Scotiabank Centre (formerly known as Halifax Metro Centre) is the largest multi-purpose facility in Atlantic Canada, located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. The main entrances to the building are located on Brunswick Street, at the corner of Duke Street and Carmichael Street, at the foot of Citadel Hill. The building's box office entrance is located on Carmichael Street.
History
The arena was opened on February 17, 1978, as the Halifax Metro Centre, and was built into the ground to compensate for the steep elevation of the land it occupies. Spectators can see cars at street level, outside, while watching an event.
In December 2007, an Ozzy Osbourne concert sold out in nine minutes, setting a box office ticket record for the Halifax Metro Centre. In July 2008, the Halifax Metro Centre also set a record sell-out (25,000 tickets sold in 40 minutes), for two back-to-back Elton John concerts held in late September 2008. In April 2012, the Halifax Mooseheads sold-out game 6 of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League semifinals in 20 minutes. On May 9, 2013, QMJHL Presidents Cup final Game 5 sold-out in record time 11 minutes, setting another attendance mark for the Scotiabank Centre.
The facility is owned by the municipality but operated by Events East.
On June 25, 2014, it was announced that Scotiabank had won the naming rights to the facility and that the Metro Centre would be renamed the Scotiabank Centre.Scotiabank wins naming rights for Halifax Metro Centre The Chronicle Herald The facility officially opened its doors as the rebranded Scotiabank Centre on September 19, 2014.
Arena information
The Scotiabank Centre originally featured a full ring of bright orange seats around the playing surface, which is known as the "lower bowl". It also has an incomplete "upper bowl" on each side of the arena facing rink-side (court-side) with seats of the same colour. In the mid to late 1990s, there were numerous renovations to the arena, including the addition of 43 SkyBoxes and 11 "Executive Suites". The addition of the SkyBoxes has since partially obscured views for people sitting high up in the upper bowl. Views of some or all of the ice surface from the uppermost rows of seating is either partially or fully blocked by the boxes. To help mitigate this issue, video projection equipment was installed that projects onto the exterior rear walls of the boxes: If a video recording is being produced for an event, then a live feed of the video may be projected for the benefit of people in the obstructed parts of the upper bowl. Before the 2002–03 ice hockey season, in preparation for the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship, a new scoreboard and "SilverVision" LED screens were added. The arena concourses feature photographs of the various events that have taken place at the Scotiabank Centre, with one side featuring entertainment events and the other featuring sporting events. It currently has a seating capacity of 10,595 for ice hockey. The building is connected to the Downtown Halifax Link system.
When the rebranded Scotiabank Centre was unveiled in September 2014, plans to use funding received from the naming rights partnership for capital reinvestment in the facility were also announced. Started from January 2015 to September 2015 the Scotiabank Centre renovated the concessions adding Taste 902, Asian, Links, Donairs, etc. The bathrooms were also renovated, and the original orange seats were replaced with new navy blue ones. The original roof was replaced with a thermoplastic membrane through 2016 to 2017. In the summer of 2018, the original ice-level concrete floor and cooling system was replaced.
Notable events
1978 – Rush – A Farewell to Kings Tour (w/ Max Webster) 1978 – Nazareth – Expect No Mercy Tour (w/ The Guess Who) 1978 – Gordon Lightfoot 1979 – First performance of Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo; held annually since 1979 1979 – Billy Graham – Atlantic Canada Crusade 1981 – Ted Nugent 1981 – Van Halen - Fair Warning Tour 1982 – Loverboy – Get Lucky Tour (w/ Bryan Adams) 1983 – Loverboy – Keep It Up Tour (w/ The Headpins) 1984 – John Denver 1984 – Billy Idol – Rebel Yell Tour (w/ Platinum Blonde) 1984 – April Wine – One More for the Road Tour (w/ Corey Hart) 1984 – Aerosmith – Back in the Saddle Tour (w/ Honeymoon Suite) 1984 – Frank Zappa – Them or Us Tour 1984 – Iron Maiden – Powerslave Tour (w/ Twisted Sister) 1984 – Krokus (w/ Accept & Rough Cutt) 1985 – Tina Turner – Private Dancer Tour 1985 – Triumph – Thunder Seven Tour (w/ Helix) 1986 – Kim Mitchell – Shakin' Like a Human Being Tour (w/ Haywire) 1986 – George Thorogood (w/ Johnny Winter) 1987 – The Cult (w/ Guns N' Roses) – Appetite for Destruction Tour 1987 – Triumph – Sport of