Centre Vidéotron

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Centre Videotron
Logo CentreVideotron.png
CentreVideotron-StephaneGroleau-0800.jpg
Former names Quebec City Amphitheatre (planning stages and during construction)
Location 250B, boulevard Wilfrid-Hamel
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
G1L 5A7
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Owner Quebec City
Operator Quebecor Media
Capacity 18,259 (hockey)
20,396 (concerts)
Field size 689,000 square feet (64,000 m2)
Construction
Broke ground September 3, 2012[1]
Opened September 12, 2015
Construction cost $370 million
Architect Populous[2]
ABCP Architecture[2]
GLCRM & Associates[2]
Project manager Genivar[2]
Structural engineer SNC-Lavalin[3]
Thornton Tomasetti[2]
Services engineer SNC-Lavalin[3]
M-E Engineers, Inc.[2]
General contractor Pomerleau, Inc.[4]
Tenants
Quebec Remparts (QMJHL) (2015–present)

The Videotron Centre (French: Centre Vidéotron) is an indoor arena in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The 18,259-seat arena replaces Colisée Pepsi as Quebec City's primary venue for indoor events. The new arena is primarily used for ice hockey, serving as the home area of the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL and has been prospected as a venue for a new or re-located National Hockey League team in Quebec City,[5][6] and as part of a Winter Olympic Games bid.[7][8][9] The building opened on September 8, 2015.[10] It is now the sixth-largest indoor arena in Canada by capacity, trailing every NHL arena except MTS Centre, and the second largest in Quebec behind the Bell Centre.

History

Videotron Centre in June 2014 (top) and December 2014 (bottom)

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new arena was held on September 3, 2012, attended by then-Quebecor Chairman Pierre Karl Péladeau, then-Premier of Quebec Jean Charest, and former Quebec Nordiques players Michel Goulet, Peter Stastny and Alain Côté.[11] Arena construction began on September 10, 2012.

The arena was expected to cost $400 million, but cost $370 million instead; 50% of the cost will be covered by the city and province each.[12] On March 1, 2011 Quebecor entered into an agreement to acquire management rights to the new arena, a deal expected to be between $33 million and $63 million up front, plus between $3.15 million and $5 million in annual rent. The value of the deal will increase if an NHL franchise moves into the arena; Quebecor has actively backed an expansion franchise for Quebec City.[1][13] This arrangement was made without public tender, for which the provincial government provided legal immunity.[14]

As part of the management contract, Quebecor also holds the arena's naming rights; on April 7, 2015, it was announced that the arena would carry the name of Quebecor-owned cable company Vidéotron, and be known as the Videotron Centre (Centre Vidéotron in French).[15] The arena held its official opening on September 3, running public two-hour tours for the following three days.[16] On September 12, Videotron Centre broke the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League attendance record by attracting 18,259 spectators to a match between the Quebec City Remparts and the Rimouski Oceanic.[17] Metallica was the first musical attraction of the stadium, on September 16, two days after the band played the last concert held at Colisée Pepsi.[18]

Design

The arena is comparable in size to the Consol Energy Center, the home arena of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and occupies approximately 64,000 square metres of space, down from the originally proposed 70,000 square metres.[1] A television studio, valued at between C$30 million and C$40 million, is constructed within the arena.[19]

In an interview for the American magazine Sports Illustrated, Populous architect and lead project designer Kurt Amundsen said that the arena was "absolutely a hockey-first design with the intention of them securing an NHL team in the near future."[20] Amundsen added that the design was specific to Canadian hockey preferences:

It is a steeper and more intimate bowl than you see in the U.S. In Canada they are more about the game than the surrounding events and experiences. They were very adamant they wanted it as steep and tight as it could possibly get. . . . You feel like you are on top of the ice. It is about going into the arena and sitting in a seat and not getting up until the game is over.[20]

The angle of the upper seating bowl is so steep that rails had to be installed at every row to satisfy local building code requirements.[20]

Concerts

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ http://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/quebec-citys-new-arena-opens-its-doors-to-public
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Videotron Centre opens its doors in Quebec City
  17. ↑ Quebec City inaugurates hockey arena with record-breaking crowd
  18. ↑ Metallica Announce Pair of Quebec City Concerts
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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