EDMONTON

While there will be no lack of eye-popping sights to see in Rogers Place when it opens but there will be just as much that the average fan will unlikely ever see. The bowels of the building will be as special as the rest of the $480-million facility.

The most important feature at event level will be space.

The biggest mistake made in so many previous arenas including Calgary, Winnipeg and Vancouver, is not providing space at the event level.

There were those who figured a big negative was going to be that you couldn’t hold a Canadian Finals Rodeo in the new rink. Figure again.

“Absolutely we could,” said Katz Group executive vice-president Bob Black. “We designed this thing to handle all manner of dirt events, including rodeo. There’s room, with the space we have built in and with the community rink, to hold the livestock for rodeo staging. The community rink is tied into the building so that you could run livestock.”

Currently the Oilers dressing room ranks right up there with the best in the league. But you haven’t seen anything yet.

“It will be best in class. It will be a significant improvement over the current dressing room,” said Black.

One feature inside the dressing room complex is that it will include a theatre for watching game tape, sized to have a whole team in there.

“There’s an Oil Kings dressing room that is a smaller and lesser level of finish than the Oilers dressing room, but it is going to be the best in the Western Hockey League. It will be a significant step up from the current setup.”

There will be two visitors dressing rooms, one for NHL teams and one for junior teams, etc.

“The visitors NHL room will reflect the evolving standards in the NHL. Again, it will be a radical step up from the current facility,” said Black.

In all, eight teams could be housed for an event such as a World Junior.

“There’s four auxiliary locker rooms in addition to the Oilers locker room, the Oil Kings locker room and the visitors locker rooms,” said Black.

“We have four so-called ‘star’ dressing rooms for concerts that can be converted to other uses,” said Black.

There will be a media interview room which will double as a Hall of Fame-type exhibit, similar to a Hockey Canada room in the WinSport Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. It won’t be an actual museum, like the Montreal Canadiens have in the Bell Centre. But it will house Stanley Cup replicas, etc. and memorabilia on the walls. It has the unusual feature of a glass wall which will allow people to watch proceedings from the Winter Garden.

Not insignificant, considering that this is Edmonton, is the ice plant.

“Edmonton has a long history of having the best ice in the NHL and we will accept no less than the best in the NHL.

“We were able to design this building so that we share an ice plant with the community rink. That gave us some flexibility in the design to create great outcomes,” said Black.

While there’s lots on the event level that you can’t see, look up. Look way up.

If you don’t think the roof is important, ask the people in Calgary. One of the reasons Edmonton does such phenomenal concert business is the Saddledome roof can’t hold the staging required for many shows.

“This arena isn’t just built to handle any concert but could start hanging for a second or third concert. Not everything has to come down before you set up for the next concert,” said Rick Daviss, executive director of the arena-district project for the city.

The big disappointment, the one major feature they had to ditch to get under the $480 million, was the ring press box.

“The press box is not on the end wall as it is in many facilities. It is cantilevered out over above the upper deck. It is moved out toward the ice surface,” said Black of the nose bleed-high location.

“We worked really hard on the sightlines throughout the building but particularly from the press level.”

And don’t assume that the play-by-play guys, who consider their perch in Edmonton to be perfect, are going to be complaining on their telecasts.

Special plans are being made for them which these guys are not currently prepared to reveal.

“The broadcasters are going to love it,” said Black.

The rest of the media can expect dramatic improvement in the way the new press box will be appointed with TV monitors, direct elevator access to the work room, interview room and dressing-room areas.

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terry.jones@sunmedia.ca