Calgary’s new arena and events centre finally has a name and an idea of how it will look.
On Monday, The City of Calgary, Calgary Sports & Entertainment Corporation (CSEC), and the Government of Alberta revealed the design for Calgary’s new event centre which will be known as Scotia Place.
The total cost of the project is pegged at $1.22 billion and features an NHL-sized arena, indoor rink, and indoor and outdoor plazas.
Monday’s event marked a significant step forward in a years-long struggle to get a new arena up and going for the City of Calgary.
One of the first plans to replace the aging Saddledome was in 2015 when the CSEC unveiled plans for CalgaryNEXT, a multi-use facility that would include the Calgary Flames' new ice surface, a new football stadium, and a field house.
However, concerns over costs and location put that vision to rest just a year later.
In the summer of 2016, the City of Calgary and the CSEC began talking about another plan to construct an arena with council voting on the Victoria Park area as the likely location.
In the fall of 2017, negotiations for that arena fell through, meaning the future of any project was up in the air.
Talks of another plan started in 2018 and by 2019, the City and CSEC reached an agreement on a $550-million facility with half of the costs coming from the corporation and the other from the City of Calgary.
Unfortunately, those plans failed in 2021 due to rising costs.
Fast forward to 2022 and the City of Calgary and CSEC began talks again, only this time, they succeeded and in April of 2023, a new deal for the event centre was struck.
Under the terms of that deal, the city will pay $537 million, with the Flames owners and the province paying $356 million and $300 million over three years.
The new design for Scotia Place was unveiled Monday and is influenced by the ancestral and historical land of Indigenous Peoples with elements of fire, ice, land and air represented.
One major feature of the new building is the central structure which will have a textured flame motif, emulating a home fire, which is further amplified when it is lit at night.
The City, along with the CSEC, HOK-DIALOG and CAA ICON worked with an Indigenous Advisory Group that included representatives from the Treaty 7 Nations, the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3, and the Urban Indigenous community throughout the design process.
“It was great to be part of a truly representative voice that included all Indigenous peoples of southern Alberta regarding the design of this centre acknowledging the historic significance of the land it sits on to the Metis people,” said Carmen Lasante Captain of the Calgary Elbow Metis District.
“This is an important day for Calgary,” said Councillor Sonya Sharp, Event Centre Committee Chair. “Today is about so much more than the designs of a building. Today is the unveiling of a place where Calgarians and visitors from around the world will make memories at concerts, and sport and community events. I hope that everyone is as excited as we are, knowing that Scotia Place will become the complete experience in our new Culture & Entertainment District.”
Construction for the events centre begins this week with doors to open in the fall of 2027.