Woodstock's history of arenas
By Mark Schadenberg
Twin-pad arenas, gymnastics centre, and Frances and Harry Goff community hall.
Cost to build in 1996 was $13.5 million.
The citizen committee included Dave MacKenzie (Future MP, Conservative), Paul Plant, Rene
Rossewy, Carol Symons, Murray Coulter, and Marie Bowerman. The year to begin
collaboration was 1983. It’s a long road to the finish line.
Andrew
Coghill was lead on campaign collections, but volunteer board included Paul
Turner, Marie Bowerman, John Young, Doug Puddicombe, and many others.
Fundraising projects included Buy-A-Brick for $100, Phantom Of The Auction,
Auction Under The Big Top and a vacation lottery called the Monster Raffle
(2,000 tickets at $20). The scrutineer of the final lottery was (S-R sports
editor; ME). The draw was still held on Sept. 8 (lottery lisence) even though
the grand opening was delayed. Brick sales alone raised $130,000 and the
plaques are still affixed to the wall today in the hallway toward south seating
and gymnastics viewing area.
Planning
stages were Burke – Oliver Consultants Ltd. and MacLellan Jaunkalns Miller
Architects.
Main ice
pad was suggested to be 195 x 85, but would later be built as 200 x 100.
Keys to construction
was Wong Gregerson Architects and Kitchener's Ball Brothers construction. In 1992, it was
estimated construction costs to $75 / sq ft., and that any plans for Olympic
ice would add $300,000, and 500 additional seats would be $350,000.
Site
superintendents for Ball Brothers were Cameron Ball and Al Dobson. One of the
reasons they were selected was their building of the Waterloo Rec Complex.
The
city’s citizen building committee was chaired by city councillor Ken Bullen.
One ice
pad is 200 x 100 (Olympic) with almost 2,000 seats (Original drawings
recommended 1,500 seats and 500 standing), plus standing room for capacity
about 2,500. Woodstock Skating Club were among the user groups suggesting a
minimum of 2,000 seats to attract national-level talent to the annual carnivals
and to become an ideal venue for competitions.
The
secondary smaller pad is 200 x 80 with limited seating. A glassed-in mezzanine
on the second floor can be used as a viewing area.
Original
plan was 10 dressing rooms along with a much larger junior team dressing room.
(More dressing rooms would be added on north side of building with best access
to secondary pad) Entire building land coverage was said to be 133,000 square
feet. The junior room had its own fundraising efforts as team general manager
John Jensen contacted alumni.
Foyer and
lower landing area include concession booths and Skate Tech pro shop.
The
gymnastics centre has been operated by Gord and MaryLee Pinkney since the
beginning as the club moved over from what would become the city’s recycling
centre at the James Street yard.
The gym
club began in 1977 in the basement of the downtown YMCA, and in 1979 formally
became Woodstock Gymnastics Club (WGC). Moving mats and apparatus around the
city, the WGC also called the small gym at WCI home and later St. Mary’s High
School, and from 1982-89 HPSS was its site. In 1989, WGC moved to the clubhouse
of the Downs At Cedar Creek golf course (along with the Woodstock Co-op Dance
school). From 1991-96, the WGC was a tenant at the Woodstock works yard. WGC
president Peter Vyse, along with founding board members Jan Post and Rene
Rossewy paced the club with their own fundraising. Also, their deal with the
City was that the works yard building they were using apparently would be
bought by the city when the WGC was ready to move to WDCC. Gym club also
purchased about $50,000 in equipment for their new facility – a home they would
move into in July of 1996.
The 1992
plan was that City of Woodstock would pay $6 million of projected $7.4 million
costs through debenture and the development charges reserve fund.
AFTER
CONSTRUCTION
Councillor
Sandra Talbot said: “This is a dream come true for many citizens of Woodstock.”
Mayor at the time was John Geoghegan. Mayor was Margaret Munnoch when council
approved the project in principle on Jan. 21, 1993. Director of community
services at the time was Rick Brown.
In its
entirety, the complex also included two ball diamonds, two soccer pitches,
man-made pond with trails, the city’s satellite campus for Fanshawe College and
daycare Good Beginnings. There were visions to include other amenities such as
a concert hall and a helicopter pad.
The
first-ever game was an NHL prospects game on Friday, Sept 13, 1996 with the
Maple Leafs tying the Red Wings 3-3. Tickets were $8 each. Last-minute crunch construction
timetable included the installing of ceramic tile flooring completed that same
day, and the centre-ice 4-sided scoreboard had not been installed yet. This was
the first time the front doors were used as the facility had opened for public skating,
figure skating and minor hockey tryouts. Before the Leafs – Wings game, all
arena users had to enter the back doors of the facility as Ball Brothers had
not received final occupancy status yet. Singing the national anthem that night
was Woodstock Dr Bill Rowe.
It could
be said the first user group was the Dave McLaren Hockey School. This idea is
quite ironic as Tavistock was also preparing to open its brand new arena in
1996 as McLaren was a Tavistock minor hockey convener, but as a player was a
member of the Navy Vets alumni and also played on the blue line many years of
Senior A hockey for Woodstock. The hockey school sponsored a public skating
event at WDCC for anyone and everyone to participate in on Aug. 17 as part of
their registration days and donated proceeds to The Sunshine Foundation.
The Navy
Vets Junior C training camp would start on Aug. 26, and Woodstock would win a
pre-season game over Flamborough 6-4 on Sept. 11. The Vets would also play a
pair of exhibition games against Sylvania (Ohio) juniors and road games against
the Ohio University Bobcats featuring Woodstock’s Dan Morris.
