Track and field and Canadian football, as well as soccer, rugby and musical events, were held at the stadium.

It saw most of its use as the home of the BC Lions of the CFL from 1954 to 1982, in which the venue also played host to the first Grey Cup game held west of Ontario in 1955.

They were first used a week earlier at Montreal's Autostade for the 1966 Eastern Conference final; this model goalpost would soon become the standard design in the NFL and CFL.

The most famous event of the games was the One Mile Race in which both John Landy and Roger Bannister ran the distance in under four minutes.

The statue formerly stood near the south end of Hastings St., but has since been moved to the Pacific National Exhibition north entrance just metres from where the feat took place at the new Empire Fields.