After years of bickering, construction, red tape, and traffic delays I was finally able to walk around Rogers Place for the first time over the weekend. I don’t think it would be a surprise for me to tell you that the place is absolutely awesome. Follow along as I take you on a journey into our shiny new toy where I’ll cover the important things like food, beer vendors, and bathroom stalls. Let’s do it!

It’s been a while since I’ve done an arena update and it seems fitting that my next one would be when the arena was actually finished. It’s probably for the best anyway… The less time I spent pretending that I know what I’m talking about the better. The last time I was at the arena I was talking about dirt punchers and bungee cranes, so it goes without saying that talking construction takes me out of my element. Now that everything is pretty much finished, apart from a few final touches, I feel like I’m more than qualified to take you on a tour of the new barn. I may not know what construction equipment does, but I’m a bloodhound when it comes to finding beer vendors and that’s all we really care about anyway. 

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the building was obviously Ford Hall (I still think Winter Garden sounded better but whatever) and the place was enormous. I don’t even think Kyla’s video (above) accurately depicts just how big the place actually is. I know the Oilers keep saying that Ford Hall will be a good place to meet your friends before the game, and I agree, but that only works if you can find them. Seeing as Ford Hall is your introduction to the building, I’d say that it gives off a hell of a first impression. Frankly, driving underneath it on 104th Ave could never do justice to how big it is in there. Very impressive. Full stop. 

Now let’s get to the important stuff…

How many times have we collectively complained about how narrow the concourse was at Rexall Place? Too many to count, probably. As much as I like being firmly pressed against the strangers around me it was time for a change, and Rogers Place is exactly that. The concourse at Rogers Place is wide and open, allowing for humans to flow through the place with ease. It was almost shocking to be able to walk around the building without being able to smell the hair of the person directly in front of me. I mean, I totally smelled stranger hair anyway but it was because I wanted to as opposed to doing it out of necessity. 

Moving on…

When the Oilers said that there really wouldn’t be a bad seat in the house they actually meant it. This wasn’t one of those “I’m impatient and bold moves are coming” kind of hot air that sometimes comes out of the organization they love — this is 100% legit. I took the picture above from the 8th floor of the arena, or, basically as high up as you can go. Looks pretty good, right? I was wondering if that massive scoreboard would block the view for some of the higher sections, but that wasn’t the case.

What you don’t see is that directly behind me was one of many bars (one of many) and a concession stand. Basically, what I’m telling you is that you will no longer have to watch the game on some tiny Sanyo that’s hanging on the wall while you’re waiting for a beer — the action is right there. Won’t it be nice to not have to plan all your refuelling and rehydration during the intermissions?

As for the seats themselves, the absolute best place to watch the game will be the loge seating level. On the loge level (I don’t remember what it’s actually called but I like alliteration so loge level it is) you get a table for four with barstool type seating and a view to kill for. Unfortunately, you may have to Danny Ocean the Bacarat Casino if you plan on sitting at the loge level but it would definitely be worth it.

One thing I will say, though, the stairs are a little steep so it will be important to exercise extreme caution when carrying multiple beers back to your seat. One wrong move and you’ll be tumbling towards the ice, spilling $800 worth of liquid courage all over the patrons around you. We may have to work together on this one. 

TL;DR – Not a bad seat in the house.

Anyone that has been reading my “work” over the years knows that I take my sport related hydration seriously. One of the problems I always had at Rexall Place was the beer lines. There were times when waiting for a beer was a nightmare, mostly because of the narrow concourse but also because there weren’t enough places to get them. At Rogers Place, I found these little beer kiosks(?) pretty much everywhere. I couldn’t really give you an estimate on how many of them I saw but they were plentiful, and it brought a tear to my eye. You would think that the increased number of beer kiosks means faster beer lines, and less time away from the seats that you sacrificed your mortgage payment to get, but we shall have to wait and see.

