The Buzz
LATITUDE
The Buzz
FUTURE GREATNESS? The doors will close soon on the old coliseum, looking suitably desolate on this winter’s day. Demolition is one option the City of Edmonton is considering, but it hasn't quite closed the door on something transformative for the building itself.
GRETZKY BUILT IT — SHOULD THE CITY UNBUILD IT? It’s been named many things, but with its most
however, it was the House that Gretzky Built: home to the five-time Stanley Cup-winning Edmonton Oilers, including the 1984-85 iteration, recently named the greatest NHL team of all time. But with the Oilers based in a sparkly new downtown arena, the aging facility has lost its allure. That means the dollars have not exactly been rolling in. Another facility on the Northlands site, the Edmonton Expo Centre, will remain operational under the wing of the Edmonton Economic Development Corporation. But the city is debating what to do with the retired 497,700-square-foot arena, which, for the record, has an attendance capacity of 16,839 people. One option is demolition, which could cost $25 million. What was the original, unadjusted construction cost? Try $17.3 million.
rights in that department expired, its former hockey tenants operating elsewhere in Edmonton, and its future uncertain, this is known: Northlands Coliseum won’t be serving up hockey and concerts anytime soon. Edmonton City Council has voted unanimously to close the arena’s doors on January 1, 2018, as it continues to ponder the future of the building and site. A lot of ghosts lurk within that concrete shell. An Edmonton landmark since 1974, the coliseum has attracted major musical acts from every genre — Elton John, the Weeknd, Celine Dion, Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Rush, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood, Bryan Adams, Carly Rae Jepson, and hundreds upon hundreds more. Most famously,
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