Winnipeg Arena

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• Winnipeg Warriors ( WHL; 1955-1961 )
• Winnipeg Monarchs ( WHL; 1967-1977 )
• Winnipeg Jets (WHA / NHL; 1972-1996 )
• Winnipeg Warriors ( WHL; 1980-1984 )
• Manitoba Moose ( IHL / AHL, 1996-2004)
• Winnipeg Thunder ( WBL; 1992-1994)

The Winnipeg Arena was primarily used for ice hockey games multi-purpose arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The arena was located in the Maroons Road in 1430, compared with the Canadian Football Stadium Canad Inns Stadium, north of Polo Park Shopping Centre. The construction work for the Ol ' Barn on Maroons Road began on October 19, 1954 and the building was completed a year later. On 7 November 2004, the arena was closed because they, which eventually led on 26 March 2006 on the demolition of the Winnipeg Arena with a new and more modern ice rink, the MTS Centre, was replaced.

History

When the arena was opened on October 18, 1955 with the WHL game of the Winnipeg Warriors against the Calgary Stampeders, it offered 10,100 spectators, in the third largest city in Canada at this time course. The majority of the construction costs of 2.5 million Canadian dollars got the Winnipeg Enterprises Corporation, owner and operator of the arena, borrowed from the city of Winnipeg. The first major tenant of the hall in the years 1955 to 1961 were the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League professional hockey player, followed by the Winnipeg Monarchs from the same junior league, which fought out their home games here 1967-1977.

The most famous tenants of the arena, however, were from 1972 to 1996, the Winnipeg Jets, the first played in the World Hockey Association and later in the National Hockey League. Up to the relocation of the franchise to Glendale in the U.S. state of Arizona, the Jets wore their home games here. The new main tenants were from 1996, the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League, which had previously been home to a Minnesota Moose in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Manitoba Moose played until 2004 in the Winnipeg Arena, but bear in November 2004 of their home games in the new MTS Centre.

The third of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR, which ended in a draw 4:4, Arena took place in Winnipeg. Other users of the arena were the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League, who used the stadium from 1980 to 1984, and the Winnipeg Thunder between 1992 and 1994 from the World Basketball League.

A first renovation of the arena took place in 1979, whereby the original seating capacity was increased to 15,393. On request, the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, Francis Lawrence Jobin, a painting of Queen Elizabeth II was made for this renovation of Gilbert Burch, which was attached to the roof of the stadium. The 5 × 7 -foot painting is one of the largest ever created portraits of the Queen. In a further renovation in 1998, two years after the Winnipeg Jets were relocated to Arizona, the painting of the Queen as new seats were removed to make room for the banner of the Pan American Games in 1999. Moreover, the seating capacity was reduced to 13,985, and a lounge were installed.

Nicknamed the " White House " was the arena by the locals themselves, due to the dressed all in white fans of the Winnipeg Jets to play-off games.

Closure and demolition

The opening of the modern MTS Centre November 16, 2004, the Winnipeg Arena was no longer needed and their 1.45 million CAD ​​expensive demolition of the now empty hall, the cost of carrying the city of Winnipeg, was approved. The last event at the Winnipeg Arena was held on 7 November 2004. On the morning of 26 March 2006, the final demolition of the arena should be, what, hundreds of hockey fans gathered outside the stadium and "Go Jets Go" sang, when the former Winnipeg Jets game site was blown up. However, the dynamite used was not enough to bring the whole structure to collapse the arena, and a rest of the building was only later with the help of excavators.

The site of the former Winnipeg Arena was (Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan Board) bought for 3.6 million CAD ​​from the Ontrea Inc. and currently serves as a parking lot for fans of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which discharge their home games at opposing football stadium. Later, to be built on the site of a building with retail and office space.