Winnipeg Arena
Encyclopedia
Winnipeg Arena was an indoor arena located at 1430 Maroons Road in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, across the street from Canad Inns Stadium
Canad Inns Stadium
Canad Inns Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located north of Polo Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Stadium, named for hotel chain Canad Inns, and originally completed in 1953, seats 29,533 for football...

 and just north of Polo Park
Polo Park
Polo Park is Winnipeg's largest retail and entertainment district. It is the largest mall out of the eight malls in the city. Situated on the former Polo Park Racetrack, the Polo Park Mall was built in 1959. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Winnipeg when a roof was added in 1963...

.

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 third 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
Winnipeg Warriors (minor pro)
The Winnipeg Warriors were a minor league hockey team that played in the Western Hockey League from 1955 to 1961. Owned by Winnipeg's prominent Perrin family, the Warriors represented the return of professional hockey to Winnipeg after a 27 year absence. In 1955, the Warriors Club was the first...

 of the Western Hockey League (minor pro)
Western Hockey League (minor pro)
The Western Hockey League was a minor pro ice hockey league that operated from 1952 to 1974. Managed for most of its history by Hockey Hall of Fame member Al Leader, it was created out of the merger of the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Canada Senior Hockey League...

 from 1955–1961. Its major tenant subsequently was the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA
World Hockey Association
The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major competition for the National Hockey League since the collapse of the Western Hockey League in 1926...

 and the NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...

 from 1972-1996. In 1972 the Winnipeg Arena hosted game 3 of the famous "Summit Series
Summit Series
The Summit Series was the first competition between the Soviet and an NHL-inclusive Canadian national ice hockey teams, an eight-game series held in September 1972...

" between Team Canada and the USSR. The game ended in a 4–4 tie. Following the departure of the Jets to Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, the Arena's prime tenant from 1996-2004 was the Manitoba Moose
Manitoba Moose
The Manitoba Moose were a Canadian professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba that played in the International Hockey League from 1996 to 2001 and American Hockey League from 2001 to 2011. The team moved to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 2011 to become the St...

 of the International Hockey League, and later of the American Hockey League
American Hockey League
The American Hockey League is a 30-team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental circuit for the National Hockey League...

.

The Winnipeg Arena was also home to the Winnipeg Warriors
Moose Jaw Warriors
The Moose Jaw Warriors are a major junior ice hockey team of the Western Hockey League which are based out of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. The team plays its home games at Mosaic Place. The franchise moved to Moose Jaw from Winnipeg after the 1983–84 season, where they had previously been named the...

 of the (Junior) WHL
Western Hockey League
The Western Hockey League is a major junior ice hockey league based in Western Canada and the Northwestern United States. The WHL is one of three leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League as the highest level of junior hockey in Canada...

 from 1980 through 1984 prior to the Warriors relocation to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....

, and the Winnipeg Monarchs of the same league in the 1960s and 70s. 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
A Season on the Brink
A Season on the Brink is a book by John Feinstein which detailed the 1985-86 season of Indiana University's men's basketball team, led by the controversial coach Bobby Knight...

. It hosted the fourth WWF In Your House
In Your House
In Your House was a pay-per-view series created by the World Wrestling Federation . The original concept was that, in months when the WWF was not holding one of its major PPV events , they would offer a two-hour PPV, priced at $14.95...

 pay-per-view in 1995
In Your House 4
In Your House 4: "Great White North" was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation , which took place on October 22, 1995 at the Winnipeg Arena in Winnipeg, Manitoba It was the fourth pay-per-view of the In Your House series and the first WWF...

.

The arena opened October 18, 1955 with the first regular season game between the Winnipeg Warriors
Winnipeg Warriors (minor pro)
The Winnipeg Warriors were a minor league hockey team that played in the Western Hockey League from 1955 to 1961. Owned by Winnipeg's prominent Perrin family, the Warriors represented the return of professional hockey to Winnipeg after a 27 year absence. In 1955, the Warriors Club was the first...

 and the Calgary Stampeders
Calgary Stampeders (hockey)
The Calgary Stampeders are a defunct ice hockey team that was based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The team existed from 1938 until 1972, playing in various senior and minor professional leagues during that time...

. 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
Shea's Amphitheatre
Shea's Amphitheatre, also known as the Winnipeg Amphitheatre, was an indoor arena located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which seated 5,000 spectators....

. 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.

Renovations in 1979 expanded capacity to 15,565. That same year, a painting of Queen Elizabeth II was commissioned for the Arena by Manitoba's Lieutenant Governor, Francis Lawrence Jobin
Francis Lawrence Jobin
Francis Laurence Jobin was a politician and the 18th Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, Canada.Jobin from born in Winnipeg, and was educated at the University of Manitoba...

. Gilbert Burch did the painting, which measured 5x7 metres (one of the largest ever painted of the Queen) and hung from the Arena rafters.

In 1998, two years after the Jets left, 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
Whitby, Ontario
Whitby is a town in Durham Region. Whitby is located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and is home to the headquarters of Durham Region...

 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
Guy Maddin
Guy Maddin, OM is a Canadian screenwriter, director, cinematographer and film editor of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba...

's 2007 film My Winnipeg
My Winnipeg
My Winnipeg is a feature film directed by Guy Maddin. Starring Ann Savage, the film is a surrealist-inflected pseudo-documentary about Winnipeg, Maddin's home town...

.

Decommission and demolition

With the opening of the MTS Centre
MTS Centre
The MTS Centre is an indoor sports arena and entertainment venue in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and home of the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League. It is located on the former Eaton's site and is owned and operated by True North Sports & Entertainment. The 440,000 square feet ...

, 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 is now being used as a parking lot for Canad Inns Stadium
Canad Inns Stadium
Canad Inns Stadium is a Canadian football stadium located north of Polo Park Shopping Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Stadium, named for hotel chain Canad Inns, and originally completed in 1953, seats 29,533 for football...

 and is expected to be used for retail and office space in the future, as the stadium itself will likely be demolished after the new football stadium
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium
New Winnipeg Blue Bombers Stadium is an approved football stadium planned for Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.The stadium is being built on the grounds of the University of Manitoba campus at the intersection of Chancellor Matheson Road and University Crescent next to the existing University Stadium...

 at the University of Manitoba
University of Manitoba
The University of Manitoba , in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. It is Manitoba's most comprehensive and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. It was founded in 1877, making it Western Canada’s first university. It placed...

opens in 2012.
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