Rogers Arena (Vancouver) | olympic venue, ice rink, 1995_construction, 1990s construction

 arena, olympic venue, ice rink, 1995_construction, 1990s construction

Rogers Arena, formerly General Motors Place (nicknamed The Garage and GM Place) is an indoor arena located in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is home to the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL, and it was formerly home to the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies, the NLL's Vancouver Ravens, and the RHI's Vancouver Voodoo. The Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, the Ravens have become defunct as of 2004, and the Voodoo only played one season here in 1996 before they folded.

The arena was completed in 1995 at a cost of C$160,000,000 in private financing. It seats 18,630 for hockey and 19,193 for basketball and has 88 luxury suites, 12 hospitality suites, and 2,195 club seats. It replaced the Pacific Coliseum as the main venue for events in Vancouver. The arena is sponsored by Rogers Telecommunications Inc.

Rogers Arena, under the moniker of Canada Hockey Place, served as the primary venue for the Ice Hockey events at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These were the first games to use NHL-size ice. The decision was made in order to maximise the potential crowds and revenue, instead of building a smaller, temporary venue with international size ice surface, as has been done for most other Winter Games. Since corporate sponsors are unable to brand sporting venues during the Olympics, they chose the name Canada Hockey Place.

In mid-2006, Rogers Arena was upgraded with a ProAd LED ribbon board encircling the upper bowl and shortly thereafter with a $5,000,000 Daktronics ProStar LED scoreboard. The original Mitsubishi Mark IV displays needed to be removed since the worldwide supply of replacement parts was not large enough to keep them operating throughout the 2006-07 hockey season. The new LED scoreboard is built around four of the largest video displays in the NHL.

The first event held at Rogers Arena was a Bryan Adams concert on September 19, 1995. The arena hosted several other events such as The 1996 World Cup of Hockey, The 1998 NHL All-Star Game, the 1998 NBA Draft, the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships, the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, and numerous concerts.

In 2010, General Motors' naming contract expired and it was renewed by Rogers Telecommunications inc.