The first
public skater at WDCC was Larry Bowerman. The last to skate at Perry Street
Arena was Larry Bowerman. When the City bought the Perry Street Arena in 1947
and installed artificial ice the first skater was said to be Larry Bowerman.
(He passed away in 2015).
The
Perrydome was only 176 x 79 and had many issues at the time it closed including
the fact the ice was not ever removed from the arena for 7 years due to
knowledge of a cracked uneven floor and the idea if taken out, ice might not be
returned due to perma-frost below the concrete floor causing more shifting.
Bill Fishback was the arena manager, and today’s City CAO David Creery was the
deputy engineer. The arena certainly
lacked accessibility and didn’t have enough dressing rooms (as the rooms on the
north wall had not been useable for a significant length of time).
At the
Perrydome, seating capacity was 1,050 plus limited standing room due to narrow
walkways. By the 1994 playoffs, it appeared as if the Woodstock fire staff were
prepared to enforce that number as it was based on building size and total
seats, but quite honestly was a calculation based on how quickly the building
could be evacuated in case of fire.
Woodstock’s
first indoor arena was actually on Canterbury Street, so the opening of the
community arena on Perry was considered state-of-the-art for its time,
especially with the steel overhead construction which created zero obstructed
seats.
Back To
The New COMPLEX
Due to
construction delays (Including a 5-week province-wide masonry strike in 1995) –
and the still uncompleted front foyer flooring as of August in ’96 – the Grand
Opening was delayed until Sunday, Nov 3. That event included the first-ever
induction in Woodstock Sports Wall of Fame with the late Gordon ‘Stub’ Harper
recognized. Town crier Scott Fraser welcomed the large crowd during a giant
ribbon cutting – a very long piece of paper with perforations so participants
could take home part of the ‘ribbon’.
Opening
festivities began outside with a Harvard flyover.
Inside,
there also was a concert by the Woodstock Strings, the Garner Family singers, an
appearance by Canada’s national gymnastics team (WGC competitor Ashley Geris
included), plus performances from Woodstock Co-Op Dance school, figure skating
routines, exhibition games by both the Wildcats and Jr Navy Vets programs, and
naturally free public skating.
Woodstock
Navy Vets first regular season home game was Oct. 5, 1996 and was a 6-3 win
over Norwich. Navy Vets Junior C home opener included the Navy Club honour
guard, the introduction of a new WMHA junior Navy Vets logo, Woodstock
precision figure skating teams performing. The Vets executive invited back many
alumni including club founder Sam Keeping, and players and coaches like Ted
Power, Ed MacQueen and Ted Long (He had won Memorial Cup in 1976 with Hamilton
and was drafted in 5th round by Maple Leafs.) Jensen was the team’s
GM, but also a former player and coach. Former player Bill Thomas travelled
from Winnipeg for the home opener.
The
trivia question about the first-ever Junior C goal at the WDCC belongs to Tim
Wise of Norwich, while Andrew Holmes scored the first Navy Vets goal. Woodstock
head coach was Dave Bogart, while assistants were John Thornton, Steve Chesley
and Shane Johnson.
The first
WMHA game day was Saturday, Sept 28 with Woodstock minor novices beating
Brantford 9-0 in a pre-season game. This Woodstock team included future NHLer
Jake Muzzin, and former Patti Kazmeir nominee Kelly Paton. Kirk Stevenson,
Justin Pottruff and Scott Macdonald had 2 goals apiece.
I’m not
sure how much advertising on the boards costs today, but a company could buy 2
spots (opposite sides of rink ads) for $1,500.
Having a third
arena became very important to the city as it permitted expansion of all
leagues, including the creation of a Wednesday over-40 hockey league with
convener Bill Carrothers.
CIVIC
CENTRE
The Civic
Centre Arena at the Woodstock Fairgrounds on Nellis Street is 180 x 80 and
opened in 1969. Significant improvements have taken place in recent years, but
a thorough renovation, including pouring permanent concrete seating took place
in the early 1990s. Upgrades have also included a new condenser and compressor,
rubber flooring installed, and aluminum siding to the exterior. A story I wrote
in S-R at the time noted the arena should be good for the next 30 years, which
of course is now. The City owns the land the arena is built on, but significant
property around it belongs to the agricultural society (fair board).
In the
early 1990s, it was said a City should have 1 arena per 11,300 population
(Source: OMHA study). Now, in 2024, population is quickly approaching 50,000.
With a feasibility study compiled to prove the necessity of a third ice surface, the 1993 S-R story noted the Civic Centre was averaging 76 hours each week, while Perry Street’s average was 72. The consultants from that era calculated Woodstock could utilize 84 more hours each week between hockey (for all ages; male and female), and figure skating.
LINKS:
https://www.cityofwoodstock.ca/en/resourcesGeneral/PDFs/ParksRec/Woodstock-Recreation-Facility-Needs-Study_Final.pdf
https://facilities.cityofwoodstock.ca/home/detail?CategoryIds=&FacilityTypeIds=&Keywords=complex&ScrollMap=true&CloseMap=false&id=af2b9c89-4be6-4c5c-96f5-10b7b27f6af3
Compiled By
Mark Schadenberg
From the Woodstock Sentinel-Review clippings
Research completed during WDCC construction
And the Perry Street Arena Farewell published stories
More history? Who remembers
the Sr A Woodstock Gems
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