Videotron Centre


Videotron Centre is an indoor arena in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The 18,259-seat arena replaced Colisée Pepsi as Quebec City's primary venue for indoor events. The arena is primarily used for ice hockey, serving as the home arena 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, and as part of a Winter Olympic Games bid. The building opened on September 8, 2015. It is now the seventh-largest indoor arena in Canada, and the largest that does not host an NHL team.

History

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. Arena construction began on September 10, 2012.
The arena was expected to cost $400 million, but cost $370 million instead with the city and province covering 50% of the cost of the arena. 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. This arrangement was made without public tender, for which the provincial government provided legal immunity.
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.
The arena held its official opening on September 3, running public two-hour tours for the following three days. It hosted its first Quebec Remparts game on September 12, with a game against the Rimouski Oceanic setting a QMJHL attendance record of 18,259.

Design

The arena is comparable in size to PPG Paints Arena, 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. The design is also similar to Rogers Place, the home arena of the Edmonton Oilers. A television studio, valued at between C$30 million and C$40 million, is constructed within the arena.
Populous architect and lead project designer Kurt Amundsen described the arena as having a "hockey-first" design suiting the preferences of Canadian fans, with a bowl that is "as steep and tight as it could possibly get", allowing spectators to "feel like are on top of the ice". 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.

Notable events

Two days after playing the last-ever event of its predecessor, Colisée Pepsi, Metallica played the first-ever concert at Videotron Centre on September 16, both as part of their Lords of Summer Tour.
Videotron Centre has hosted the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament since 2016.