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Sneak peek at MTS Centre 'terrific'

Much more than mere hockey rink

by Paul Egan

For the Coughlin brothers, getting an early peek at the MTS Centre yesterday came with an added joy.

They were able to find their season's ticket seats for the Manitoba Moose hockey team and unwrap the plastic from them before they sat down.

Beneath the wrapping, they found folding chairs of padded fabric, not the cold plastic seats that hockey fans normally endure.

It's not that Bob and Ken Coughlin bought premium tickets. All 15,015 seats in the nearly completed MTS Centre are similarly padded.

"Wow, this is terrific," said Ken Coughlin, who along with his brother Bob is an owner of Coughlin Insurance Brokers in Winnipeg. "It's like night and day from what we've had," he said. "I think this will be the best thing to happen in this city in years."

The Coughlins were among about 200 Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce members who got a chance to tour the $133.5-million downtown sports and entertainment complex, which is nearing completion and slated to open in mid-November. For members of the public, five tours of the MTS Centre are available Saturday, although space is limited. Anyone interested should call 982-5379 to make a reservation.

Those who got the sneak preview yesterday used many words to describe the place. What none of them called it was a mere hockey rink.

That doesn't surprise Jim Ludlow, the president and CEO of True North Entertainment Ltd., which owns the MTS Centre.

When Ludlow describes the MTS Centre, he talks about much more than an arena. It's a concert venue with carefully planned sight lines and acoustics. It's a new hub of the city's downtown elevated walkway system.

And Ludlow says the centre's Portage Avenue atrium is a dramatic new public space. With its glass walls offering great vistas, it will host Juno Awards receptions and be a place where Winnipeggers can sip hot chocolate while watching a downtown parade. It will also house sports and entertainment memorabilia and pay homage to the historic Eaton's building the MTS Centre replaced.

"This building is totally integrated into the urban fabric and core of the downtown," he said.

For Jeff Funk, a concert promoter who works for Christian radio station CHVN, it seemed almost unfair to draw comparisons with the Winnipeg Arena after touring the MTS Centre yesterday.

"Finally, we have the first-class quality building like the big American cities," Funk said. "Your sound quality is going to be far superior."

Robert Eastwood, a principal with Number Ten Architectural Group, said acoustics were a major priority in the building's design.

Behind the seats on each level is special acoustic panelling called Tectum. Suspended from the ceiling like large sails will be fabric banners also designed to improve the sound. The 46 private suites and four party suites will be open-air, rather than glass-enclosed, because reflections off glass hurt sound quality, Ludlow said.

Lisa Lewis, executive partner in the Winnipeg management consulting business Beyond Excellence, said her firm is too small to lease one of the luxury boxes, but it was exciting to get a look at one on yesterday's tour.

Lewis said she's also thrilled the MTS Centre will be a venue for national events such as the Junos. "With events like that, this is going to really bring some excitement to Winnipeg," Lewis said.

"Everybody should come and see what this city can do, and what people can do when they put their minds to it."

The Winnipeg Free Press is among the new centre's founding corporate partners.

Though the controversy over the demolition of the Eaton's building has largely died down, Ludlow and Eastwood said they remembered the Winnipeg landmark in the MTS Centre's design. Along an interior wall inside the Portage Avenue atrium on the walkway level is a display window saved from the old Eaton's which will house pieces of Winnipeg sport and entertainment history under glass.

"It was very much a piece of history and a part of the old city that we really wanted to incorporate," Eastwood said.

On the same level, the architects worked glass panels from the old Eaton's powerhouse into the new building's design.

Ludlow said it won't be necessary to buy a ticket to an event to view the memorabilia or to take in the views of Portage Avenue the MTS Centre offers.

As part of the city's elevated walkway system, linked to cityplace and other buildings downtown, the new atrium will be open to pedestrian traffic during regular walkway hours.

That's unique, Ludlow said. "This is the new hub of the walkway system."

Source: Winnipeg Free Press, Thursday, September 16, 2004