Max Bell Centre (commonly Max Bell Arena) is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

arena in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, in the community of Albert Park/Radisson Heights. It seats 2,121 for hockey, with a standing room capacity of over 3,000. It is named after Max Bell, a

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

who was a prominent businessman in Calgary. It hosted

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

and

short-track speed skating Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice skating, ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of . The rink itself is long by wide, which is the s ...

events at the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Calgary 1988 were a multi-sport event held from February 13 to 28, 1988, with Calgary, Calgary, Alberta as the main host city. This marks the m ...

, both demonstration events. Presently, the arena is home to the

Calgary Canucks The Calgary Canucks are a junior ice hockey#Junior A, junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the Max Bell Centre (Calgary), Ken Bracko Arena. They have won th ...

of the

Alberta Junior Hockey League The Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) is an Alberta-based Junior A ice hockey league that belongs to the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL). It was formed as a five-team league in 1964. The 2023–24 season began with 16 teams, however 5 ...

and the primary facility for the Northeast Calgary Athletic Association's minor hockey teams. The arena also hosts

Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League The Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL) is a box lacrosse league based in Alberta with three teams in Saskatchewan and, as of 2018, one in Manitoba. It is sanctioned by the Alberta Lacrosse Association. RMLL organizes all senior and junior play ...

games. Late December, it serves as the primary venue for the Circle K Classic(Formerly known as the Mac’s Midget Tournament)It is home to the Mac's Tourney's "Wall of Fame" featuring every tournament alumnus who has gone on to play in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. In 2007, the arena completed construction to add a second sheet of ice as the city of Calgary attempts to keep up with demand for ice time in a rapidly growing city. Max Bell Arena 1 in which the Canucks play was renamed the Ken Bracko Arena in 2017 as a tribute to Ken Bracko, the founder of the Circle K Classic (formerly the Mac's Midget Tournament) as well as the 18U Alberta Elite Hockey league (AEHL). Bracko also served as president of the Canucks for 32 years until his death in 2015. In 2022, the city of Calgary completed $14 million in renovations on the arena. The area surrounding the building hosts the annual electronic music festival Chasing Summer.

References

External links

City of Calgary. Max Bell Centre
Venues of the 1988 Winter Olympics Olympic curling venues Olympic short-track speed skating venues Sports venues in Calgary Ice hockey venues in Alberta Curling venues in Canada Calgary Rad'z {{Winter-Olympic-venue-stub