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New arena with frills for every hockey fan

Videotron Centre has most everything die-hard hockey fans prefer in Canada, including exemplary sight lines and some of the highest-quality premium spaces in sports to entertain clients.

The one thing the new Quebec City arena is missing is an NHL tenant, the key driver for building the $287 million facility. But if the finished product is any indication, the community should feel good about its chances of securing a team to replace the old Quebec Nordiques.

Videotron Centre’s steep slope keeps fans on top of the action. The new arena features a sleek club in back of loge boxes (below) and bunker suites beneath the stands.
Photos by: ANDRE OLIVIER LYRA
The sports and entertainment group of Montreal-based Quebecor Media teamed with sports architect Populous, arena operator AEG and food vendor Levy Restaurants, plus Ticketmaster and Live Nation, to develop an NHL-ready building, one that’s designed to put every fan on top of the action.

Videotron Centre has one of the steepest rakes, measuring the slope of the seating,

among arenas of its size, said Kurt Amundsen, project manager for Populous.

The seating bowl’s extreme angles pushed Canada building safety codes to the limits and enabled arena designers to put the arena’s 24 loge boxes, groups of four premium seats supported by a high-end lounge, in the first four rows of the upper bowl between the blue lines. The result is some of the best views for hockey anywhere in North America, said Francois Moreau, CEO of ABCP Architecture, the local firm partnering with Populous on the project.

It’s something Populous wanted to do at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh and Prudential Center in Newark, the two newest NHL arenas, but could not because of the resulting obstructed views. To meet code at Videotron Centre, safety rails are installed in front of every row of the upper deck, a common feature at NHL arenas in Canada.

“It’s one of the only buildings I know of that has a premium product in the upper bowl along the sidelines,” Amundsen said. “The philosophy since day one was this arena is really about the game and to get fans as close to the ice as we possibly can.”

The lower bowl has 10,000 seats, among the highest number of any arenas of that size in North America. Total capacity for hockey is 18,259.

Photo by: STEPHANE GROLEAU
At event level, two large bunker suites with a ski chalet theme sit behind the team benches beneath the stands. As part of their due diligence, project officials visited 15 arenas and saw Suite 66, the bunker space at the Penguins’ arena. In Quebec City, they expanded the concept to 50- and 30-person bunkers along the pathways that the players take to the ice. The bunkers are sold for single events, arena officials said.

Arena officials would not disclose premium seat prices. Most of the 80 suites are sold, with the exception of a handful behind stage end, said Ben

Photo by: STEPHANE GROLEAU
Robert, president and CEO of Quebecor Media’s sports and entertainment group. Eighty percent of the suites are tied to five- and seven-year terms, and those customers get first rights to renew their deals at a higher cost if the arena gets an NHL tenant. As it stands, suite agreements cover all events at Videotron Centre, including the games of the junior league Quebec Remparts, the current hockey tenant.

The majority of suites were sold from 2009 to 2011, one year before construction started, through a campaign to raise funds to support the commitment for bringing the NHL back to Quebec City. Over two years, the campaign, which translates from French to “I’ve Got My Place,” raised $20 million by collecting seat deposits of $1,500 to $5,000 for the rights to buy seats in the arena, Robert said.

The 910 club seats are distributed midlevel along both sidelines, tied to the Videotron Mobile Club, a sponsored hospitality space. Budweiser sponsors a public bar on the main concourse. The Red Bull Signature Suite, situated on the north side opposite the loges, is an 84-person group space.

The spacious lobby inside the arena’s front entrance can hold up to 4,000 people, designed to usher people into the building as quickly as possible in the harsh winters of Quebec. But it’s a city that celebrates the climate with a winter carnival that serves as a major tourist attraction.

“It’s a beautiful place, and now they have a facility that matches their city,” Robert said.

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