Kings Tour (w/ Brighton Rock) 1987 – Diet Coke International Women's Tennis Tournament 1987 – Alice Cooper – Constrictor Tour (w/ Sword) 1988 – Alice Cooper – Live In the Flesh Tour (w/ Motörhead) 1988 – Stevie Ray Vaughan – Live Alive Tour (w/ The Stray Cats) 1988 – Iron Maiden – Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour (w/ Guns N' Roses) 1989 – Metallica – Damaged Justice Tour (w/ Queensrÿche) 1989 – Cheap Trick (w/ Eddie Money) 1990 – Alice Cooper – Trash Tour (w/ Great White) 1990 – World Figure Skating Championships 1991 - Paul Simon - The Rhythm of the Saints Tour 1991 – Iron Maiden – No Prayer on the Road Tour (w/ Anthrax) 1992 – WBL Basketball All Star game 1992 – 1992 Scott Tournament of Hearts 1993 – Metallica – Nowhere Else To Roam Tour 1993 - Bon Jovi - I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Tour 1993 – WWF Superstars of Wrestling TV Tapings 1993 – Aerosmith – Get a Grip Tour (w/ Too Many Cooks) 1995 – 1995 Labatt Brier Green Day Dookie Tour 1996 - Celine Dion - Falling into You: Around the World 1996 – Alan Jackson (w/ Faith Hill) 1996 – Garth Brooks – The Garth Brooks World Tour 1996 – Anne Murray - This show was taped for DVD and CD An Intimate Evening with Anne Murray 1997 – WWE Raw Live TV Tapings 1997 – Backstreet Boys – Backstreet's Back Tour 1998 – Our Lady Peace (w/ Everclear) 1998 – Celine Dion – Let's Talk About Love World Tour 1998 – Van Morrison 1999 – Alanis Morissette (w/ Crash Test Dummies) 1999 – The Tragically Hip – Phantom Power Tour (w/ By Divine Right) 2000 – Canadian Hockey League 2000 Memorial Cup 2002 – Nelly Furtado 2003 – 2003 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships 2003 – 2003 Nokia Brier 2003 – WWE Raw & Smackdown T.V. Tapings 2004 – 2004 IIHF Women's World Championship 2004 – Cher – Living Proof: The Farewell Tour (w/ Tommy Drake) 2004 – Nickelback (w/ Three Days Grace and The Trews) 2004 – Kid Rock – Rock N Roll Pain Train Tour 2005 – Pearl Jam – North American Tour (w/ Sleater-Kinney) 2005 – 50 Cent (w/ Kardinal Offishall) 2005 – Canadian Olympic Curling Trials 2006 - Hilary Duff 2006 – 2006 Juno Awards 2006 – Dixie Chicks – Accidents & Accusations Tour 2007 – Cirque Du Soleil – Saltimbanco Guns N' Roses 2007 – Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked Ladies Are Me (B.L.A.M.) Tour 2008 – Ozzy Osbourne – Black Rain Tour 2008 – Michael Bublé – Irresponsible Tour 2008 – 2008 IIHF World Championship 2008 – Elton John – Rocket Man: Greatest Hits Live 2008 – Neil Young 2008 – Carrie Underwood 2009 – Stone Temple Pilots 2010 – 2010 Tim Hortons Brier 2011 – 2011 Canada Winter Games 2011 – Heart 2011 – Bachman & Turner 2011 – Prince – Welcome 2 Tour 2011 – Pixies – Doolittle Tour 2012 – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 2013 – CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game 2013 – Leonard Cohen 2013 – Rush – Clockwork Angels Tour 2013 – Kiss – Monster World Tour (w/ Shinedown) 2014 – Chicago 2014 – George Thorogood and The Destroyers - 40 Years Strong Tour 2014 – Black Sabbath – 13 Tour (w/ Reignwolf) 2014 – 2014 Davis Cup World Group play-offs 2014 – We Day 2014 – UFC Fight Night: MacDonald vs. Saffiedine 2014 – Alice In Chains 2014 – Sarah McLachlan 2014 – Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Ride Out Tour 2014 – Backstreet Boys – In A World Like This Tour 2015 – 2015 Ford World Men's Curling Championship 2015 – Judas Priest – Redeemer of Souls Tour (w/Mastodon) 2015 – 2015 CIS University Cup 2016 – 2016 CIS University Cup 2016 – Carly Rae Jepsen 2017 – UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Browne 2017 – Jim Gaffigan Noble Ape Tour 2017 – Canada vs Bahamas men's basketball game for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification 2018 – 2018 U Sports Men's Basketball Championship 2018 – Jack White 2018 – Theory of a Deadman 2019 – 2019 U Sports Men's Basketball Championship 2019 – Canadian Hockey League 2019 Memorial Cup 2019 – Barack Obama 2019 – Sum 41 2019 – Metric 2019 – Daniel Caesar 2022 – Sting - My Songs Tour 2022 – Avril Lavigne - Bite Me Tour 2022 – Trevor Noah - Back to Abnormal World Tour 2022 – Simple Plan 2023 – 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship * 2023 Shania Twain * Doobie Brothers 2024 – 2024 Juno Awards 2024 — Billy Idol - Rebel Yell 40th Anniversary Tour (w/ Platinum Blonde) 2024 - Arkells- Big Feelings Tour (w/ Joel Plaskett Emergency) 2025 — Montreal Victoire vs. Toronto Sceptres Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) Takeover Tour. 2026 — Ottawa Charge vs. Boston Fleet PWHL Takeover Tour.
References
External links
Official web site Halifax Thunderbirds Official Site Halifax Mooseheads Official Site Halifax Hurricanes Official Site Arena review Halifax Metro Centre at Hockeyarenas.net