Winnipeg Arena

Winnipeg Arena

Ol' Barn on Maroons Road
Location	1430 Maroons Road Winnipeg, MB R3G 0L5
Coordinates	49°53′13″N 97°11′52″W
Owner	Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation
Operator	Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation
Capacity	Ice hockey: 10,100 WHA Ice hockey: 15,393 NHL Ice hockey: 13,985 AHL
Construction
Broke ground	October 19, 1954
Opened	October 18, 1955
Closed	November 7, 2004
Demolished	March 26, 2006
Construction cost	$2.5 million CAD ($27.9 million in 2024 dollars)
Architect	Herbert Henry Gatenby Moody Moody and Moore Architects
Tenants
Winnipeg Warriors (WHL) (1955-1961) Winnipeg Jets/Clubs/Monarchs (WCHL) (1967-1977) Winnipeg Jets (WHA / NHL) (1972-1996) Winnipeg Warriors (WHL) (1980-1984) Manitoba Moose (IHL / AHL) (1996-2004) Winnipeg Thunder (WBL) (1992-1994)

Winnipeg Arena was an indoor arena located at 1430 Maroons Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba, across the street from Canad Inns Stadium and just north of Polo Park.

History

Built in 1955, it was owned by community-owned Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation. At the time of the arena's construction, Enterprises was headed by prominent businessman Culver Riley and had borrowed about $2.5 million, most of it from the City of Winnipeg, to build the Arena. At the time, Winnipeg was Canada's fourth largest city and the new Winnipeg Arena was considered to be the finest facility in the western half of North America. The building's first major tenant was the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League (minor pro) from 1955–1961. Its major tenant subsequently was the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA and the NHL from 1972-1996. In 1972 the Winnipeg Arena hosted game 3 of the famous "Summit Series" between Team Canada and the USSR. The game ended in a 4–4 tie. Following the departure of the Jets to Phoenix, Arizona, the Arena's prime tenant from 1996-2004 was the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League, and later of the American Hockey League.

The Winnipeg Arena was also home to the Winnipeg Warriors of the (Junior) WHL from 1980 through 1984 prior to the Warriors relocation to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and the Winnipeg Monarchs of the same league in the 1960s and 1970s. Also a popular location for filming movies, the building was used in the made-for-television Inside the Osmonds and the ESPN film A Season on the Brink. It hosted the fourth WWF In Your House pay-per-view in 1995.

The arena opened October 18, 1955 with the first regular season game between the Winnipeg Warriors and the Calgary Stampeders. The ceremonial opening faceoff was conducted by J. D. Perrin, President of the Warriors Hockey Club, before a sell-out crowd (including standing room) of 9,671. This was, at the time, the largest crowd in WHL history. The occasion marked the return of professional hockey to Winnipeg after a 27-year absence. The building sat 9,500 at its opening and replaced the obsolete Shea's Amphitheatre. In 1956, J. D. Perrin made an offer to purchase the Winnipeg Arena, Stadium, and Baseball Park Complex from Winnipeg Enterprises. In keeping with the tenor of the times, when public ownership was thought to be advantageous, the offer was rejected.

In conjunction with the Winnipeg Jets moving from the WHA to the NHL, renovations occurred in 1979 which expanded capacity to 15,565, mostly through the construction of upper decks on the east and west sides of the facility. The construction of these upper decks created an overhang above the lower deck seating areas, obstructing views according to many spectators. That same year, a painting of Queen Elizabeth II was commissioned for the Arena by Manitoba's Lieutenant Governor, Francis Lawrence Jobin. Gilbert Burch did the painting, which measured 5x7 metres (one of the largest ever painted of the Queen) and hung from the Arena rafters. A centre-hung scoreboard, with a color matrix screen on each side, was installed in 1985; the scoreboard it replaced was relocated to the newly-completed Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario.

Right after the Jets left in 1996, another renovation took place. Club seats were added, and the North End ice level seats were replaced with a club lounge. The portrait of the Queen was also removed in the summer of 1999, to make room for banners for the 1999 Pan American Games, and was not hung back up, due to it causing sound issues during concerts, and obstructed views for patrons who sat behind it. As of 2007, it sits in a Whitby, Ontario storage facility and is for sale.

The Winnipeg Arena earned the nickname of the "White House" amongst locals for the tradition of the "White Out", where fans would dress all in white during the Jets' playoff games.

The arena, along with its multiple hockey tenants, was a major plot point in director Guy Maddin's 2007 film My Winnipeg.

Decommission and demolition

With the opening of the MTS Centre, the Winnipeg Arena's demolition was approved, holding its last event on November 7, 2004. The City of Winnipeg took on the $1.45 million expense of demolishing the now-vacant arena. Final demolition was scheduled for 7:15 am on Sunday March 26, 2006. On the morning that the demolition was scheduled, hundreds of hockey fans gathered to watch the building fall. As the workers prepared to destroy the building, the group began to chant, "Go Jets, Go!". However, the dynamite failed to bring the entire structure down. Hours later, construction vehicles pulled down the rest of the structure.

The Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan Board, or "Ontrea Inc.", purchased the Winnipeg Arena site for $3.6 million. The land was being used as a parking lot for Canad Inns Stadium across the street until construction of new retail and office space began in 2011. The stadium, too, will be demolished after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers move into Investors Group Field on the University of Manitoba campus in 2013.