The WHL Arena Guide - Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg Warriors

Winnipeg Arena opened an attractive, red-brick mid-century modern building in 1955 and was expanded several times as the WHA, and later the NHL, moved in. At the time of its closure, the exterior had been covered in whitewash paint, and the interior had had upper decks added to all four sides (it was a rectangle inside, not a conventional bowl). The Arena was home to junior hockey from its opening straight through to 1984, but as happened elsewhere in Canada in the 1980's, the Warriors weren't able to compete with the NHL Jets and moved to Moose Jaw. As far as I know, that was it for the WHL at Winnipeg Arena - if any exhibition games were held after that, I am not aware of it.

My own history with Winnipeg Arena extends only to about five minutes in the summer of 2003. I'd accumulated enough VIA Rail preference points for a free trip as far as Winnipeg, and, not one to ever turn down free travel, I booked a youth hostel and arranged to spend a weekend there. Of course, there's not much to do in Winnipeg, and I mostly spent the weekend hanging out with a girl I'd met on the train, but I did take the time to ride a rented bike out to Polo Park to see the old rink.

I found a tall modernist building squatting on the prairie, literally across the street from the old Winnipeg Stadium, where the Blue Bombers were practicing at the time. The guy at the ticket counter seemed surprised to see me, or to see anyone for that matter, and I asked to see inside the Arena, as I was from Ontario and had been a Jets fan (I was never a Jets fan) and please just let me in. The guy relented, and together we walked across the lobby and into the darkened seating bowl, where I looked up, paid my respects to the portrait of the Queen, and departed. The Arena was tiny even by the standards of the NHL of the day; seats stacked on top of seats on four sides stretching up to the rafters, all painted in Jets red and blue. It's the smallest NHL-sized arena I've been to, and even in the moment, standing in the dark, I felt regret that I'd never be back to see a game there before the Arena closed.

Three years later, the Arena was demolished.