TD Place Arena

TD Place Arena, originally the Ottawa Civic Centre, is an indoor arena located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Opened in December 1967, it is used primarily for sports, including curling, figure skating, ice hockey, and lacrosse. The arena has hosted Canadian and world championships in figure skating, curling, and ice hockey, including the first women's world ice hockey championship in 1990. It is also used for concerts and conventions such as Ottawa SuperEX.

The arena is the home to the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and the Ottawa Charge of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). It was the home of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1992 through 1995, the Ottawa Nationals of the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 to 1973, the Ottawa Civics of the WHA in 1976, and the Ottawa Rebel of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) from 2002 to 2003.

Canadian Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, and Kim Campbell were elected party leaders at TD Place Arena.

History

In the 1960s, the City of Ottawa was preparing to rebuild the football stadium at Lansdowne Park, on Bank Street at the Rideau Canal. During the planning phase, the old Ottawa Auditorium arena was demolished and the City now needed two new sports venues. The City combined plans and the arena, named the Civic Centre, was built together under the north grandstand of the football stadium. One side of the arena is located beneath the upper part of the stadium grandstand, with a much lower ceiling than the opposite side of the arena.

Dominion Bridge was the supplier of the huge steel girders for the arena and stadium's frame, some so large they had to be brought to the site by barge, up the Ottawa River and down the Rideau Canal. According to Dominion Bridge "the most striking feature of the unique design concept is a giant overhanging roof reaching out 170 degrees from atop eight massive steel A-frames."

The new Civic Centre opened on December 29, 1967—although seating was not complete—for an exhibition game between the Ottawa 67's, boosted by five players from the Montreal Junior Canadiens, and the NHL Montreal Canadiens. Seats were taken temporarily from the Coliseum building nearby. Then President Howard Darwin said about 500 fans had to be turned away at the door. Of the 9,000 who attended the opening game, only six ticket-holders requested and received refunds. The football stadium and arena complex served as the official Canadian Centennial project for the city of Ottawa, as federal government grant money depended on the facility opening within 1967, and construction was rushed to meet the deadline.

It was renovated and seating increased in 1992 in order to temporarily accommodate the Ottawa Senators of the NHL.

The renovation also sealed up constant leaks that had been a problem for the Civic Centre for years. During the 2011–12 season, a 67's game had to be rescheduled because of the leaking roof. Midway through the renovation process at the end of 2013, steel corrosion was discovered by workers and cost an extra $17 million to repair. While the arena was renovated, the 67's used the Canadian Tire Centre for the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "TD Place Arena" and modified on December 16, 2024 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.