CHAT News producer makes ’emotional’ return to Medicine Hat’s old arena

It was a different era then, a part of history Konrad was involved in.

He served as a public address announcer for three years and was even drawn in on some of the fun.

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WATCH: Our Town goes inside The Arena

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“There was brawls there that I was involved in and got hit with a drink one night because somebody was trying to hit the player’s box, which I was next to, and they missed and I got it,” Konrad said.

“Oh yeah, all sorts of fun and games.”

At about 4,000 seats, the old arena offered fans a rowdy, intimate experience that was “designed for fans,” Konrad said.

“You can hear the skates and the players on the ice and it’s louder and the fans are involved and that’s what the barn, the old arena, was all about.”

Originally called the Arena Convention Centre, the building opened in the fall of 1970, rising from the ashes of the Arena Gardens that was consumed by fire in 1969.

It played host to the 1983 Word Junior Curling Championship and the Continental Cup of Curling.

The Tigers played their last game in the arena on April 15, 2015 — an overtime playoff loss to the Calgary Hitmen — before moving on to Co-op Place in the fall of that year.

It was used by a few community groups until the doors were permanently closed to the public in 2017. Soon after, environmental contamination was discovered at the site.

The arena remains as part of the city’s ongoing considerations over underutilized public land.

An overarching land strategy, which will be a driver to inform how best to approach properties such as the old arena, is coming forward in the second quarter of 2025, staff say.

For Konrad, it was an opportunity to revisit a place where memories were made, a building that remained almost exactly as he remembered it.

He visited sections 12 and 13, where he once had season tickets.

“I was surprised to see very little dust on the seats,” he told Reynish.

“There was one unfortunate bird (that) got in and couldn’t get out and he became a feast for the mice inside. But other than that, no real signs of decay, other than a few ceiling panels that we saw.”

Konrad and cameraman Ross Lavigne were required to complete a short safety course before they went into the 54-year-old arena that has no heat, power, water or lights.

“It’s dark in there and creepy and almost felt like an archaeological expedition as we used the flashlights to get back there,” Konrad said.

Brian Konrad speaks to anchor Dan Reynish on CHAT News at Noon. Eli J. Ridder/CHAT News

“The city staff were able to open the big door on the east end so they could put more light on the bowl. We saw the scoreboard.”

The light revealed steep rows of seats and an arena that once shook with the sound of junior hockey and a community gathered to cheer the Tigers on.

“That was part of the magic of the building because you put the fans right on top of the action and it was, as we called it, the loudest barn in the dub.”

— with files from Dan Reynish, Brian Konrad

by Eli J. Ridder

CHAT News producer makes ’emotional’ return to Medicine Hat’s old arena

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