Lions fans partied peacefully: VPD

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Vancouver Police seem to be pleased with the way Grey Cup celebrations are shaping up.

In a thinly veiled reference to the Stanley Cup riot, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Tweeted: “So nice to see [99th Grey Cup] fans celebrating in such a positive way after the Lions win – that’s the Vancouver we know and the VPD loves.”

Const. Jana McGuinness says there are no major problems to report, and jubilant fans have migrated from BC Place Stadium to the Granville entertainment district, where crowds are “similar in size to a busy weekend evening.”

It’s not just Lions fans in orange filling the downtown core.

Laura Doolan of Surrey is there, and says the city is awash in football colours.

“It’s a lot of fun, there’s a lot of spirit down here,” she says. “Lots of people with different jerseys from all over the country, it’s really fun to see that. Lots of people from Saskatchewan.”

News1130‘s Sports Director Ann Schmaltz likes to see so much diversity.

“Fans that love this game and love the CFL, they do come from all over,” she says. “It’s like a big celebration and a year-end party for the game. And the history of the CFL goes way back, 99 years, and that’s what I think adds to it and makes it special. 

“Predominantly, you’re going to see the orange and black jerseys because the home town is playing and you are going to see a number of gold and blue jerseys, but yes you will spot jerseys from all the teams in the league.”

Small leak

Ahead of the big game, crews were out fixing some roof leaks at BC Place.  This morning, water was seen dripping on the field and not on the seats.  Management at the Stadium say it was due to the heavy rain we’ve been getting lately.

Totally consumed

The majority of people will be throwing back some cold ones this Grey Cup weekend.  Beer is actually one of the most consumed items during CFL’s biggest event.

Molson says about 35,000 litres of beer will be chugged by the end of the day, and that’s in Vancouver alone.  That’s the equivalent to about 100,001 cans of beer.

Not surprisingly consumption of beer spikes on Grey Cup weekend as fans from around the country come to town to party.

Football brawl

Police say there was a football brawl in Gastown early Saturday morning that left one man with facial injuries.

The victim and his friend were leaving The Bourbon around 2:30 a.m. when they passed a group of four men. They say one of those men made a comment about the Calgary Stampeders jerseys they were wearing and a fight broke out.

Police have not been able to find surveillance video or witnesses and are still investigating.