By Dan McCaffery

A massive upgrade of the Sarnia Arena has just been completed, providing the historic rink with the comforts and safety of a modern facility while retaining the charm and atmosphere of a grand old hockey barn.

So says Rob Harwood, the city's manager of arenas.

Harwood made his comments Wednesday as workmen put the finishing touches on a $400,000 facelift. The improvements include new boards and higher glass, along with new seats and a new roof. An electronic sign will be installed out front in coming days.

Improved safety

The glass, which was five feet high in the end zones and only 30 inches high on the sides, will now be five feet all the way around, providing much better protection to fans. And the plastic boards, which have replaced the 60-year-old original wooden ones, are expected to result in fewer injuries to players.

Atmosphere retained

Harwood said he has seen many rinks in his travels, but few have the atmosphere of the Sarnia Arena.

Built in 1948, the rink has the kind of architecture that's just not found in a lot of communities these days, he said. And, he added, since the local Jr. 'B' team renamed itself the 'Legionnaires,' crowds have come flooding back in big numbers. “It's revived something,” he said. “People enjoy coming to games here. It's exciting. People are just pumped when they come in here.”

Legionnaire president Tom Knight agreed. “It's an all new Sarnia Arena,” he said. “We're very pleased that the city has made the investment to bring this thing back to where it should be. You can't take away the charm it has, you just can't duplicate it. There aren't too many of these gems left. What we've got now is the best of the old and the new."

Better ice

Harwood said a change to the radius of the corners will make it easier to freeze ice in the early part of the hockey season. "It's fantastic. You have no idea how much maintenance this is going to save us," he said. "At the beginning of the season, trying to freeze the ice was difficult."

Players will love it

Legionnaire goalie Kyle Washer, who was on hand for the unveiling of the finished project, said, “It's awesome. I think we'll have a lot of fun playing here. They really did a nice job.”

Washer predicted the team will be better this fall as well. “I think the harder we work, the more will come to us. If we really want it, we'll find a way to fight for it.”

The new boards and glass were put in for $144,000, while the seats cost $153,000 and a new roof was put on for $153,000. All of the work was done over the past year, with the boards and glass being installed this spring.

Over the past six decades Sarnia Jr. 'B' clubs have brought 16 Western Jr. 'B' championships and seven Sutherland Cups as all-Ontario champions to the rink, which has been affectionately known to generations of local hockey fans as 'the Brock Street Barn.' Along the way, 25 Sarnia Jr. 'B' players have gone on to the big leagues. And that doesn't count Kelsey Wilson, who was signed this week by the Nashville Predators of the NHL.

Raucous atmosphere

Even before the rink was upgraded, Kevin Jordan, a Londoner who put together the OHL Arena and Travel Guide, captured the attributes of the Sarnia Arena well, describing it as “the definition of the old community barn.”

He added, “from the outside, the arena is a big-looking building with a high-arched ceiling. It looks like an old barn, much like the Windsor Arena...You walk upstairs and into the top of the arena bowl, and a grand old rink opens in front of you. The whole arena is painted in shades of blue, with sky-blue walls and navy-blue trim. The ceiling is high and the seats are comfortable....All views are excellent.”

Jordan, an expert on Ontario junior arenas, said when the Sarnia Sting played out of the building for a few years in the mid-1990s, it “had a reputation as being one of the hardest rinks in which to play in the league due to the small ice, the closeness of the fans and the raucous, rowdy atmosphere.”

Those on hand for Wednesday's unveiling of the improved Sarnia Arena say that description still applies today.