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This now abandoned hockey arena was built in 1950 and had a capacity of approximately 3,000. The arena was home to various ice hockey teams in the past, including a team with the Greater Ontario Junior B Hockey League.
The Memorial Arena hosted four of the five games played in the 1968 Memorial Cup.
The abandoned Arena is hulking, empty shell now, one of the many arenas built across the province in the aftermath of the Second World War that has ultimately a date upcoming with the wrecking ball. The city council never really properly maintained the building, and by the end of its life the local junior B team was plagued by a leaking roof and structural deficiencies, as well as a parking problem that can only be caused by being located within walking distance of one of the world’s largest tourist draws.
Once inside the arena you entered a dark lobby with ticket booths and concessions directly in front of you. There was a plaque on the far wall announcing the building’s opening on January 25, 1950, and another one indicating that renovations took place in 1986.
The other side of the lobby had a large display case featuring trophies and memorabilia from the old Junior B team
From the lobby you went upstairs into the seating bowl. Inside, there was a small score-clock and a huge number of banners hanging from the ceiling. Seats are all blue, all plastic, and I believe they dated from the 1986 renovation.
The arena was decommissioned and declared surplus to the city’s needs after a new $38-million four-pad athletic centre was built in June 2010.
The International Sand Sculptures Exhibition was officially opened inside the building in August 2013 by Russian-based consortium V2 Niagara.
The world’s top sand sculptors were brought to the city to create War of 1812-themed displays depicting people, places and events. Three thousand tons of sand was used to create 25 sculptures.
The real estate agent for the facility said the exhibit wasn’t making enough money. The off-shore owner was convinced he could make a go of it, but it wasn’t successful and he put the building and its contents up for sale in November 2014.
The sand sculptures are still inside the arena and will be sold with the building, if a purchaser wants them.
As of April of 2018 there had been talk that the building would become the home to a new museum dedicated to the Titanic.With financing in place as of 2018, by a group of local venture capitalists, Experience Titanic Museum is expected to create 250-full time and part-time construction and operating jobs.
The $21-million facility will give visitors the chance to experience what it might have been like to be aboard the doomed ship on its maiden voyage that sank after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on April 14,1912 resulting in 1,503 lost lives. The experience will also allow people to feel what it was like to be in first class, in all its opulence, second class and the furnace room of the ship.
With finance behind them the goal at the time was to open the museum within 12-14 months…..that time has come and gone and it appears that ship has sunk.
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A personal connection to this abandoned hockey arena: This arena is located in the city that I grew up in, over the years I had attended many hockey games here as well an a number of other events such as WWF wrestling in the mid 1980’s with my father.
Most important to me however is this is where the annual Remembrance Day ceremony was held in my home town. Starting in 1993, the year I joined the military, I would accompany my grandfather to the ceremony every year, this was a tradition we kept up every year until the year he passed in 2011. Our final year attending the ceremony here was also the last year that they had the event at this arena, in 2009. In 2010 they opened a new state of the art sports facility but in 2010 my grandfather didn’t want to go to this big new fancy arena, too much commotion and too many people. Instead, on November 11th, 2010 we sat together in his kitchen, drank coffee and ate donuts and chewed the fat for a couple of hours.
After he passed away in 2011, I started a new tradition of laying down a wreath in his honour at the ceremony in the new arena and every year my father joins me, a new tradition!
These are the seats we sat in almost every year, usually 3 and 4.
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http://www.freaktography.com
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I frankly can't believe that anyone thought the 'sand sculptor thing' really had any chance of succeeding... especially off the beaten path a bit. The dumb-ass business decisions people make in this city really baffle the mind.
Posted by Freaktography
As of April of 2018 there had been talk that the building would become the home to a new museum dedicated to the Titanic.
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I've got a funny story for you with this. I was at the council meeting where the plan for this was thoroughly examined. We have a failed city-council hopeful in town who bombed the last election and now shows up just to rabble-rouse whatever he can. After going through the entire proposal, a time for questions was offered. A single hand went up and everyone sort of groaned when they saw it was this guy. He stands up like a professional lawyer, pacing back and forth like Matlock, and says, "Your proposal indicates that the roof of the building will be converted to have three smokestacks... but in your oral presentation, you said FOUR."
Councillor Vic P. puts his hand up meekly and says, "Tony... the developer didn't say four, he said FAUX. As in, fake, replica smokestacks."
He looks all around the room at everyone there and says, "Oh."
And he sits back down.
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Posted by Ground State
"Your proposal indicates that the roof of the building will be converted to have three smokestacks... but in your oral presentation, you said FOUR."
Councillor Vic P. puts his hand up meekly and says, "Tony... the developer didn't say four, he said FAUX. As in, fake, replica smokestacks."
He looks all around the room at everyone there and says, "Oh."
And he sits back down.
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This is HILARIOUS, I'm dying of laughter. Thank you.
My Blog; https://historyindecay.blogspot.com/ | |
Posted by Ground State
he said FAUX. As in, fake, replica smokestacks."
He looks all around the room at everyone there and says, "Oh."
And he sits back down.
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HAHAHAHAHA that is amazing!!!
http://www.freaktography.com
https://www.facebook.com/Freaktography https://instagram.com/freaktography www.youtube.com/c/Freaktography | |
Ah yes, war of 1812 sculptures. What else would we commission as Canadians eh? All they needed to up the ante was to play an accompanying Heritage Minutes piece on the jumbotron.
Thanks for sharing a space with us that has so much meaning to you.
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There's something about that rink, I feel like I've been there, but then again, many rinks look the same...
One day I got a good camera.
https://www.flickr...hotos/fleetsurbex/ | |
Pretty cool to see how well those sand sculptures are still doing. As I was reading the info before looking at the pictures, I was imagining more diorama style scenes of battles and sieges and not the large constructions that are there.
The Titanic museum seems like a strange idea to use the building, especially with large exterior modifications like adding faux smokestacks. They could have just gone with cleaning/painting and kept the cost down to have made it more likely to succeed.
The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire. |
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