The building has not been used in years.
Another 1970s era built arena is going to meet its end by 2027 or 2028. The Northlands Arena in Edmonton, Alberta opened in 1974 and closed down on January 1st, 2018. But the building has been sitting idle since then. The last National Hockey League game played in the venue was on April 6th, 2016. The arena was losing the Edmonton Oilers business as the franchise moved into a new arena in the city. On September 13th, 2017, the City of Edmonton reached an agreement to take over the arena from the non-profit Northlands organization effective January 1st, 2018. There were some proposals to renovate the facility but the cost of doing that was prohibitive. The arena sat empty for years and years. It has been costing the city of Edmonton about $1 million Canadian or about $727,000 US to maintain an empty building annually. In August, the Edmonton City Council voted to approve an agreement between the city and OEG which was once called the Oilers Entertainment Group, to fund the razing of Northlands Coliseum. The demolition is set to start in the summer of 2026. It will take about two years to demolish the building. It took two years and a week to build the arena between November 3rd, 1972 and November 10th, 1974 and the building cost around $17.3 million Canadian which today would be around $104 million Canadian or around $75 million US.
Within two decades, the building was antiquated. It suffered from the lack of luxury boxes and other revenue generating gadgets. The Edmonton Oilers ownership was able to get an arena deal in place and a new arena opened in 2016. Edmonton’s Northlands Arena is slated for the wrecking ball.
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