Canada Hockey Place

The Canada Hockey Place or General Motors Place Winter Olympics Venue

The General Motors Place/Canada Hockey commonly known as the GM Place or the Garage is an indoor sports stadium. This stadium or sports arena was originally constructed basing on the sponsorship of the General Motors Canada and hence the name. But one important detail in this regard would be that the GM Place or the General Motors Place will be temporarily renamed as the Canada Hockey Place all through the course of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. This is so because no corporate sponsors are allowed to provide sponsorship for any of the brand sporting venues for the Olympic Games.

The Canada Hockey Place venue has a spectator seating capacity of 19,700 for the basketball event and 18,810 for the ice hockey event. Other than the playing area, this venue has a lot of other accommodation facilities like, 12 hospitality suites, 88 luxury suites and as many as 2,195 club seats.

Brief History:

The construction of the Canada Hockey Place was completed in the year 1995. The entire construction costs were calculated at a total of 160 million Canada Dollars. This entire amount for the construction came from private financing sources. The construction of was undertaken in order to replace the old and dilapidated Pacific Coliseum and emerge as the brand new chief venue for all the significant events that were held in Vancouver. Moreover, the Canada Hockey Place was also supposed to serve as the home ground to the National Basketball Association owned Vancouver Grizzlies and the National Hockey League owned Vancouver Canucks.  The former team spent a total of 6 seasons in this indoor arena in Vancouver before it shifted to Memphis, Tennesse for the season in 2001-02. Nonetheless, the Canada Hockey Place also housed the Vancouver Ravens from the National Lacrosse League from 2002 till 2004.

One of the first events that were ever held at the Canada Hockey Place was a concernt by Bryan Adams. Following that event, the Canada Hockey Place have hosted the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, the “In Your House: International Incident” on the 21st of July 1996, the 1998 National Hockey League All-Star Game and the 1998 NBA Draft to name a few. The place also played the happening host to the Rock Witchu Tour Concert of Janet Jackson that took place on 10th September, 2008. So that gives a clear idea about how this venue has stood up to multi purpose requirements of diverse kinds from time to time.

Location:

The Canada Hockey Place is located at the 800 Griffiths Way situated in Downtown Vancouver, in British Columbia, Canada. It actually started working as an entertainment venue and there on started hosting sports events as well.

2010 Winter Olympic Games that will be held at this venue

The Canada Hockey Place is all set to host all the ice hockey events for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games that is to start at Vancouver, British Columbia from the 12th of February till the 28th of February. This is the first occasion and also the first Olympic Games too when the NHL-sized ice will be used for any sports events.

This was a significant decision taken on a unanimous basis in order to make the most of the gathered crowds and the revenue as well. This appeared to be a lot better decision than erecting a temporary smaller venue with ice surfaces of the international standard which was a common trend in most of the other Winter Games. On the 2nd of July 2003, as many as 18,000 spectators came to the Canada Hockey Place of the General Motors Place in order to hear to the fact that at last Vancouver was awarded with the rare respect and opportunity to hold the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

There will be more than 30 remote still cameras fixed at 20 different locations at the Canada Hockey Place during the Olympic Games at the arena catwalks. This is done in order to focus and capture on all the over-the-net shots and various other innovative angles in order to add to the dimensions of hockey photography to a large extent.  Video positions will include 20 variant locations all over the venue along with a couple of National Hockey League (NHL)-style netcams in order to capture some of the most exotic shots and unforgettable scrambles and dives from the goalies.