Historic Niagara Falls Arena Set To Be Demolished

A piece of Southern Ontario and local sports history is going the way of the 8-track and BETA machines.

Demolition has started on the Niagara Falls (Ont.) Memorial Arena, a 74-year-old Centre Street building that was home to two Ontario Hockey League franchises.

No immediate development plans are set for the aging and dilapidated building of the 3.3-acre site which it sits just a long snapshot from Niagara Falls.
The building was built in 1950, the 3,633-seat sports and entertainment venue was been closed for a decade but was last used as a hockey arena in 2010 when it was replaced by the Gate Centre.

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The Niagara Falls Memorial Arena was the home rink for the Ontario Hockey League’s Niagara Falls Flyers from 1960-1972 and 1976 to 1982. The arena hosted the 1968 OHL Memorial Cup, which was won by the Flyers.
More than 80 Flyers made it to the NHL including Jim Schoenfeld, Bernie Parent, and Derek Sanderson.
The Niagara Falls Thunder, another OHL franchise, called the arena home from 1988 to 1996.

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Among the Thunder skaters who made it the NHL include former Buffalo Sabres Jay McKee and Brad May.
The arena was used in a number of movies including director Michael Moore’s 1995 dark comedy “Canadian Bacon” that starred Alan Alda and the late John Candy.
After the arena hosted its last hockey game in 2010, it was sold in 2012 ro Russian investors V2 Niagara for $1 million. V2 Niagara operated the International Sand Sculpture Exhibition in the building in 2013 and 2014.
Since then the arena has been empty with squatters living, albeit illegally, there.
Demolition and cleaning up the site to make it ready for public use may take as long as one year.