The Coliseum: An old barn full of memories

Dave Mitchell goes on a tour of the shut down Coliseum in 2023. (CTV News Edmonton)

Once upon a time in Edmonton an arena was built. For more than 40 years it was a sports venue and a stage for performers. Now, as it sits empty and waiting to be demolished, this story travels through decades of the CTV News archives to remember the Coliseum.

It’s all about the memories

How do you tell the story of a 52-year-old building? A rink that Mark Messier said became “larger than life,” that it personified the feelings created inside its walls. An arena that held fans as they witnessed sports history, music history, Edmonton’s history. It would be impossible to chronicle every event, to recount every memory; instead, let this story be a catalyst to remind you of your favourite moment, where you sat, who you were with and why you loved being there.

A beginning

The Coliseum was built to replace the Edmonton Gardens, an unheated arena where the Edmonton Oil Kings and Edmonton Oilers played.

Construction began in 1972 and took two years. The building, made of concrete and steel, cost $17 million and had a capacity of about 16,000. Don Clarke, former marketing manager for the Coliseum, remembered the excitement around the new arena.

“Everyone around the league was saying, there’s the show piece of the league,” he told CTV Edmonton in 2016.

The Coliseum opened Nov. 10, 1974, with a World Hockey Association (WHA) game between the Oilers and the Cleveland Crusaders.

Clarke said they had to hand out seat cushions as people came in because the installations weren’t done.

“We handed people seats…and said take a seat.”

Lyle Kulchisky was the dressing room attendant for the Crusaders that night. He worked as an equipment handler at the Coliseum until it closed.

“There were no banners…not like there is now,” he recalled in 2015 while preparing for the Oilers final home opener in the arena.

The Oilers beat the Crusaders 4-1, the beginning of their legacy. In the more than 40 years playing at the Coliseum, they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals seven times, winning the cup five times.

The Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) also moved into the Coliseum.

Every fall ice changed to dirt, fans hollered yeehaw and swapped jerseys for cowboy hats, while rodeo clowns danced around the arena instead of a Zamboni.

“I guess in Canada it’s like the Stanley Cup…for the cowboys,” Morgan Holbrook, the rodeo administrator in 1998, said of the final stop on the Canadian rodeo circuit.

The CFR kept people on the edge of their seats, waiting for the eight-second horn, until it left the city in 2017.

There was music too. KISS shouted out loud at the Coliseum in 1977 while on their Love Gun tour and came back in 1997 for their reunion tour. ABBA took a chance in 1979 when Edmonton was their first North American stop. RUSH, YES, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, David Bowie, Aerosmith, Nickelback, The Backstreet Boys and Taylor Swift all followed suit adding their names to a long list of musical acts whose sounds filled the arena.

The Tragically Hip, who visited the Coliseum several times, played their last show there in 2016. Their Man Machine Poem Tour, their good-bye tour, was one of the last concerts on the Coliseum stage.

Feeling sentimental?

Those who worked at the Coliseum got a front row seat to some of its greatest moments.

Chris Lewis started working at the Coliseum when he was 17. He remembers driving the Zamboni during “the game that Gretzky beat Howe’s record.” He told CTV News Edmonton in 2015 that he felt like he “grew up” at the rink.

George Wasalenchuck, operations manager for the Coliseum the year it closed, also worked at the arena for decades. He remembered having to fix a plumbing issue in Eddie Van Whalen’s dressing room.

“It was clean water, but he was pretty mad.”

Former Oilers captain Ryan Smyth told a rally for fans in 2016 that “it wouldn’t be the same in that building” without them. He also called the 2006 playoff run “a big memory.”

Mixed in with the big moments, smaller memories, like the teams who didn’t quite make it, help tell this tale.

Two different indoor soccer teams played the pitch, once in early 80s and again in the late 90s. Both teams were called the Drillers.

Basketball and roller hockey each had a season on the floor with the Skyhawks and the Sled Dogs, respectively.

The Roadrunners also got one season on the ice. The American Hockey League (AHL) team filled in for the Oilers during the NHL lockout in the 2004-05 season.

Lacrosse got a turn too with the Edmonton Rush from 2006 to 2015.

And don’t forget, the Oil Kings. The original team only played two seasons at the Coliseum before leaving Edmonton in 1976 to become the Portland Winterhawks.

But they made a comeback in 2006 when Edmonton was granted an expansion team in the Western Hockey League (WHL).

The Oil Kings played at the Coliseum until the end of the 2016 season, when they moved to a new arena with the Oilers.

Empty, but not forgotten

“There were years where I spent more time eating dinner with the people in this building than I did at home with my family,” Waselenchuck said in 2018. The Coliseum had been shuttered by this time, empty and quiet when he gave CTV News Edmonton a behind-the-scenes look.

A stark contrast to the decades the arena packed in crowds.

Like when the Canada Cup came to town. Once in 1981 and again in 1984, the year when Canada won the gold medal on Coliseum ice.

The 40th NHL All-Star Game was played there on Feb. 7, 1989.

In 1995, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stood on a stage inside the Coliseum to open the 33rd NHL entry draft.

Also in 1995, Luciano Pavarotti brought his voice to the stage. He was accompanied by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

The World Juniors saw Coliseum action and The World Figure Skating Championships twirled through.

The Brier slid into the Coliseum three times and pebbled ice returned for the Men’s World Curling Championship and The Roar of the Rings.

In 2017, the Davis Cup brought tennis to the city, one of the last major events to be held at the Coliseum.

An ending

Despite a renovation in 1994 that added luxury skyboxes and new seats, the Coliseum began to show its age. The arena that became Skyreach Centre in 1998 and Rexall Place in 2003 was no longer keeping up with newer entertainment venues.

In 2013 city council approved a downtown arena deal and construction began a year later.

“This one served its purpose…but it’s time to move into the new building,” Kulchisky said as he prepared the Coliseum for its final hockey season. Lewis agreed: “You don’t want to see it end but you understand…They need a new building.”

The Oilers played their last game at Rexall Place on April 6, 2016.

They beat the Canucks 6-2.

“One last time here at Rexall Place, your Edmonton Oilers,” the announcer bellowed and the horn blared to close the farewell ceremony. Rookie Connor McDavid stood on the ice with his team alongside past players. They all held their sticks high, saluting a full house for the last time.

What’s left

The City of Edmonton took over control of the Coliseum Jan. 1, 2018, and shuttered it in March of that year.

“It’s kind of surreal because you never expected it to go away…but obviously you knew it was going to,” Waselenchuk said of the empty arena.

In late 2022 city council voted to demolish the Coliseum.

“It’s pretty crazy to see how torn down the whole building is but it still feels just like it has so much character in it,” Zack Laing of Oilers Nation said in 2023 when local media were given a final tour inside.

Now, empty for the last eight years, the Coliseum waits for its final chapter.

According to the City of Edmonton, the “deconstruction” is still in the planning phase. When it does come down the land will be redeveloped along with other parts of the exhibition lands.

Eventually something else will fill the Coliseum’s space and a new story will begin. And all that will be left of the “show piece arena,” of the rink of legends, of the stage of icons, will be the memories.