One of the recent suggestions I’ve received from the new form (now with a home on the right ->) was a look at the construction of the Windsor Arena, or as it was then known, the Border Cities Arena.
Above is a photo of the arena under construction from the May 30, 1925 edition of the Border Cities Star:
The building, which is to cost $100,000, is being constructed for the Border Cities Arena Company by Ernest Clarke, Limited, contractors. It will be ready long before the hockey season opens according to the progress now being made on it.
The ice surface will be formed by artificial means, thus guaranteeing hockey in all kinds of weather.
$100,000 in 1925 money is equivalent to about $1.25 million in 2009 dollars. A great deal considering how much the new WFCU Centre cost taxpayers…
The trusses are still visible inside the building today.
The building was designed by W.A. Connor & Co. Engineers, and my notes show it was under construction from 1924-25.
In the 1926-27 NHL season the defending Stanley Cup champion Victoria Cougars moved to Detroit to play their first season as the Detroit Cougars (before eventually being renamed the Red Wings). The team was supposed to play at their new arena the Olympia in Detroit, but delays in construction meant the Olympia wouldn’t be ready until after the season. Looking for a place to play, they settled on the new Border Cities Arena.
Since the Spitfires pulled out, the arena is now home to the University of Windsor Hockey program.
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As a side note, only 23 more days left for your Christmas Shopping! 😉
How times have changed! This must have been quite an achievement for the time given the amount of money invested by private enterprise when the city was yet quite small. It is unfortunate that the new arena was not built in a downtown location as envisioned as long ago as 30 years or more. London has demonstrated with the construction of the JLC that the downtown core benefits from such development and that parking has not proven to be a great problem. Had the new arena been built in the downtown, the city would not now be considering the construction of a canal today. And, private enterprise was willing to build downtown! Instead, the city invested millions of public dollars for construction far away from the core. Such behaviour only hastens the death of the city core.
What does the new WFCU contribute to the benefit of the city? And what is ironical is thyat parking remains a problem!
I forgot what the Windsor Arena used to look like before they stucoo’ed it.
Now it looks so Disney-fied. I wonder when the windows were bricked in?
JBM, one of the main reasons the arena was out of the downtown area was that OLG was not going to bulid the large convention center we have with the casino. Without that we wouldn’t have the acts we have today or the conventions that we have had and will continue to receive as it is the second largest convention center in Ontario.
The other reason is that it would not fit on the footprint of the city centre west lands (thank goodness as I would rather a residential component than a large boxed building).
I don’t agree with the location either but I have to wonder how far out it had to be for OLG to agree to buliding that size of convention?
Nothing will beat the old atmosphere of Windsor Arena. Whether it be the local drunks attending the game, the fans sitting on top of each other and the ice surface or the lack of a real sound system. The new arena’s seating is decent enough but now it’s catered to more if a kids crowd with the pumped in pop music of today, it’s just not the same.
Well one other fact to consider, I am not sure exactly where it places but I would guess it has to to be in the top ten oldest active ice arena’s in the world.
Recall going to see games with dad in the 80s, going down in the crowded corridors between periods thick with smoke – thicker than any bar I went to subsequently when old enough – as you couldn’t smoke in the big room. Imagine being transported back there in, say, 1984. We’d freak out at the amount of smoke. Though maybe Windsor’s a little more used to it as you can still smoke inside in Detroit bars etc.
In 1975 i was traded from the Peteboro Pete’s to the Spitfires and could not beleive a Major A Tier 1 team would play out of the Barn. Now I look on those years playing there as a blessing as you can recall the names of those who have played there before and after my arrival and departure. One of my most enjoyable experiences there was only a few years back I happened in to watch a friend play, there was nobody on the ice, you could here the buzzing of the lights and I was swept away caught in the emotion of my memories. I realized after all these years gone by I liked the Barn after all. Interesting how time washes all but the good memories, or at least it should. I wasn’t pleased with the location of the new arena, I too thought it should be in the downtown core but am aware of ME’s comments. It just did not seem a welcome place sitting behind a moth balled plant and a vacant shopping center. Time will improve the arena site as new construction begins in the area and I did not hurt the Spitfires winning the Memorial. Go SPITS.
Randolph, I agree with you about the atmosphere. The worst part of the WFCU is the canned corporate atmosphere, that annoying promotions girl with her spiels after every whistle. I don’t care about what lucky fan is going to win $50 off their next purchase at the Brick. I am there to watch hockey.
But with all that said, Windsor Arena needed to be replaced. The seating was awful with no legroom for anyone taller than 5’7. The concourse was tiny with absolutely no room to move around, and missing half the game waiting in line for rest rooms was awful. For these reasons watching a game at the brand new WFCU is a much more enjoyable experience.
I wish Windsor Arena could have been tastefully renovated to accommodate the ‘modern’ hockey franchise, however the structure is way too small to fit suites, decent/comfortable seating, large concourse, ample washrooms and concessions, etc. Still would have been great to have the WFCU Centre built downtown similarly to the JLC in London.
As for the stucco job, I can’t remember exactly when that happened, my estimation would be in the mid to late 90s. Yet another beautiful building that was ruined.
Comparing Windsor and London seems to be a favourite theme, but if you have lived in both cities there is little in common. London was able to annex the surrounding area in the sixties, which helped to keep the downtown alive and expanding, also a large Simpsons store,and market beside it.The focus was the downtown even after malls where built. London drew from a 360 degree radius, with no major shopping challenge.
Windsor was only given the minumin area in the sixties annaeation time,Windsors shopping bylaws invited expansion out of the city. Also Windsor could only draw from east and south,cut off by the river, and Detroit.How many people took the tunnle bus for ten cents to shop at Hudsons?
