The FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton is getting a $280-million makeover fit for a hockey team to return. As Adam Proteau writes, the NHL might be out of reach.

Old hockey buildings are hard to say goodbye to. 

The shutdown of Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens caused emotional tumult to long-suffering Leafs fans, and private and Canadian university forces came together to salvage an arena for the renovated building. 

On Long Island, Nassau Coliseum was around for what felt like forever before the New York Islanders moved on to UBS Arena in 2021. 

And now, another arena that has emotional ties to many Canadian fans – FirstOntario Centre, long known as Copps Coliseum – has a new lease on life, with a $280-million renovation scheduled to finish by late 2025, breathing new energy into what had become a decrepit building.

That said, don’t take the revamped Hamilton, Ont. arena to be repurposed to accommodate an NHL team. 

While Hamilton still makes sense in the hearts of area hockey fans as an NHL city, the truth of the matter is that numerous cities far larger than 'The Hammer' are going to be the choice of the NHL for either expansion or relocation. Houston, Salt Lake City, Quebec City and even Atlanta are better suited for a team at this stage.

Many of us – this writer included – have fond memories of the former Copps Coliseum, which opened in 1985 and had an NHL-caliber capacity of up to 19,000. We attended wrestling cards there – including WWE’s first Royal Rumble event in 1988 and the rival-promotion NWA’s “Mosca Mania 2” show in 1987 – and we’ve also attended rock concerts at the venue, including Aerosmith in 2004 and The Tragically Hip in 2000. 

Most notably as a hockey rink, it was the home of the final game of the 1987 Canada Cup, which ended iconically with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux collaborating on the game-and-series-winning goal on Sept. 15 of that year.

Memories aren’t able to sustain ancient rinks, though, and this is why the FirstOntario Centre was no longer functional as a setting for even junior hockey games. 

The AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs won their first Calder Cup championship in 2007, but eight years later, the franchise was relocated to St. John’s, Nfld. After that, the OHL’s Belleville Bulls franchise replaced the AHL team and continued to use the Bulldogs name once it relocated in 2015. 

In November 2022, there was an announcement the building would close in the summer of 2023, pushing the Bulldogs to relocate to Brantford, Ont. However, those renovation plans were pushed back until December 2023.

There may be a plan to bring the OHL back to Hamilton once renovations are completed, and there’s even a chance the AHL returns to town. But Tim Leiweke, a well-known hockey executive now charged with remaking the arena, shut down any notion of an NHL team occupying the building.

“This isn’t about the NHL,” Leiweke told media members Thursday. “There isn’t an NHL team coming here right now. But realistically, there has been an AHL team that has had great success here…There is a history in this marketplace with hockey, and it deserves a franchise with the Hamilton name on its chest.”

Leiweke, who once worked for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ ownership as president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, knows full well that, even in the miraculous instance of the NHL deciding to put a team in Hamilton, the Leafs would shoot down those plans given their long-held veto power written into their relationship with the NHL. Thus, expectations are tempered for the return of hockey.

There are thousands of hockey fans in and around Hamilton, but there’s no sufficient level of corporate ownership to make an NHL team work. The AHL isn’t for everyone, but that’s the highest level of hockey that will be in that building once it re-opens in 2025. So long as fans understand that reality, better days will be ahead for the rink. The AHL still puts out a solid product, but the notion of NHL hockey in Hamilton is really a non-starter, and Leiweke confirmed that Thursday.

Major cities across North America host AHL teams, and that’s going to be the best-case scenario for Hamilton. The ghosts of hockey history will still resonate in the rink, but modern NHL hockey just can’t exist unless specific metrics are met, and Hamilton can’t fulfill the checklist the NHL demands. It’s a pity in some regards, but it is the truth any owner of a pro team or major junior team has to face.