Purchasing the stadium was not discussed as part of the lease negotiations, but arose separately.<\/p>\n

It has been speculated that the new deal could see the Lions receive a greater share of gameday profits in light of some of the Whitecaps\u2019 demands regarding concessions, alcohol sales, and parking revenue. In June, Doman told 3DownNation that a cut of those revenue sources would be \u201ca game-changer overnight.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Vienneau would not disclose the details of the new lease, but emphasized that the team was pleased with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re happy with the terms. The terms are better than what we had,\u201d he stated. \u201cPavCo was great to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

BC Place underwent several upgrades in advance of the World Cup that could be beneficial for the Lions, particularly the addition of new premium seating options. A brand-new artificial field turf has also been installed<\/a>, which officially passed CFLPA testing on Friday.<\/p>\n

Doman, a building supplies magnate from Vancouver Island, purchased the B.C. Lions in August 2021 and has been unafraid to spend in order to benefit the team. He has paid out of pocket to host a series of kickoff concerts in recent years<\/a>, bringing in acts such as 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg. This year, he has already invested in a renovation of the team\u2019s Surrey practice facility<\/a> and the erection of a temporary stadium in Kelowna<\/a>, which held two games amidst the World Cup.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how the provincial government will weigh the two expressions of interest in BC Place, or how either sports team would fare as a tenant with the other as the owner. A sale would require a formal bidding process, which has not yet commenced.<\/p>\n

The B.C. Lions (1-4) will host the Toronto Argonauts (2-4) at BC Place Stadium on Saturday, July 25, with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Argonauts lost to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last week after Lirim Hajrullahu missed a potential walk-off game-winning field goal, while the Lions failed in their comeback bid against the Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Vancouver calls for a high of 22 degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS2 in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on TSN 1050 in Toronto and 730 CKNW (English) or Sher-E-Punjab Radio AM 600 (Punjabi) in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graphic: 3DownNation (Photos: Jeff Vinnick\/B.C. Lions) B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman has officially expressed his interest in purchasing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,125015,902,114214,32882,49,48,7028,521,522,520,527,2002,169042,6381,573,82,55,16513],"class_list":["post-824680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-amar-doman","tag-bc","tag-bc-government","tag-bc-place","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-football","tag-league","tag-leos","tag-lions","tag-mls","tag-sports","tag-vancouver","tag-whitecaps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}