The Hockey Gods Have Smiled on Edmonton

Frankly, I was surprised by the outcome following the Edmonton City council vote to get into the arena business again. Yes, again because they are already part owners of an arena or would be in line to inherit the building if Northlands, the current operators should ever shut down then Rexall Place title would revert back to the City of Edmonton. Would they then turn over use to the Edmonton Oil Kings?

You're probably wondering where I came up with this notion. Its really quite simple. Northlands is the child of the Edmonton Exhibition Association and prior to that it was the Edmonton Agricultural Society who used to operate a race track or course as they called them in the good old days, down in the river valley where Renfrew Park - oops Telus Field sits today. The founders of that original Ag Society decided they needed more room to build things. Things like a livestock show palace where local producers could show off their animals and their grains and produce because the Edmonton area used to grow amazing crops. (It now only seems to grow more subdivisions and acreages and big box malls. (I digress). Oh,. And, perhaps a place to play hockey indoors.

Beginnings (1879-1899)

The roots of Northlands Park took hold when various individuals assembled themselves to create an organization through which the town of Edmonton and its surrounding communities could make their agricultural and horticultural capabilities visible to the public. 
The preceding paragraph was borrowed from Northlands own historical website: Early Northlands History

With plans in hand they trudged up the hill from the river valley looking for a level piece of land to build on.  Strange thing, developers had already beaten them to it and had most of the land tied up for new housing developments for a growing city.  Not to be deterred they found a bargain piece of land just northeast of the Rat Creek Ravine on the western edge of the Highlands and Ada Boulevard already contained some pretty posh mansions overlooking Edmonton's spectacular river valley.

With a burgeoning population, comes garbage and where do you suppose they put it? Into a low piece of and just north of what is now 111 avenue east of 82nd street. Aha the Ag board thought we can pick land up cheaply, add some fill, level it out and we can build our fair grounds and Agricultural Emporium.  This was in 1910 and the City administration not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to promote the area to new Canadians purchased the land and "the City of Edmonton set out terms for a lease whereby the land would be rented by the EEA (Edmonton Exhibition Association) at a nominal fee of $1 CDN a year. The association, which undoubtedly benefited from this open-ended arrangement, accepted the generous terms. With the stability of land tenancy, the organization could now strive to expand without inordinate risk." (from Northlands history Edmonton)

(At this point I must let you know that I'm paraphrasing this story to move it along. Exactness of detail is not relevant because, well, this story is just to give you an idea about how the area was developed and how the City became a partner.)

Edmonton Gardens from City of Edmonton Archives

Now to continue. the Ag Board had grand ideas and hatched a plan to build a grand arena for the display of all things farmey. The final outcome was the Edmonton Gardens an amazing building for its time that stood for many years and served the public well. In fact, it was so well built that when they brought in a demolition company to bring it down, the dynamite set in strategic locations in the building went off as planned and it only ruffled the feathers of a few pigeons who had nested in the higher regions of the building. It took quite awhile for the company to bring the old girl down and I'm not sure they made any money on the deal.

Northlands Coliseum (Rexall Place) courtesy of the Edmonton Journal

To quickly conclude this story, the Coliseum was built and hockey was moved from the Gardens to the new building north of Alberta Avenue. Through all this time the City has had representation on the board of the Northlands so should be well aware that they are competing against themselves with the New Downtown Arena. No matter though because we have to appease the developers who have a dieing city centre after dark and a billionaire plus needs a place to park his hockey toys.

Oh, and there was talk that the Province of Alberta might throw some money into the deal after all and yet our Premier Allison Redford and our Minister of Finance Doug Horner is telling us that the budget they gave us not that long ago is just not going to meet expectations and that there should be a tightening of belts all round. As has been said, basing a budget solely on the vagaries of the petroleum market place is shaky science at best. It will be interesting to see where this extra 100 Million comes from because it sure isn't coming from the main beneficiaries of this new edifice.
Have a lovely week. Dave