Canucks fans can add yet another stop to the team’s tour of Lower Mainland facilities in their search for a permanent training venue, one that really is no surprise — the PNE Agrodome.
The venerable rink on the grounds of Hastings Park was announced earlier this year as the practice facility for the expansion Professional Women’s Hockey League Vancouver team, which will play its games out of the neighbouring Pacific Coliseum, former home of the Canucks.
The PNE, which operates both the Agrodome and the Coliseum, confirmed that the Canucks had approached them about using the Agrodome as a practice facility.
“There has been initial conversations about the Vancouver Canucks using the Agrodome as a practice venue, but these are very early discussions and there would need to be significantly more discussion around further details, including revenue generation for the PNE, as this venue is very important for the PNE and the community,” spokesperson Laura Ballance said.
The Canucks have practised at the Agrodome on occasion in the past, most recently during the 2007-08 season.
The Canucks used the Agrodome for a practice before the 1995-96 season, their first at then-General Motors Place.
The Canucks are the only team in the NHL without a training facility separate from the facilities available at their home rink — teams generally have expansive medical treatment facilities as well as meeting rooms and workout facilities on top of a dedicated practice ice sheet. The Canucks have managed to cram their own facilities inside Rogers Arena — but when there is a third-party booking at the arena, such as a concert, the team often loses access to their own spaces because those become part of the event’s back of house.
Last week, the Canucks’ senior brass — including Michael Doyle, Jim Rutherford, Patrik Allvin and Dax Aquilini — toured Rosemary Brown Recreation Centre in Burnaby and the Britannia Community Centre in Vancouver. The Rosemary Brown facility opened last year and does have some potential for expansion, while the Britannia complex, built in the 1970s, badly needs revitalization, but plans to do so have stalled over the past half-decade or so.
Postmedia understands the Canucks have also looked at the University of B.C., where the team has rented practice ice when needed for more than a decade; Simon Fraser University, team chairman Francesco Aquilini’s alma mater; the Richmond Olympic Oval, which is close to Vancouver International Airport; and the Burnaby Lake Sports Complex, which includes the former home of Fortius Sport and Health — now known as the Christine Sinclair Community Centre, and which will feature a new ice rink and swimming pool, although those won’t be completed until 2028.
Allvin has previously said the team is after about 20,000 square feet, which could be renovated or built into a dedicated facility for their use.
The Canucks have talked about a permanent practice facility of their own since about 2010, when they ended a long-standing agreement with Burnaby 8-Rinks (now known as Scotia Barn). Why a team with such deep pockets, whose owners have long experience in construction and property development, hasn’t been able to secure a permanent practice rink in their 15-year-long search has grown into a bit of a local oddity.
Before the Canucks signed a deal with the City of Abbotsford to put their AHL team at the Abbotsford Centre and also take on the arena’s management contract, the Canucks had conversations with the PNE about getting their AHL team into the Coliseum. The Canucks last played at the Coliseum in 1995, and the larger rink was home to the WHL’s Vancouver Giants from 2001 to 2016.
Built in 1963, the Agrodome has hosted many sporting events over the years, including pro wrestling, indoor soccer, roller hockey and lacrosse. It was the long-time home of the AAA provincial high school boys’ basketball championships, which moved to the Langley Events Centre in 2010. It has also been used from time to time as a filming location, perhaps most famously standing in as a Moscow boxing venue for the climatic fight between Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.
During the Pacific National Exhibition every August, the Agrodome has traditionally hosted equestrian competitions, although those were cancelled in 2024 because of “infrastructure changes.”
Earlier this year, the PNE confirmed that the new pro women’s team will be based at the Coliseum and Agrodome, and that renovations and upgrades to both rinks are underway, in preparation for the beginning of the PWHL season this fall.