QMJHL Arena Review

Colisee Pepsi – Quebec Remparts

Convenience/Access – It’s sort of on the outskirts of the city but traffic is not an issue in Quebec. I drove there from my hotel in Vieux Quebec (old Quebec) in like 10 minutes or so. The parking wasn’t free, which was kind annoying to be charged to park for a junior game. They also use a variety of lots and we were in one that was a good walk from the arena. In fact, you couldn’t see the Colisee from where we parked.

Location/Scene – The Colisee sits on some sort of exposition grounds along with some other buildings whose uses I didn’t bother to determine. Imagine the Nassau Coliseum but just on a bigger footprint with some other buildings around. There are no restaurants or bars within walking distance.

Outside Appearance – I believe the building was erected in 1950 but it doesn’t look nearly that old from the outside. The front of the building is mostly glass. I imagine the glass facade was added in a renovation at some point.

Inner Aesthetics – Absolutely awesome. The seats are the colors of Quebec’s old NHL team, the Nordiques. I don’t know if that was on purpose or not but it looks great. The lower seats are red, the middle section is blue and the upper seats are white. The upper levels sweep upwards behind the nets in a way that I’ve never seen anywhere else. These seats are very steep and come equipped with guard rails to keep their occupants from tumbling to a serious injury. The Colisee has a very old school rink feel that you can’t get in very many places anymore.

Concourse – The hallways of the Colisee are very crowded and very quirky. There are parts of the upper level that are wide open but then bottleneck everyone through a single doorway that leads to a narrower area. Weird. If you’re not paying attention you might run over a little kid playing ball hockey between periods. The bathrooms were spacious though and there weren’t lines spilling into the hallway, which was good. I had to miss the first five minutes of the third period in order to make my way through the throngs to see all of the displays on the lower concourse. The lobby was absolute chaos before the game. Will call tickets were distributed not from the ticket windows, but from a table in the middle of the lobby that you couldn’t even see until you got right up to it because of the swarm of people around it. That was confusing and not practical.

Sightlines – Good, unless you sat where I sat, which was under the overhanging upper level. My view of the rink itself was fine, which is the most important thing but I couldn’t see the scoreboard at all. There were monitors on the overhang for us but it was impossible to read the clock on them. Like most old rinks, the seats are very steep.

Concessions – Besides standard arena fare there was the provincial staple poutine and popcorn enhanced with maple syrup. Poutine is a pile of fries covered in gravy and cheese curds.

Fans/Atmosphere – Canada is obviously obsessed with hockey but there are many CHL teams that play before half empty buildings and less than fired up crowds. The Quebec Remparts are not one of them. There were over fifteen thousand fans (just short of a sellout) at the game I attended, game 6 of the Remparts’s second round series with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The crowd was electric from the drop of the puck. Cape Breton had three or four power plays in the first period. The crowd booed the Eagles extra man unit the entire time they had the puck. There were plenty of “Let’s go Remparts” chants, some egged on by a recording, some spontaneous. Most of the crowd wore red, which looked awesome. Like every Canadian NHL arena, everyone was glued to their seat during play. When I was returning to my seat after the third period had started, there was nary a soul in the halls. These people came to watch a hockey game, not eat ice cream and chiens chaud (hot dogs). That goes for the many children at the game too, which tells you something. As for the artificial part of the atmosphere, the music was heavy on techno (no surprise there). Refreshingly, there was no toolbox in-arena host constantly on the scoreboard and no puck shuffle. Again, these people were there for hockey. Props to the Remparts staff for recognizing that.

History/Banners – The ceiling of the Colisee is littered with Quebec hockey history. Where to start? The Quebec Aces were the building’s first tenant and their star Jean Beliveau’s number 9 hangs proudly. There have been two incarnations of the Remparts. The first one was from 1969 to 1985 and the current one that began in 1997. The first team won the Memorial Cup in 1971 with the help of Guy Lafleur, whose number 4 still hangs. The current team won the Memorial Cup in 2006. Their star that year, Alexander Radulov, has his number 22 retired. Simon Gagne’s 12 is also up there. Then there’s the Nordiques of course. Their WHL Avco Cup banner is still there, as are the retired numbers of J-C Tremblay, Marc Tardiff, Peter Stastny, and Michel Goulet. The history in the House That Beliveau Built is palpable and the banners reflect that.

Cool Stuff – The hallway on the lower level bears displays on the Quebec International Pee Wee Tournament, the Memorial Cup teams, former Remparts, the 2008 World Championship that took place there, and Jean Believeau. The only black mark is that the hall displays ignore the Nords.

Bars – The only beer offered is Bud Light. I can’t really say I’m surprised. It’s the lame world we live in now. Canada and Quebec produce plenty of tasty beer but yet the only beer available at this hockey palace is shitty, American, and light. You can get red wine though.

Store – Small, but solid. I got a hooded sweatshirt for $26 CDN. T-shirts, hats, pucks, sticks, car flags, hockey cards, windbreakers are all offered. The staff was very friendly and happy to speak English.

Value – The tickets were $14 but of course needed an extra $4 tacked on each for bogus charges, but that’s just the way it is now. The concessions were reasonably priced, as they should be. It’s a junior hockey game, not the NHL.

Overall – Personally, I was like a kid on Christmas morning in this place. It’s an absolute treat for anyone who’s interested in hockey history and this building holds so much of it. Attending a game with 15,000 enthusiastic Quebeckers was awesome enough and I haven’t even mentioned that Patrick Roy coaches the Remparts, which is very cool. Just considering that players like Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur skated there as teenagers and that players like Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe played there in the WHA and that greats like Stastny and Goulet played there in the 1980’s blows my mind. No building in the NHL today can offer that.