The new arena complex needs to be in an easily assesable spot not crammed in downtown. The only problem with the WFCC Center could be its not large enough. (seating capacity)
No city worth it’s salt builds it’s arena in the suburbs. Sure Windsor’s downtown has water on one side (like that’s a negative) and an arena would be crammed in (things being crammed in are what makes a city). I guess that downtown Toronto doesn’t have Lake Ontario on one side and is not congested (should have built the Air Canada Centre in Mississauga). Building the arena out of the downtown is a huge blunder in my books but hey, things are always done differently in Windsor. That practice seems to be working out real well, right?
Richard M., I don’t follow your logic in the comparison of London and Windsor. The first plaza (Sentry on Dougall) was developed within city limits. And as far as I know, Gateway, Devonshire and K-Mart at Tecimseh and Huron Line were all within city limits when built. K-Mart at Lauzon and Tecumseh were in Sandwich East when built but soon became Windsor shortly after completion.
London had no major downtown arena until JLC was built. The Knights played north of 401 just off Wellington. So, a new downtown arena was built instead of another surburbian one.
Windsor had assembled property whey back in the 60s to be developped as the western anchor but did nothing. Fortunately for Windsor, the OLG saw an opportunity and located downtown; I’m sure that was nowhere in the city plans back in the 60s, 70s or 80s.
Maybe a canal and more drinking spots will solve the downtown woes. There is no plan. But, you can expect more parking lots… that’s a certainty.
Comparing London and Windsor is natural. However, Richard is partially right, the two cities are different. London has historically always been more dense than Windsor. There was only 1 core centred on Richmond and Dundas (if you ignore a half-block in London East at Dundas & Adelaide). Windsor on the other hand had two initial cores, Sandwich (Sandwich St. & Mill) and our current downtown. Eventually, you can argue, we had 3 (or maybe 4 if you count Riverside). Richard needs to be corrected however, the river promotes density, not hinders it. Regardless of all of this, it was a mistake to put the WFCU Centre in the suburbs.
The ACC almost went in at Yonge and the 401 (you see a cluster of highrise condos there now).
I can’t believe, that after years of hullabaloo, the residents of Windsor allowed an arena to be built out in the wastelands. Whatever happened to an “anchor” for downtown Windsor?
Anyway, I am not so sure it needed to be replaced. Living in Ann Arbor, I catch a lot of games at Yost Arena, which reminds of a lot of the old Windsor Arena. Watching at Yost is a terrific experience.
Where there is a will, there is a way.
I guess I don’t see the need for corporate suites. Corporate anything usually means disposable. The old Windsor Arena lasted 80-some years. In Detroit, the Joe Louis Arena isn’t even 30 years old, and its considered a relic. That’s what happens when you start buying into the corporate mumbo jumbo.
I’ve been getting a lot of press releases from Casino Windsor, pubbing all their “big acts.”
Are you telling me there wasn’t a way to somehow tie a new arena development with the Casino? There could have been a lot of synergy there.
Tran – i don’t know the technical side of it, so I ask this: would you have to be over 18 to go see a game if it were incorperated into the casino? then it would get all this gawd awful “ceasers” garb all over it…….i don’t know.
but you’re right, there was nothing like seeing a game at the Barn. sitting right on top of the ice, the place shook with the howl of the fans. a scene i’m afraid the old girl will never experience again.
In the above post by JBM if he looked up when those shopping areas were built they where outside the city,Dorwin plaza, Sentry, and Gateway Sandwitch west township, Tecumsh mall was built across the road from Sandwitch east township hall. Devonshire mall built in the seventies was in Windsor from the start, the others where annexed.
The firt I heard about a western anchor was after the Casino planned the permanet building.
The comment that the river promotes density, it DOSE NOT attract retail investment the proof Windsors core.
The casino was put downtown after other areas lost out, the casino was supposed to be the new life for Windsor, gamblers come to gamble then go home,no shopping no spending money.
If Lauzon Rd. is the suburbs, theirs more retail stores than downtown, and its still Windsor.
I personally believe that when the city built WFCU Centre where it is it was an act of retrogression. If we look at several other cities who have built new sport venues, they’ve built them all in their downtown cores, and in many cases adjacent to a body of water. Think of the many new baseball stadiums built in the last 20 years – ALL of them except for the new one in Dallas were built in the downtown core. The idea behind them was to promote business in their downtown cores which were in many cases rotting and made downtown Windsor in it’s worst state look like Shangi La. Many of them succeeded in transforming the economies in their cities. Therefore, building in the outskirts is very backward.
An arena downtown would have helped fill that horrible gap in a absolutely lovely area of the city with unlimited potential. Now I hope that the University of Windsor will purchase this land and build some new facilities for the planned move of the visual arts, theater and music programs downtown…
In spite of all the great hockey games,my fondest memory was watching an epic tennis match between Pancho Gonzales & Jack Kramer in the arena circa 1949!
The WFCU Center out in the suburbs in this a rebuilding year, not like the last three when the target was the Memorial Cup is still drawing over six thousand fan per game.If they where downtown would they have the same effect the Casino does, people come to gamble then go home,where is the spinoff for retail stores?
When first touted the new Casino was going to draw thousands of people downtown, create large trafice jams. Even at its best time people came gambled and went home.I think most people that go to a Spites game do not go shopping after, they go home.
we had the western anchor site with wayne gretzkys name attached and we blew it-the arena should have stayed in downtown windsor- many businesses would have benifited-ask the Keg-they get a lot of business when there is a concert at casino