Langley Events Centre new home of the Vancouver Giants

They'll still be called the Vancouver Giants, but starting next fall the junior hockey team that has been based at the historic Pacific Coliseum for 15 years will start calling the Langley Events Centre home.

"We should be a full building every night." said Giants' majority owner Ron Toigo about the decisionto move to the suburbs."There will be a real home ice advantage from the noise andambience."

The Giantshave struggled to put a winning team on the ice inrecentyears, and watchedtheir average attendance drop to just over 5,000 per game last season, not a recipe for an exciting atmosphere in abuilding which seats over15,700.

By comparison, the LEC has a seating capacity of 5,276. The Giants have signed a10-yearlease with the LEC according to Toigo.

"This is not an easy move.We've had some good years at the Coliseum. This is not areflection on the PNE or its staff," he said.

Jason Winslade, general manager of municipal administration and community services for the Township of Langley,which owns the LEC, confirmed there are nosubsidies or attendance guarantees in the agreement.

Neighbouring Abbotsford paid out well over$12 million dollars during the five year existence of theAbbotsford Heat because of guarantees and subsidies inthe tenancy agreement the team negotiated withthe city-owned Abbotsford Entertainment Centre.

Toigo said he wasfirst approached about moving the Vancouver Giants tothe Langley Events Centre two years ago, but didn't give it much thought then. A sold-out exhibition game staged there last preseason prompted him to consider the ideamore seriously. The team thencommissioned a poll to gaugepublic opinion on a potential move.

"The numbers came back staggering," said Toigo. "Where our demographic of our seasons ticket base is, where it's been growing, the size of the building ... we just felt this is the right time for this move."

"I'm looking forward to starting a new era.We'll have a new GMand new coachand a whole new direction in the fall."

The junior 'A' LangleyRivermenhockey team will be moving out the LEC to accommodate the Giants, and relocatingto the George Preston Arena.