Centennial Arena remembered by residents as aging building is torn down

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This article was published 08/06/2023 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The thunderous cheering of fans inside Steinbach’s hockey arena was replaced with the groaning sounds of demolition on the early morning of June 7, as the Centennial Arena was finally taken down for good.

Construction equipment tore into the aging building, which is set to be replaced by a brand new arena and events centre in the fall of 2024.

No one knows better than Bob Smith how loud fans inside the arena could get. The son of T.G. Smith, a banker instrumental in getting a dedicated arena built in Steinbach, Bob also played in the first game inside the newly opened Centennial Arena in March of 1967.

With the old dressing rooms directly underneath the stands, as Smith and his teammates prepared to take to the ice for the first time, they were treated to the first loud sports crowd in Steinbach history.

“We were sitting in the dressing room, and we could hear all the people coming up the stairs, bang, bang, bang,” Smith said.

“It was like we were all about to make our NHL debut. We were stressed, we were nervous, we had never played before in front of such a big crowd, such an excited crowd.”

It was a long path to get an arena built in Steinbach, as the community’s traditional mindset wasn’t ready to accept a dedicated recreation building. But as early as 1946, calls began to build a covered arena.

“I’m getting all sentimental now,” Steinbach mayor Earl Funk said as two backhoes worked to demolish the arena.

“This arena has done a great job for this community. It brought community together in it, and now it’s time to move on and start new memories with the new event centre. It’s exciting and it’s sad at the same time.”

In a letter penned by T.G. Smith that was published in The Carillon in 1947, the banker passionately argued Steinbach’s youth needed a safe place to play. Steinbach councillor Jac Siemens compiled the history of efforts to build an arena to present to city council earlier this year.

Siemens noted several responses were penned to Smith’s letter including concerns about children learning bad language or the church provided enough outlets for youth. The councillor was in attendance to watch the demo, laughing as his old office was the first casualty from the backhoe’s bucket.

“If our young people have somewhere to go in the evenings, where they meet children within their own age group, where good clean competition is fostered on an equal basis, then surely the father and mother would be greatly relieved of the frequent worries they meet under present conditions,” the elder Smith wrote in 1946.

Across the next 20 years, arena proponents were twice defeated at the ballot box, with Steinbach voters rejecting referendums on the subject. Undeterred, Smith and others finally broke through, winning a vote in 1966 to build a covered arena. The referendum passed with 71 per cent voting in favour, with only 26 per cent of eligible voters casting a ballot.

“It was a task to get the community ready for this, but it did happen, and it was special, very special,” Smith said.

“It was the beginning of putting Steinbach recreation on the map. We had a brand new state of the art building. People came here to play, as opposed to us trying to lease ice time in La Broquerie to play.”

The Centennial Arena was constructed for $106,655, or just under $1 million today. A year later council approved another referendum which would also pass, paving the way for the installation of an artificial ice plant.

“My memories of that building go back to the beginning of time,” Smith said.

“There weren’t many covered rinks around. There weren’t very many artificial ice plants around. The season started when the ice froze in December. The season ended in March or April when it got too warm to play hockey.”

Further improvements came in 1973 (replacing wire mesh with Plexiglass), 1974, (Installation of a lobby, concessions and more dressing rooms), 1988 (improved roof above the ice), and 1995 (second ice sheet constructed). That second ice sheet, which will remain in use even as the new building is constructed, was named after T.G. Smith, the man who was so instrumental in bringing the facility to Steinbach.

The history of area teams needing to head to La Broquerie to find ice time will continue as the Steinbach Pistons are set to move to the HyLife Centre in La Broquerie while the Southeast Event Centre is built.

Smith was ecstatic to see Steinbach finally build a worthy replacement to the Centennial Arena.

“Moving into the new era is something that this community, this area, needs to do now, probably ought to have done sooner,” he said.

“We’re bigger, we’re different now. Quite a bit different in terms of our community and maybe the expectations of it. This is overdue, and it’s good for Steinbach.”

Funk said the demolition marked the start of a new era for Steinbach.

“I grew up here, our kids grew up here,” he said.

“There’s so many memories, and I think I’m going to write them down so I don’t lose them. This is a time to open a new book and start a new chapter of memories.”

The destruction of the Centennial Arena doesn’t mean the memories of the building will fade away.

“The great hope is these stories are never lost,” Smith said.

“They’re still there for anyone who is interested in seeking them out. We are something because people came before us and did something… They paved the way for us to do more.”

With any luck, the opening of the new arena can instill that same sense of wonder and excitement that Bob Smith felt all those years ago.