The WHL Arena Guide - ManEx Arena, Brandon Wheat Kings

The Brandon Wheat Kings opened their first season in the rebel league at Wheat City Arena in Brandon, the same place they'd previously played as an MJHL team, and played there until November 1969, after which it was demolished almost immediately. The Keystone Centre, the team’s new home on the Manitoba Exhibition Grounds, broke ground that same year, but didn’t open until 1973, which means that for the interim seasons, the Wheat Kings needed to play somewhere else. Brandon is a small city not exactly overflowing with spectator arenas, so for those three seasons, they played at the only other arena in the city with seating: the Manitoba Exhibition, or ManEx Arena.

The building actually opened in the fall of 1961 as the Brandon Curling Club, and was converted on an emergency basis to host hockey, with the first Wheat Kings game taking place there on December 11, 1969. The new Keystone Centre was supposed to have opened by 1971, but construction delays prevented the grand opening from taking place until April 1973, so ManEx was used by the Wheat Kings for far longer than anyone intended. It only had about 1,100 seats, with standing room capacity for about 300 more.

In 1992 the Manitoba Exhibition built two more ice pads on site, bringing the total to four, with the opening of the Optimist and Kinsmen rinks. Of the four, ManEx was the oldest, and in 2004 the decision was made to close it. The interior of the building was gutted, but the exterior structure was retrofitted and still stands today. When entering Keystone Centre from the northwest entrance, the doors immediately to your left open into the former ManEx Arena, and there is a long hallway on the inside leading to the hotel that clearly has the same arena-style support beams as in the one photo I've found of ManEx as a hockey rink. The rest of the structure is now occupied by the Great Western Roadhouse restaurant and the hotel's bar.