Located on the site of the former Empire Stadium, the 27,528 spectator venue was constructed while a new retractable roof was installed at BC Place in 2010 and 2011.

The venue featured 20,500 roofed bucket seats—with the remaining 7,000 being benches—12 luxury suites, a press room, flood lighting and a FieldTurf artificial turf.

[3] The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation opened Empire Bowl on the site on 2003, which consisted of a 5.5 hectares (14 acres) lot, costing $2.9 million.

[6] The decision to build the roof was, according to Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi, "key" to bringing a MLS franchise to Vancouver.

[6] In 2009, the Whitecaps signed a five-year agreement to play their home matches at BC Place, starting in 2011.

[7] To allow the Lions to continue playing as normal and support the new Whitecaps franchise, PavCo decided to build the temporary venue at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) in Hastings Park in eastern Vancouver.

[3] The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation stated immediately after the press release that they had not been consulted or informed about the decision to build a professional sports venue on their grounds.

[11] After the reopening of BC Place, the stands at Empire Field were disassembled in November and December 2011, with the turf, locker rooms and lighting masts being left behind.

It features a mountain bike park to the north, a 3.9-meter (13 ft) wide running track around the field and a skateboarding and graffiti tunnel.

[10] It lies on the grounds of and will be operated by the Pacific National Exhibition,[9] which is owned by the Vancouver City Council.

[3] In addition there are twelve executive boxes, a VIP zone, flood lighting and media facilities.

[18] Compared to BC Place, which is located Downtown, Empire Field offered poor public transport service.

[19] The Lions opened the venue on June 20, 2010, with a pre-season 36–32 loss against the Edmonton Eskimos, in front of a crowd of 24,763.

The team's highest attendance was the 29,517 spectators who watched the Saskatchewan Roughriders win 37–18 on July 10, in the first regular-season game to be played at Empire Field.

[24] Braley stated that the temporary stadium cost the Whitecaps an estimated 1,600 season ticket sales and three major sponsors.

[8] The stadium hosted a concert with Bryan Adams and The Beach Boys on August 21, 2010, to celebrate the centennial anniversary of PNE.