At the beginning of March, the mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, reiterated his wish to demolish the Colisée de Québec, alleging in particular that it was not profitable and that he wanted to use the space to build some 800 housing units. Furthermore, on April 30, during a public consultation aimed at obtaining citizens’ opinions on their vision with regard to the development of the northeast sector of the ExpoCité site, this sector including the Coliseum, they all leaned towards the preservation of the Colisée de Québec. The participants proposed several uses that the City could make of the building built in 1949, namely housing, artists’ studios, a sports and cultural center, an urban farm, a Nordic museum, etc.
However, beyond the utilitarian considerations that the Colisée could take, a major argument emerged from the public consultation, namely the sentimental value that the “old” Colisée, where hockey legends such as Jean Béliveau with the Quebec Aces, Guy Lafleur, from his exploits at the International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament to his glorious years with the Quebec Remparts, without forgetting the presence of the fabulous Jean-Claude Tremblay with the Quebec Nordiques, the ace playmaker with the Nordiques, Peter Stastny, and so on…
The Colisée de Québec embodies a whole section of the sporting sphere in Quebec for hundreds of thousands of spectators imbued with this thirst for hockey so predominant in the hearts of Quebecers. In my opinion, it would be inappropriate, even sacrilegious, to remove this “heritage” building from the landscape of the National Capital.
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