Canada Life Centre
sports venue in Winnipeg
Canada Life Centre (formerly Bell MTS Place and originally MTS Centre) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It is the home of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets and their AHL affiliate the Manitoba Moose, as well as the CEBL's Winnipeg Sea Bears.
The arena stands on the site of the former Eaton's Winnipeg store, and is owned and operated by True North Sports & Entertainment. The 440,000-square-foot (41,000 m2) building was constructed at a cost of C$133.5 million. Opened as on November 16, 2004, it replaced the since-demolished Winnipeg Arena. The seating capacity is 15,225 for hockey games and 16,345 for concerts.
History
With the bankruptcy of the iconic Eaton's retailer, the famed store originally constructed in Winnipeg, various alternative uses for the building (including residential condominiums) were suggested, but ultimately the arena was deemed to be the most viable and beneficial to the city's struggling downtown by Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray and True North. After a small but emotional resistance to losing the Western Canadian landmark by some locals and the Save the Eaton's Coalition, which inspired a "group hug" of the "Big Store" by a reported 180 people in 2001, the store was demolished in 2002 to make way for the new entertainment complex.
The arena officially opened on November 16, 2004, replacing the aging Winnipeg Arena, which had been in operation since 1955. In recognizing Eaton's history, red bricks were incorporated into the design of the arena façade, evoking the memory of their store that had once graced Portage Avenue.
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This entry incorporates text from “Canada Life Centre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.