BC Place will be ready to host the Lions game on Friday, but those responsible for the stadium's massive renovation say the $500-million roof may not be complete if the weather doesn't cooperate.
After a day of heavy rain on Monday, the stadium's General Manager Howard Crosley acknowledged that the retractable roof was leaking. But he says that's because the roof isn't yet complete.
"There's 36 panels up on the roof that all have to be welded together that will seal it up tight. There's still about six of those panels that have to be welded," he told CTV News.
"That work was slowed down over the last couple of days because of the high winds and rain. That didn't allow us to get up on the roof to finish off that work."
But Warren Buckley, president of BC Pavilion Corporation, says there's a chance the work won't be done in time for Friday's game against the Edmonton Eskimos.
"If it pours rain between now and Friday, we will have some difficulty in achieving that," he said.
"I can guarantee we'll work feverishly to do that and it will be a spectacular evening."
When the SkyDome opened in Toronto on June 3, 1989, what was then the world's first fully retractable roof leaked. It was an opening night embarrassment for the new stadium.
Buckley promises that once all the panels are welded together, the roof will be watertight. Whether that will happen in time for the grand opening is still up in the air.
"Somebody told me recently that if you don't have these kinds of issues at the end of a project, then the project hasn't been done correctly. There's always issues at the very last moment," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson
