Say goodbye to maple leaf gardens & hello to Air Canada Centre: at the Air Canada Centre the emphasis is on sport and entertainment - includes related articles on upcoming events at the ACC and on Maple Leaf Gardens

Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Fall, 1998 by Ben Viccari

As much as a few die-hard hockey fans may suffer from a temporary excess of nostalgia for Maple Leaf Gardens now that the Toronto team has moved to Air Canada Centre, it's certain those who visit the Centre as an entertainment venue won't regret the change. "Not one bit," says Brad Parsons; he's vice president of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., the company that built and owns the $265 million Centre.

"Big ticket attractions like the Rolling Stones, Tragically Hip, Celine Dion, Jacky Cheung and Shania Twain - all scheduled to perform at the Centre within the first two months of opening - expect large audiences and "to attract the best in entertainment we've got to provide large audience turnouts, and to get the turnout an arena must offer ambience, comfort and convenience. What we have here at Air Canada Centre is a state of the art arena that can stage everything from rock and roll to grand opera, from circuses to sporting events. Air Canada Centre is the Theatre of Sport and Entertainment."

The showgoing public seems already to have caught on to the concept. More than two months before their scheduled appearances, houses were sold out for The Tragically Hip, the Rolling Stones and Celine Dion.

From Day One of planning Air Canada Centre, its owners respected the fact that its value as an entertainment venue should be borne in mind equally with the fact that it would house two home teams: the National Hockey League's Toronto Maple Leafs and the National Basketball Association's Toronto Raptors. Seating for full house concerts such as the Tragically Hip's is 22,500 compared with 19,500 for basketball games and 18,700 for hockey games. (Capacity seating for entertainment events at Maple Leaf Gardens was only 15,700.) And by dropping an immense steel curtain, the arena can be divided to create a 5,200-seat amphitheatre for more "intimate" events like the Sesame Street concert for youngsters.

The new comforts and conveniences afforded to sport fans are equally valid for entertainment audiences. They include such features as better sight lines to the arena floor, access to the arena through wide corridors, roomy upholstered seats, an international food court, a restaurant and brew pub, wheelchair accessibility and dozens of other user-friendly features that its owners say will make Air Canada Centre unique in the southern Ontario entertainment scene.

What you'll see at ACC

The new Air Canada Centre is a privately financed business venture by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd, erected at a cost of $265 million. Construction work began in February 1997 and the centre's arena and office tower were in use exactly two years later.

Close to Everything and Everybody

Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, Air Canada Centre stands close to major transportation facilities. The building is directly accessible from the city's Union Station that services both the subway and GO commuter trains. Bus transportation stops outside the Centre's Bay Street entrance. Situated at the junction of Bay Street and Lakeshore Boulevard, it is also close to the Gardiner Expressway and there are over 13,000 parking spaces within walking distance. With almost one-third of Canada's population located within 100 miles of the Centre, and millions of Americans within one day's drive, big ticket entertainment events featuring internationally famous Canadian stars like Celine Dion and Shania Twain should draw patrons from both sides of the border.

The arena is close to the CN Tower, Toronto's theatre district, 15 major hotels and shopping. The building is connected to the southern end of the well-known PATH system which gives pedestrians a covered walkway through hundreds of underground retail businesses, restaurants and food courts as far north as the bus station on Dundas Street and connecting with such landmarks as the Eaton Centre, Royal Bank Plaza and First Canadian Place.

Total Public Access

The southern entrance to the arena (Gates 4 and 5) is gained through the Galleria, a wide, covered, climate-controlled walkway adjacent to Union Station. The Galleria offers free public access at all times and houses the ticket office, a food court and other retail spaces.

Air Canada Centre has been built on the site of the Canada Post Delivery Building erected in 1939 and one of Toronto's few major construction projects during the Depression. It was adorned by bas-relief sculptures depicting the history of communication and transportation in Canada. The east side of the building, on Bay Street, has retained much of the bas-relief work depicting Canadians which was carved by Toronto artists Louis Temporale and restored by the artist's son, Louis Temporale Jr. Canada Post and Maple Leaf memorabilia will be on display in the Galleria.

Canada Post and Maple Leaf memorabilia will be on display in the Galleria.

West Side Story

Already noticeable from the York Street approach to the Air Canada Centre months before the official opening were three tubular steel structures, angling from ground level like slightly tipsy sentries guarding the building.