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Winnipeg Arena expansion 1979

Zog

Registered User
Jun 3, 2007
61
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Outta town.
I was at the old barn several times during the WHA days. My cousin played for the Cougars and Racers, and got us tickets whenever he was in town. I was at the fifth ever regular season home game, and sadly at the final Jets 1.0 game against the Red Wings. Also attended the first Moose game the following fall (1-0 loss to the Las Vegas Thunder. We caught and still have a puck from that game!)

Does anyone remember when they expanded the seating? There was a game on May 20, 1979 (last WHA game - Jets win Avco Cup!) and a game on October 14, 1979 (first NHL home game).

How did they manage to do a major expansion in a five month timeframe?
 
On opening night the fans in the upper decks had to sit in a horse-shoe shape while the decks were reinforced. Opening night attendance was 12,000+ instead of 15,000+ for that reason.
 
Was the original roof high enough to allow for the expansion?

Didn't they have to temporarily close the upper deck because of safety concerns? I have a foggy recollection of that.
 
The official attendance for the Jets first NHL home game against the Colorado Rockies on October 14, 1979 was 12,648. I still have my program from that game and it's in mint condition.
Only the south end expansion was complete for that game. The upper decks were still not available as they had not yet passed inspection for use.

On October 17 cracks were found in the upper decks and remained closed until they could be proved to be safe. Work commenced immediately to strengthen each deck. Enough work had been done for the Toronto game on November 12 to begin allowing 1,000 people to sit in each deck in a horseshoe shape configuration.

On December 14 the Superintendent of Building Inspections finally approved each deck for full use. This was in time for the very first "Tuxedo Night" against Montreal on December 15, 1979. A crowd of 15,723 filling the barn that night.


Here is a photo of a Wpg Free Press clipping from July, 1979. It shows the roof on the west side removed over the lower seats to make room for the upper deck that was constructed over top in 3 short months.
It still amazes me they got all that work done over one summer and late fall.

picture.php




.
 
Last edited:
AndersUlfBobby said:
The official attendance for the Jets first NHL home game against the Colorado Rockies on October 15, 1979 was 12,648. I still have my program from that game and it's in mint condition.
Only the south end expansion was complete for that game. The upper decks were still not available as they had not yet passed inspection for use.

On October 18 cracks were found in the upper decks and remained closed until they could be proved to be safe. Work commenced immediately to strengthen each deck. Enough work had been done by November 7 to begin allowing 1,000 people to sit in each deck in a horseshoe shape configuration.

On December 14 the Superintendent of Building Inspections finally approved each deck for full use. This was in time for the very first "Tuxedo Night" against Montreal on December 15, 1979. A crowd of 15,723 filling the barn that night.


Here is a photo of a Wpg Free Press clipping from July, 1979. It shows the roof on the west side removed over the lower seats to make room for the upper deck that was constructed over top in 3 short months.
It still amazes me they got all that work done over one summer and late fall.

picture.php




.
Click to expand...

That brings back some memories, sat in those seats many a time over the years. I used to love how close the concessions were to the last row of seats, you could almost run back and grab a snack after a whistle and be back before the puck dropped.
 
Zog said:
Thanks for the info! Amazing they finished that expansion so quickly.

No on the Brian Coates.
Click to expand...

Well, it couldn't have been Jim Benzelock because I don't remember him playing for the Racers. And it couldn't have been Dunc McCallum because he retired after 1974-75.
 
Here's a proposed arena site from 1977 - near what is now the Forks: http://digitalcollections.lib.umanitoba.ca/islandora/object/uofm:1243085

You can see the plan calls for St. Mary and York to be joined up to the Provencher bridge and Water and Pioneer end in a traffic-circle/cul-du-sac for "Rapid Transit & Bus Terminal".

But that probably would've cost $15 million dollars or something, so the City of Winnipeg went with the $8 million plan to shoehorn in some terrible seats into the 23 year-old existing arena.
 
Those old upper deck seats were a piece of work. So steep that my wife used to crawl down those steps backwards as she was sure she'd fall to her doom if she walked down them... LOL.

Yup... 8M for the expansion when 20M could have got a new arena... good old Winnipeg Enterprises :( :shakehead
 
Those upper deck seats were sketchy, you had to have mad Sherpa skills to get down those stairs.

Interesting photo @Gm0ney... if I'm not mistaken that site was also considered for the very short lived "Manitoba Gardens" which was one of the proposals put forward by the save the Jets foundation during their brief unsuccessful attempt to avoid the disaster of the Jets leaving.

Wasn't there also talk of an Arena where Portage place now exists (perhaps part of Portage Place)??? - I seem to recall there being talk of that in the early 80s
 
JMT21 said:
Those old upper deck seats were a piece of work. So steep that my wife used to crawl down those steps backwards as she was sure she'd fall to her doom if she walked down them... LOL.

Yup... 8M for the expansion when 20M could have got a new arena... good old Winnipeg Enterprises :( :shakehead
Click to expand...

Lol. No kidding, those upper deck stairs were crazy steep!

One of my foundest memories of the old barn was a Guns & Roses concert back in the 80's. Me and my buddy were sitting in the upper deck. I thought I was going to die that night! The entire upper deck was moving. Good times.
 
Ryan Giggs said:
Those upper deck seats were sketchy, you had to have mad Sherpa skills to get down those stairs.

Interesting photo @Gm0ney... if I'm not mistaken that site was also considered for the very short lived "Manitoba Gardens" which was one of the proposals put forward by the save the Jets foundation during their brief unsuccessful attempt to avoid the disaster of the Jets leaving.

Wasn't there also talk of an Arena where Portage place now exists (perhaps part of Portage Place)??? - I seem to recall there being talk of that in the early 80s
Click to expand...

"Manitoba Gardens" was proposed in 1991. It would have been constructed directly south of the Winnipeg Convention Centre, on the parking lot, between Carlton and Edmonton. There was also talk of building a Domed Multiplex Stadium, that would have housed both the Jets and Bombers, to be built approximately where the Goldeyes play, but the Jets rejected it, in favor of the Convention Centre site.
 
Those seats were nuts, I'd give it about a 0% chance of being able to build that expansion with current building codes, here's a few pics I found that show just how steep that deck was. I remember when you'd step down the stairs with your heel against the riser it felt like 1/3 of your foot was past the nose of the step, and the rise was definitely more than the run of the steps.

Wpg-arena-upperdeck.jpg

Winnipeg%20Arena%20011B.jpg
 
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