General Motors Place

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General Motors Place, sponsored by the General Motors Canada, is an indoor arena at 800 Griffiths Way in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Completed in 1995 at a cost of C$160 million in private financing, the arena is home to the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL, and was formerly home to the Vancouver Ravens of the NLL and the Vancouver Grizzlies of the NBA. The Grizzlies have since moved to Memphis and the Ravens organization has folded. The arena seats 18,630 for ice hockey and 19,193 for basketball. It has 88 luxury suites, 12 hospitality suites, and 2,195 club seats. The arena replaced the Pacific Coliseum as the main venue for events in Vancouver.

The arena is served by the Skytrain's Stadium-Chinatown Station.

On November 8, 2006, Francesco Aquilini, became the sole owner of the of the Vancouver Canucks and General Motors Place. The transaction is pending approval by the NHL.

[edit] Entertainment upgrades

In mid-2006 GM Place was upgraded with a ProAd LED ribbon board encircling the upper bowl and shortly thereafter with a $5 million ProStar LED scoreboard. The original Mitsubishi Mark IV displays needed to be removed since the worldwide supply of replacement parts was not large enough to keep them operating throughout the 2006-2007 hockey season.

The new LED scoreboard is built around four of the largest video displays in the NHL. Measuring 13.5 feet by 24 feet they are capable of displaying widescreen images in 4.4 trillion colours. Their size combined with their 10 mm pixel spacing gives them an image that is unrivaled in any NHL arena. The corners hold 5.5 foot by 13.5 foot displays with two ring displays each capping the top and bottom. The entire scoreboard weighs 49,000 lbs, 2% less than the one it replaced. <ref name="Canucks.com">Canucks Insider. Canucks.com. Retrieved on 31 October, 2006.</ref><ref name="Canucks.com Insider">[http://canucks.com/theinsider/default.asp?sectionID=5&id=1705 accessdate=31 October Canucks Insider]. Canucks.com.</ref>

The normally three-week assembly period was completed in only one week and as a result there were some minor technical difficulties during the first home game.

[edit] Past major events

• The first event held there was a Bryan Adams concert.
• The ninth WWF In Your House pay-per-view in 1996 and WWF Rock Bottom in 1998.
• Venue for the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
• Venue for the 1998 National Hockey League All-Star Game.
• Host venue for the 2001 World Figure Skating Championships.
• Riot when Axl Rose failed to show for Guns N' Roses 2002 Chinese Democracy Tour show.
• U2 2005 Vertigo Tour, rehearsals and "City of Blinding Lights" music video shoot.
• Host venue for the 2006 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships.
• Venue for the 2006 NHL Draft.

World Wrestling Entertainment has been banned from performing in the arena due to several fights and incidents that occurred during a taping of WWE Raw. Since the ban the WWE rarely makes visits to the Vancouver area. When they do so they perform at the older Pacific Coliseum for house show (non-televised) events only.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Future major events

• GM Place will host the ice hockey events in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. These will be the first Olympic games to use NHL sized ice. This decision was made in order to maximize the potential crowds and revenue, instead of building a smaller, temporary venue with the international-size ice surface, as has been done for most other Winter Games.

[edit] Gallery

A view of GM Place with players on the ice for a pre-game warmup. Note the old scoreboard.

Vancouver Canucks street banners outside GM Place.

GM Place before a game, before the arena upgrades.

[edit] References

[edit] External link

• Canucks.com - General Motors Place

Coordinates: 49°16′40″N, 123°6′31.50″W

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