The Hamilton Spectator

The arena formerly known as Copps Coliseum

And the touchy subject of NHL hockey in Hamilton

MARK MCNEIL

As the arena formerly known as Copps Coliseum turns 36 years old this week, there are big plans for a major facelift.

A local consortium called the Hamilton Urban Precinct Entertainment Group (HUPEG) recently signed a deal with the city to take over managing the facility along with the city-owned convention centre and FirstOntario Concert Hall. The group is investing tens of millions of dollars to transform the “tired” FirstOntario Centre on Bay Street into a modern entertainment and sports palace that would be a radical departure from what is there today.

That’s probably a good thing. But, it does have a familiar ring in Hamilton — out with the old and in with the new.

That’s how the arena got built in the first place. Copps Coliseum was the last major piece of the controversial urban renewal plan that levelled 17 hectares of Victorian buildings between James and Bay, Main and York in the late 1960s.

The arena project was known during the planning stages as the Victor K. Copps Arena—Trade Centre. That was just before the days of another long-winded name, Hamilton Entertainment and Convention Facilities Inc. (HECFI), that would look after the arena for many years.

Before the folks at Hamilton city council settled on the name Copps Coliseum, The Spectator reached out to readers for suggestions.

The Copp Shop, Steel City Arena, Steeldome and The Vic were some of the ideas.

Later, in 2014 — after using the moniker Copps Coliseum for nearly 30 years — a local credit union paid $3.5 million for the right to name the facility FirstOntario Centre.

But let’s skate back to Nov. 30, 1985, the day the arena officially opened.

“Welcome to our Copps Coliseum — the dream is here,” a thrilled Mayor Bob Morrow said. “It’s a day many Hamiltonians have hoped for, for many years … On this day we can say with great pride, we are indeed the Ambitious City.”

He claimed Hamilton had “the best arena in Canada” and he, like many other people in the city, figured an NHL hockey franchise would not be far behind.

“The opening of Copps was the first public event that I ever attended as an elected official,” says Terry Cooke, who became Ward 1 alderman in 1985. “I remember it like it was yesterday.”

There was a lot of excitement that day, he says, but “in retrospect, should we have built an 18 or 19,000 seat stadium? I’m not sure.”

The arena was “built with the best of intentions,” as a way to lure an NHL team to town and to “dramatically contribute to culture and athletic hosting opportunities for Hamilton.”

All these years later, the city missed the net with the NHL goal but did very well on the second objective. There have been all kinds of big-name concerts and events, as well as exciting hockey with the Bulldogs and other junior teams. And who can forget the game in September 1987, when Mario Lemieux took a pass from Wayne Gretzky and put the puck in the top corner of the net to beat the Soviets in the Canada Cup?

But alas, a home NHL team for Hamilton would never happen.

“An NHL franchise was a pipe dream. The reality was that with territorial rights from Toronto and Buffalo, and given the nature of the NHL governance setup, we were never going to succeed,” says Cooke, who was regional chair from 1994 to 2000 and is now the CEO of the Hamilton Community Foundation. The foundation recently announced a partnership with a Toronto developer to restore, upgrade and reuse the historic former Coppley building on York, across from the arena.

“I just don’t think it is a realistic expectation that we are ever going to have an NHL team here,” Cooke says.

Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger says pro hockey was a “prime motivating factor at the time of the

opening and since then we have had an up-and-down journey relative to the NHL.”

“I’m loath to speak about the NHL at this point … Should the opportunity arise, I’m sure there will be interest expressed. But, that is not the focus at this point in time.”

Hockey has been a touchy subject in Hamilton going back to 1925 when the Hamilton Tigers of the National Hockey League left town to become the New York Americans after a players’ strike.

Since then, there have been all kinds of failed efforts to fill the void. Through the 1980s and 1990s the city was snubbed so often that Morrow once jested in frustration that Hamilton would only end up with a team “after Honolulu wins the Stanley Cup and two Mexican cities are in trouble because of the declining peso.”

I remember in 1988, when things really hit rock bottom.

It had been three years since Copps Coliseum opened and there was no sign of an NHL franchise.

To add insult to the indignity, the OHL Hamilton Steelhawks were leaving town. They weren’t happy with fan support and were heading down the QEW to become the Niagara Falls Thunder.

Hamilton longed for the NHL but couldn’t even keep a junior level team.

So, as a Spectator reporter, I was assigned to find out how a city with such an impressive arena could get tripped out of major and minor league hockey.

I talked to a lot of people, including then Niagara Falls mayor, Bill Smeaton.

Among other things, Smeaton told me that Morrow, who was known for emotional flare-ups, called him in a huff one day with harsh words about Niagara Falls taking the team. I included that detail in the story.

The ink had hardly dried on the paper before Morrow was on the phone again, this time blowing off steam with me. He said he didn’t appreciate me mentioning the exchange with Smeaton in the paper. He said he never raises his voice while he continued yelling at me.

As former Spectator columnist Andrew Dreschel once wrote: “Morrow had a temper that he really didn’t like the world to know about.”

I thought the best way to deal with it would be to stroke his ego.

“I don’t know, getting angry about Niagara Falls taking the Steelhawks … I think people in Hamilton would like to see that in a mayor,” I said. “Do you think so?” he asked. “They’d expect you to get a little hot under the collar,” I added.

“Do you think so? Oh, well never mind.”

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2021-11-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

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