A Useful, Clear-As-Day, Couldn’t-Be-Simpler Guide To Canada’s Hockey Arenas, Places, And Centres

On Monday, the city of Calgary broke ground on its new arena, which is expected to be completed in 2027 and will replace the NHL’s second-oldest barn. This follows a decade of contentious wrangling over who would own the building and who would pay for it. In the end, the Flames will cover just $356 million (CAD) of the $1.22 billion project, with the city and province on the hook for the rest.

At the ceremony, new renderings of the arena were revealed, along with its name: Scotia Place.

The average American hockey fan might be seeing this, and thinking Isn’t there already a Scotia Place? This is understandable. I am here to help.

It’s actually very simple. Scotia Place, with the naming rights owned by Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest bank, is not to be confused with the hoary Scotiabank Saddledome, the Flames’ current building. It is also not to be confused with Scotiabank Arena, which is where the Maple Leafs play in Toronto. It is also also not to be confused with the Senators’ home in Ottawa, which used to be called Scotiabank Place. (It’s now the Canadian Tire Centre, with the rights owned by Canadian Tire, a Canadian retail chain/currency issuer that mostly sells things that aren’t tires.) But you would never mistake Scotiabank Place for Scotia Place; I have more faith in you than that.

None of these buildings are in Nova Scotia. That would just be confusing.

While we’re here, I also trust you not to mix up the Winnipeg Jets’ home, which until a couple years ago was Bell MTS Place, and before that the MTS Centre, with the Bell Centre in Montreal. I don’t think I even need to mention the obvious differences between Vancouver’s Rogers Arena and Edmonton’s Rogers Place. (Rogers Centre is entirely separate. That’s where the Blue Jays play. Get out of here with your absurd questions.) Rogers and Bell, of course, are the two largest owners of the Maple Leafs, who you’ll recall play at Scotiabank Arena, instead of where they should logically play, which is TD Garden, named for Canada’s second-largest bank Toronto-Dominion, but that is in Boston, which is also the name of a Canadian pizza chain.

As a reminder, Canadians can watch many of these games on The Sports Network (TSN), majority owned by Bell—not to be confused with Sportsnet, owned by Rogers and previously part-owned by Bell.

There are eight companies in Canada.