FirstOntario Centre 5.13

FirstOntario Centre is a sports and entertainment arena on the corner of Bay Street North and York Boulevard in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The arena, which opened in 1985, has a capacity of up to 19,000.HistoryHamilton was left without a large ice hockey arena with the demolition of the Barton Street Arena in 1977, and even that arena had a relatively small seating capacity by modern standards. Copps Coliseum was designed with a large capacity in part to lure a National Hockey League expansion franchise. Construction was started in 1983 and was completed two years later at a cost of $33.5 million, with an additional $2.3 million spent on a parking garage. The project was overseen by local Hamiltonian Joseph Pigott. The arena was originally named Copps Coliseum after long-time mayor Victor Copps, the patriarch of a Hamilton political family which includes his daughter, former Member of Parliament of Canada and Member of Provincial Parliament of Ontario Sheila Copps, and wife, Geraldine, who was a long-time councillor.The arena's first scoreboard clock was originally from the Winnipeg Arena, and was purchased for $214,000. The original Day Signs/Naden scoreboard, built in Toronto, was replaced in the mid-1990s by a centre-hung scoreboard with an electronic message centre on each side, which, in return was replaced with the current scoreboard, built in Hamilton by Media Resources and featuring a LED video board on each side.