General Motors Place
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| The Garage | |
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| Location | 800 Griffiths Way, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 6G1 |
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| Coordinates | 49°16′40″N 123°6′32″W / 49.27778°N 123.10889°WCoordinates: 49°16′40″N 123°6′32″W / 49.27778°N 123.10889°W |
| Opened | 1995 |
| Owner | Canucks Sports & Entertainment |
| Operator | Canucks Sports & Entertainment |
| Construction cost | C$160 million |
| Architect | Brisbin, Brook and Beynon |
| Capacity | Ice hockey: 18,630 Basketball: 19,193 Concert: 14,000 |
| Tenants | |
| Vancouver Canucks (NHL) (1995-present) Vancouver Grizzlies (NBA) (1995-2001) Vancouver Ravens (NLL) (2001-2004) Vancouver Voodoo (RHI) (1996) |
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General Motors Place, commonly known as GM Place and nicknamed The Garage, is an indoor sports arena, located at 800 Griffiths Way in Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The arena seats 18,630 for ice hockey and 19,193 for basketball. It has 88 luxury suites, 12 hospitality suites, and 2,195 club seats.
The arena is sponsored by General Motors Canada. As corporate sponsors are unable to brand sporting venues during the Olympics, GM Place will be temporarily renamed Canada Hockey Place during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, in February 2010.[1]
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[edit] History
GM Place was completed in 1995 at a cost of C$160 million in private financing to replace the aging Pacific Coliseum as the main venue for events in Vancouver and to serve as the home arena to the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League and the Vancouver Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association. The Grizzlies spent six seasons in Vancouver before moving to Memphis, Tennessee for the 2001-02 season.
The arena was briefly home to the Vancouver Ravens of the National Lacrosse League from 2002 to 2004. The operations of the team have since been suspended. Attempts were made to revive the team in 2007 and again in 2008.
[edit] Entertainment upgrades
In mid-2006 GM Place was upgraded with a ProAd LED ribbon board encircling the upper bowl and shortly thereafter with a $5 million Daktronics ProStar LED scoreboard. The original Mitsubishi Mark IV displays needed to be removed since the worldwide supply of replacement parts was not large enough to keep them operating throughout the 2006-2007 hockey season.
The new LED scoreboard is built around four of the largest video displays in the NHL. Measuring 13.5 feet (4.1 m) by 24 feet (7.3 m) they are capable of displaying widescreen images in 14-bit colours. Their size combined with their 10 mm pixel spacing gives them an image that is unrivaled in any NHL arena. The corners hold 5.5-foot (1.7 m) by 13.5-foot (4.1 m) displays with two ring displays each capping the top and bottom. The entire scoreboard weighs 49,000 lbs, 2% less than the one it replaced.[2][3]The normally three-week assembly period was completed in only one week and as a result there were some minor technical difficulties during the first home game.
The employees of the arena belong to a trade Union. In 2007 they chose to change their union affiliation from "Unite - HERE local 40" to The Christian Labour Associaion of Canada. After many months of struggle the British Columbia Labour Relations Board declared the employees choice of a new union.
[edit] Proposed expansion
A proposal exists to adjoin a 22 storey, 312,000-square-foot (29,000 m2) office tower to the arena.[2] The building will accommodate office space, with a proposed connection from the stadium concourse to the lobby of the tower. The extra concourse space would also accommodate additional fan-oriented areas such as concessions and food outlets.
[edit] Past major events
- The first event held there was a Bryan Adams concert.
- Venue for the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
- Venue for WWF In Your House "International Incident" Pay-Per-View on July 21, 1996
- Venue for the 1998 National Hockey League All-Star Game.
- Venue for the 1998 NBA Draft.
- Venue for WWF In Your House: Rock Bottom Pay-Per-View on December 13, 1998
- Venue for WWF Monday Night Raw live TV show with Kid Rock performing on May 29, 2000
- Janet Jackson rented the GM Place in Vancouver for the entire month of June 2001 for rehearsals. It was the longest period of time anyone has ever booked the arena for.
- Venue for the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships.
- October 2002 - Queen Elizabeth II dropped the ceremonial first puck in an NHL exhibition game between the San Jose Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks.
- Riot when Axl Rose failed to show for Guns N' Roses show.
- U2 2005 rehearsed and launched their Vertigo Tour, rehearsals and "City of Blinding Lights" music video shoot.
- Destiny's Child played their final concert as a group at the arena on September 10th, 2005 as part of their Destiny Fulfilled...And Lovin' It Tour.
- Venue for the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
- Venue for the 2006 NHL Entry Draft.
- Venue for the first show in The Police's Reunion Tour.
- Venue for the first show in Vancouver Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow tour on September 5, 2007
- GM Place played host to Game 8 of the 2007 Super Series between Canada and Russia junior hockey teams on Sunday, September 9, 2007.
- NBA Pre-Season exhibition game between the Phoenix Suns and the Seattle Supersonics on October 26, 2007. This was the first NBA game held in Vancouver since April 2001.
- Venue for the first show in Spice Girls' The Return of the Spice Girls tour on December 2, 2007.
- Janet Jacksons Rock Witchu Tour kicked off at this venue on September 10, 2008.
- Rock legends AC/DC performed at GMP on their tour supporting their Black Ice album on November 28, 2008.
- Heavy Metal giants Metallica played a solid sold out show on December 2nd, 2008.
- 2009 Juno Awards on March 29, 2009.
- Britney Spears concert held at this venue on April 8, 2009
- The Jonas Brothers played two sold out shows at the venue on June 29th-30th as part of the 2009 World Tour. The first Canadian show on tour.
[edit] Future major events
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: General Motors Place |
- GM Place will host the ice hockey events in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These will be the first Olympic games to use NHL sized ice. This decision was made in order to maximize the potential crowds and revenue, instead of building a smaller, temporary venue with the international-size ice surface, as has been done for most other Winter Games. On July 2, 2003, 18,000 came to GM Place to hear the announcement that Vancouver was awarded the games[4].
The Arena will be renamed to Canada Hockey Place for the 2010 Games.
- Green Day will hold a concert here as part of their new tour on July 4th, 2009.
[edit] References
- ^ Canada Hockey Place - Venues - Vancouver 2010
- ^ a b "Canucks Insider". Canucks.com. http://canucks.com/theinsider/default.asp?sectionID=5&id=1693. Retrieved on 31 October 2006.
- ^ "Canucks Insider". Canucks.com. http://canucks.com/theinsider/default.asp?sectionID=5&id=1705. Retrieved on 31 October 2006.
- ^ CBC Clip of the Announcement