One of the things I couldn’t help but notice was that there was no alcohol pricing anywhere to be found. Not at the beer kiosks, not at the concession stands. The investigative journalist in me decided that this wasn’t acceptable and so I got down to searching for a number. I couldn’t find an exact price but I did find rumours floating around Twitter that beers will come in around $11/each. That’s a pretty penny if you plan on getting ladder match bunged up at the game. Although I didn’t get a 100% confirmation that beers will be north of $10, if we use the price of Gatorade (shown above) as an indicator it makes me feel like $11 beers is just the beginning. 

TL;DR – There are beer vendors everywhere which is nice but they’ll be expensive. If you’re planning on getting high school wasted I recommend starting before you arrive. 

For the food lovers out there you’re legitimately going to love this place (costs aside). As you walk around the place you will literally find concession stands for every type of cuisine you can list. On Saturday, for the public showing, the only concessions open were the hotdog-type stands (shown above) but I did see the seemingly endless other possibilities that are littered around the various levels. Despite the hilarious prices for some items ($20 for the Bobby Nick’s Burger with fries!!! Only $14 without the fries) they really did do a great job of putting in a little bit of everything. I know that the food options at Rexall Place were pretty static, and it will be nice to have different places to go depending on what you feel like eating. That being said, you may want to grab dinner before you leave the house. 

TL;DR – Lots of food options, but it’ll cost ya. 

Since you’ll be spending so much time eating and drinking I wanted to make sure I investigated the bathrooms as well. Yeah I took pictures in the bathroom — what of it? You guys want to know about the new arena, and I’m not going to do the tour without checking out the bathrooms. What kind of arena update do you think this is? Anyway… One of the first things I did when I walked into Rogers Place was look for the nearest bathroom to scope out the logistics and the facilities. At Rexall Place, I had my bathroom visits down to a science and I wanted to make sure that Rogers Place would be no different. You see, bathrooms aren’t my favourite place to loiter and the less time I can spend inside a public one the better.

The first thing I noticed was that the bathrooms are much smaller than those at Rexall Place, although admittedly much nicer. At first, I was rattled that they would build an arena with smaller bathrooms than the last one had, but then I noticed that there are bathrooms literally everywhere which makes the smaller bathrooms more tolerable. Most importantly, I’m happy to report that they installed dividers between the urinals, a much needed improvement over the bathrooms at RX1. I mean, I love you guys but I don’t really want you checking out my meat and veg. Sorry ladies, they wouldn’t let me check out what’s doing for you folks. 

TL;DR – The bathrooms are smaller but there are more of them and they’re very nice. 

As you walk around the building there always seems to be something new to look at, including the murals featuring the Oilers of yesteryear. Take the mural above, for instance. How can you not get fired up when you’re walking to your seat and you see this giant picture of Smytty and Scorescoff from the 2006 Cup run? Glory days more your style? Fear not. There are massive Gretzky and Messier murals as you walk into Rogers Place and further glory days shout outs to find as you explore the facility. While security wouldn’t allow me to take my shirt off for Horcoff one last time it is nice to know that the option could be on the table depending on where you’re sitting.

TL;DR – If you’re looking to feel nostalgic there are plenty of opportunities to do so.

Before I end your digital tour I feel like I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you that we also tested out the water fountains. As you can see from the picture above, Chris the Intern took it upon himself to test out the free water and give a review. When asked about the water fountains Chris said, “It was good. Good water. Good flow.” There you have it. 

At the end of the day, I would say that we walked around the rink for about 60-90 minutes and we didn’t even come close to seeing it all. We could have probably spent an entire day there and still not seen the whole thing so there are mysteries that are yet to be discovered, I’m sure. All I can really say is that the building is just as beautiful as everyone has been saying it is.

The place looks like you’re walking into a spaceship, but the feel when you get inside is that the design really was focused on the experience of being there. You can, essentially, see the ice regardless of where you are in the building, and there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. For as much hype as there was about this opening, the arena came through with flying colours. Rogers Place is every bit as beautiful as they promised, and it was even more impressive to see with my own eyes. One of the comments I overheard the most as we were walking around was “I can’t believe this is ours” and, from where I blog, I can’t say that I disagree.

If you had a chance to check out the grande opening this weekend leave me your thoughts in the comments below. I’m curious to see what you guys liked, didn’t like, or any other observations that I may have missed.