Videotron Centre, Indoor arena in ExpoCité, Quebec City, Canada
The Videotron Centre is an indoor arena on the ExpoCité site in Quebec City's La Cité-Limoilou borough, next to the Colisée de Québec. Its curved facade has a light grey upper band with rows of small dark windows above tan panels, and a glass curtain wall under a flat metal canopy. Inside, a steep bowl of blue and black seats surrounds an ice rink, with a cubic scoreboard reading "CENTRE VIDEOTRON" hanging above the ice.
The arena was built on the ExpoCité site beside the Colisée de Québec, with a groundbreaking on September 3, 2012, attended by Pierre Karl Péladeau, Jean Charest and former Nordiques Michel Goulet, Peter Šťastný and Alain Côté. Construction ran from September 10, 2012, to the opening on September 8, 2015, at a cost of $370 million rather than the expected $400 million. Québecor obtained management and naming rights without public tender, and the first Remparts game on September 12, 2015, drew a QMJHL-record 18,259 spectators.
The arena's name comes from Vidéotron, the Québecor-owned cable company that holds naming rights under a 25-year management agreement signed in 2011. The Quebec Remparts' first game here, on September 12, 2015 against the Rimouski Oceanic, drew 18,259 spectators, a QMJHL attendance record. The Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament has been held here since 2016.
The arena sits on the ExpoCité site in La Cité-Limoilou, next to the Colisée de Québec, at the angle of boulevard Wilfrid-Hamel and autoroute Laurentienne. The upper bowl is steep enough that rails line every row, so allow time to climb to the higher seats. Public two-hour tours were offered over the opening days in September 2015.
The upper seating bowl is so steep that building code required a handrail on every row. Architect Kurt Amundsen of Populous called the design "hockey-first", with a bowl as tight as possible so spectators feel on top of the ice. The exterior's irregular window bands were meant to evoke a snowdrift.
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