Tim Leiweke has promised to bring a hockey team to Hamilton’s newly renovated FirstOntario Center within a few years – but it won’t be an NHL club.
The former president and COO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, now president and COO of Oak View Group (OVG), visited Hamilton on Thursday to provide an update on the $300 million renovation plan for the 38-year-old amphitheater.
OVG oversaw the recent $700 million revitalization of Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, home of the Kraken, and $1 billion of UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders.
“It has nothing to do with the NHL,” Leiweke said. I was very clear about this. No NHL team will move here now. More realistically, an American Hockey League team has had a lot of success here.
“This market loves hockey, and it deserves a franchise that will proudly have the name “Hamilton” on the front,” he added.
Otherwise, a junior hockey team could always establish itself in Hamilton. With renovations to be completed by fall 2025, the Bulldogs have moved to Brantford for the next three campaigns. The Ontario Junior Hockey League (OHL) franchise has a clause to extend its stay in Wayne Gretzky’s hometown.
But there. Leiweke crunched the numbers and estimates that about 2.5 million people live in the Golden Horseshoe area, and they are closer to the FirstOntario Center than Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena or Buffalo’s KeyBank Center.
“I personally believe that if you have a population of 8.5 million people in the Toronto metropolitan area, and the Scotiabank Arena is stretched beyond its capacity, then there is a need for a market high school, especially in southern (Ontario) where there is a market for hockey and music,” Leiweke explained.
“We are neighbors with Scotiabank. We can complement it. We won’t necessarily be competing. But we will be able to offer better time slots since we are not in excessive demand,” he continued.
The amphitheater, formerly called the Copps Coliseum, opened its doors in 1995. Its first major event was the 1986 World Junior Hockey Championship.
Mario Lemieux scored his legendary goal on a skillful pass from Gretzky to give Canada victory against Russia at the 1987 Canada Cup. Canada won another Canada Cup at Copps Coliseum four years later.
The Hamilton Bulldogs, then the Montreal Canadiens’ farm club, won the Calder Cup in 2006-07, and the Bulldogs, the OHL club, were crowned champions of the Ontario junior circuit in 2017-18, then again in 2021-22.