Hockey Arenas: Canada's Secular Shrines IRWIN SHUBERT, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY he importance of the hockey arena to Canadian society when a fundraising dinner was held to kick-off Radisson's T is best summed up by a statistical curiosity published arena campaign, 420 of the community's 434 people attended. recently in Harper's Magazine : The ratio of ice rinks to hospi­ This kind of dedication to the cause was repeated time and tals in Canada - 3:1. Now, this may say more about the state time again over the course of the campaign. But the most of health care in this country than it does about Canadians' love amazing aspect of this story, and the one that perhaps best for the game of hockey, but there is no denying that hockey illustrates the importance of hockey to Canadian culture and holds a special place in the hearts and minds of many Canadians. community, is the now legendary story of Joe T utt. T utt, a It has been referred to as "our game," "the Canadian specific," twenty-five-year-old driveway contractor who heard about "our common passion," "the language that pervades Canada," Radisson's situation through a national media campaign spon­ and "the game of our lives." It is part sport, part spectacle, sored by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, decided part religion, and as a religion it has its places of worship. to cycle more than 3,000 kilometres from Milton, Ontario, to Hockey arenas in this country come in all shapes and sizes, Radisson to raise funds for the arena. He not only completed from the numerous small community facilities with perhaps a the trip, raising $25,000, he subsequently refused the return hundred seats (Figure 1), to the huge (fifteen-thousand-plus air ticket purchased for him by the town because the trip had capacity) sports-entertainment complexes of the National raised less than he had hoped for. He got back on his bicycle Hockey League (NHL) (Figure 2) . We tend to hear and know and rode home, raising another $10,000. To my knowledge, more about NHL arenas and the cities in which they are located there has never been an effort such as this to raise money for a because of the top-down world of professional sport. Many hospital, which might explain in part the statistical oddity cities have built new NHL arenas recently, while other cities quoted in Harper's Magazine . have lost their bids for new facilities, and hence their teams. There are two reasons for this rather protracted intro­ The prime Canadian examples, Winnipeg and Quebec City, duction to the cultural significance of hockey arenas: first, it is have taken their place in the mythology of hockey in this important to understand how widespread and deeply ingrained country. While their respective battles to save local NHL the game of hockey is on the Canadian psyche; and second, hockey - and, as some see it, to save their cities - has been while the discussion that follows deals specifically with NHL intriguing, it pales in comparison to the story of Radisson, arenas, this by no means indicates their superiority over Saskatchewan. 1 smaller regional facilities. Again, it's a question of scale. In 1986, Radisson, a small prairie town of 434 people, was The focus of this paper is primarily on Montreal and trying to raise funds to replace their aging arena. The issue Vancouver, both of which recently opened new state-of-the­ was simple: replace the arena or lose the community. The art arenas. The contrast between the new buildings, as well as people of Radisson had reasoned that the first thing to go is the ones they replaced, is quite revealing. 2 the arena, then in succession the gas station, the school, the One does not have to look too deeply for evidence of a dif­ co-op, and finally the town itself. While melodramatic, it is a ference in dialect in "the language that pervades Canada." scenario that has frequently played out on the Prairies. It is While Vancouver's newspapers report daily on the Canucks' also something that the people of Saskatchewan have been progress, the Montreal papers wonder if this year's Canadiens dealing with for some time, as technology and changing cultural team is another dynasty in the making. Canadiens fans believe in and economic patterns have made obsolete many of its 800 their history; Canuck fans are still waiting for theirs. The most communities. The ones that survive are the ones that can pro­ illuminating evidence of this difference in dialect can be seen vide the amenities to keep the people there. by examining the coverage of the closing and subsequent Why is this story more intriguing than the examples of opening of each city's NHL arena. When the Vancouver Canucks Winnipeg and Quebec City? It is really a question of scale: started the 1995-96 season in their new home, GM [General .JSSAC I ..JsEAc 23:2 ( 1 998) 49 really commenting on the inherent connection between lan­ guage and culture. Since hockey is definitely a major part of Canadi an culture - indeed, a culture unto itself- then its language evokes meaning and understanding from those that share in that culture, while leaving others baffl ed, perhaps understanding the words but not the way in which they are being us ed. In "Farewell to the Forum," fin ancial analys t Francis Scarpaleggia shared this connection with his readers: I had entered a physical and spiritual landmark. The Forum was more than a hockey arena. It had va lue beyond the purely func­ tional. It figured in anecdotes that became pa rt of fa mil y hi stories, stood as a symbol of the national spirit, and functioned as a micro­ cosm of the large r society outs ide .... The Forum is mo re than ;1 store­ house of personal memories. It is a part of the so ul ion the nation, <l place where the country's myths arc pl<1yc d out in wee kl y ri tuals. Pl aye rs, rugged , independent ye t graceful, move over froze n gro und like coureurs de bois, overcoming the obstac les in their path wit h grim determination and roots carved fro m the wood of the land .... Besides its role as guardian of the country's sac red myths, the Forum has been a mirror of the society that surro unds it .. .. The Forum is more than the world shrine of a fast and exciting sport .. .. It is ;1 crucihle in which individu als fro m aro und the wo rl d ;u e tr;msform ed into Canad ians6 T o some, this way of speaking about a building ma y see m Figure 1. Tibury Ice, Delta, British Columbia, built in 1995 at a cost of $2.5 million, unnatural, even a little overstated, but to many Canadians - seats 100-150 people in the arena and the bar/viewing area . CTA Design, and more im portantly m most Montn.:a lers - it is perfccdy architects. (1. Shubert, 1998) acceptable, even warranted. W hat is particul arl y int;..: resting about this article is that it was written in 1989, when talk Figure 2. Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, built in 1931 at a cost of S1.6 million, currently seats more than 15,000. Ross & Macdonald, architects. of a new arena was just that, talk. O ne can onl y wo nder what (1. Shubert, 1998) Mr. Scarpaleggia would be saying today. Neither the Montreal Forum nor the Pac ific Coli seum Motors] Place, little was said about their old home, the Pacific have yet to meet with the wrecking ball. In Vancouver, deh< llc Coliseum (Figure 3), as it quietly passed into oblivion. over what to do with the Pac ific Coli seum is virtuall y non­ By compari son, when the Montreal Canadi ens began pl ay­ existent; in Montreal, a bu zz persists over the possibility of ing in the new Molson Centre near the end of 1996, the closing razing the Montreal Forum. According m Derek Drummond, of the old Montreal Forum was orchestrated as a nos talgia­ director of the school of architecture at McGill Uni ve rsity, the ridden, gut-wrenching event. Consider the language of the proposed demo li ti on o f the Montreal Forum "foc uses our headline "Vancouver city offi cials unsure of what to do with a ttention o n how fr agil e o ur urban e nvironments ha\' e the Coliseum," versus "Forum wake starts with sil ence ,"3 or become; .. it reveals how little our coll ective memories and "Hockey's temple passes into history."4 As the author of the traditions are valued by not onl y the corporations who make latter wrote, "when the Forum fin all y closes down for good such proposals but al so by those in our community who this week, its passing will mark the end of an era, the sad demise purport to protect our heritage. "7 Drummond, who fe els that of a ve nerable structure that has long been regarded as the Montreal Forum is regarded both locall y and internation­ hockey's high temple" (Figure 4 and cover). 5 This kind of all y as the "high altar of hockey," states that, "As do all these hyperbole was the norm in the days leading up to the las t great places, the Forum evokes an emo tional response that is game to be played at the Montreal Forum.