The WHL Arena Guide - Max Bell Arena, Calgary Wranglers

Sometimes, it's just a hunch.

On my trip to Alberta in the winter of 2023, while killing time on a Monday morning waiting until it was time to head to the airport to fly home, I insisted to my travelling companion Steve that we should head over to Max Bell Arena, not far from the Saddledome, to see the rink. I didn't know at that time if it had ever hosted the WHL, but a 3,000 seat arena in the heart of Calgary would have been an obvious place to hold a neutral site game if there ever was one. And like I say, I had a hunch that maybe this place had hosted the WHL at some point in its history.

Two and a half years and one newspapers.com subscription later, I finally found it. The Calgary Wranglers played two games here, on April 13 and 14, 1979, in the playoffs against the Lethbridge Broncos. According to the Daily Albertan, the Corral had "prior bookings." As far as I've been able to tell, that was it for Max Bell Arena, but two games is double what it would take to be a one-game wonder, and unlike most of the time when this happens, I had photos at the ready for the website.

The Arena itself was renovated some years ago and has a bright red and yellow cladding on it, and has been renamed Max Bell Centre. It is a fairly spartan 70's building with a small lobby leading up into a bare bones top concourse, with seven rows of red seats below. The arena is intimate and modern enough, bright and airy, yet you can tell it's below major junior standards. There is no centre scoreboard in the rink, either.

I'm very glad that I stopped in back in 2023, and if I ever do go back, it'll be for an AJHL game. The Alberta Junior League's Canucks have played here since 1977 and are the longest resident AJHL team still in their same city and arena.