Petes 60th Season - "The Home of the Petes"
- AlwaysHockey Staff
- Jul 15, 2015
- 2 min read
Photo Credited - PMC Website
The Peterborough Petes are the oldest franchise in the Ontario Hockey League. Since November 8, 1956 the Petes have called the Peterborough Memorial Centre home. It took the city 17 years of preparation to receive the green light to build the arena . The city paid $825,000 (over $7 Million today) to construct the arena in 1954. It was built and still is located at the east end of the Morrow Park fairgrounds and horse track on the corner of Lansdowne and George street. The city of Peterborough named the arena the Memorial Centre in honour of the war veterans from the area.
The original design of the Memorial Centre included a large stage at the south end of the arena. The arena was also known for its oversized portrait of Queen Elizabeth II above the stage. The picture was painted by local artist David Bierk, father of former Petes/NHL goaltender Zac Bierk. Surrounding the single pad ice were wooden seats that were painted yellow, green and mauve.
In 2003, the Peterborough Memorial Centre was given a face lift. The arena was renovated and improved from its previous design. The Memorial Centre added 24 luxury box suites, added a club section, new concessions, a licensed restaurant, new seating, boards and air conditioning. The ice surface size for the Petes is 195' x 85'.
In 2005 the arena upgraded to a video scoreboard. The newly multi-purpose arena can hold up to 4,329 fans.
Hanging from the rafters of the Memorial Centre are past Peterborough Petes that made a huge impact to the team.. The Petes have honoured legends like Steve Yzerman, Larry Murphy, Chris Pronger, Dick Todd, Bob Gainey, Roger Neilson, Mickey Redmond and Scotty Bowman with banners.
The Memorial Centre is home to many events and sporting games. The events range from OHL hockey games, MSL lacrosse games, trade shows, summer fairs, concerts and corporate celebrations. In its first year as a newly renovated arena, the Petes hosted the 2004 OHL All-Star Classic.
Today the Petes still play at the Peterborough Memorial Centre. The arena hasn't been upgraded since 2003, but talks have begun to either upgrade the arena or build another one.
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