VIDEO: Newly renovated Scotiabank Centre unveiled

HALIFAX – The Halifax Mooseheads will have their home opener one week from Friday, and fans will notice some big changes at Scotiabank Centre.

The arena’s re-opening took place on Thursday morning after just over six weeks of round-the-clock renovations to replace aging seats, expand washroom facilities, and spruce up the rink’s food options.

Scott Ferguson, president and CEO of Trade Centre Ltd., took media members on a tour of the upgraded facility.

The biggest change is the iconic orange seats, that have filled the building since it opened in 1978, have been retired to make way for bigger and more comfortable seats. They’re blue.

 

Ferguson said they didn’t lose any seats in the expansion despite increasing the size of the seats as well as the space between them.

“If you’re in the first row or the middle row of the upper bowl or sitting down at the glass, you’re not getting a different experience,” Ferguson said.

“You’re getting the same product, padded seats, seat and back with cupholders, so you’ve got the most comfortable seat in Canada right now.”

Washroom Facilities Upgraded 

A common complaint of hockey fans and concert-goers at Scotiabank Centre was the wait to use the washroom, and that has been addressed with the doubling of space and capacity of the buildings ten washroom facilities.   

“The point is that when you’re at a hockey game, when you’re at a concert or a show, you don’t want to spend a lot of time in the washroom, you want to get in quickly and get out,” Ferguson said.

“We want to move people through them as quickly as we can and get them back in to the bowl and back in to our concession stands.”

New concessions, more local options

New concession stands have been added to go along with the traditional arena fare of hot dogs and nachos, as fans will notice more local food and ingredients in the building.

Centreplate has taken over as the new concessions provider and Ferguson said a big part of their pitch that interested them was the local food options.

James Demjan, general manager of Centreplate at Scotiabank Centre said they’re working with a ‘Taste 902’ concept, where local vendors and chefs will rotate on a four or five game basis.

“We’re going to bring in local restaurants to manage a cart with their produce and their menu items,” Demjan said.

He said vendors are also being encouraged to use local ingredients as well.

“We have the donair, we’re using Meadowbrook Farms for hot dogs and sausages … as well as our pulled pork at our BBQ cart,” Demjan said as an example.  

The first two chefs are Chef Craig Flinn from Chives and Two Doors Down, and the second is Chef Terry Vassallo of Cafe Chianti, who Demjan said were instrumental in Centreplate’s menu development.  

“They’re not doing it for the PR, they’re doing it because they truly believe in the project and the local component, and they wanted to be the people that helped us introduce it to Halifax,” Demjan said.

“They were a big part of our bid process and they’ve been a big part all along.”

A Halifax Poutine and Donair concession stand have also been set up, with a special ‘Moosehead Donair,” on the menu.

A survey was put out to fans last year for suggestions on how to improve the 37-year-old hockey rink, and seating, washrooms and concession variety topped the list.

Ferguson said he didn’t expect ticket prices to rise despite the facility’s upgrades.

“Ticket prices are always fluxing over time … it’s expensive to come to an event these days at any facility in the country, and it’s really important that our customers get the level of customer satisfaction and comfort they deserve,” Ferguson said.

The Canadian Country Music Awards will be the first event to take place at the newly-renovated digs, as they broadcast nationally on Sunday at 8 p.m.

The Halifax Mooseheads open their season at home on Sept. 18 taking on the Charlottetown Islanders.