Canucks viewing parties to start Sunday in Vancouver park, far from downtown

VANCOUVER — The mayor of Vancouver says the city will host viewing parties for the Canucks' Round 2 playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers at a park that's located far from the downtown core.

Ken Sim says the first event will take place Sunday for Game 3 at Oak Meadows Park, which can hold about 2,000 people, in the South Cambie neighbourhood.

Going deeper into the playoffs, Sim says community centres will also be open.

If the Canucks advance to the third round, he says the city would look at the Pacific National Exhibition as a venue to allow up to 6,000 fans to gather.

Sim says the plan takes pressure off the downtown core, where hordes of drunken fans rioted after the Canucks' Game 7 Stanley Cup loss to the Boston Bruins in 2011.

Sim says the whole city wants to celebrate the team's success this year, and a lot of thought has been put into this year's planning to make sure fans can enjoy the playoffs "responsibly."

"A lot of the individuals that were working on this year's, you know, festivities, they were there in 2011 and so they had a lot of lived experiences, and from that came a plan that was put together with a lot of thought," he told a news conference.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2024.

The Canadian Press