Soo Greyhounds
Rink: GFL Memorial Gardens
Capacity: 5,000
Built: 2006
League: OHL
City: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
Home Of: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
Games Attended: 5
First Game: November 14, 2008 vs Windsor
Most Recent Game: April 30, 2022 vs Guelph
Unique Arena: #18
OHL Arena: #14
Sault Ste. Marie holds the distinction of being the most isolated OHL team. In a league where travel is relatively easy (especially compared to the Q and the Dub), getting to the Soo during hockey season is a trek that only the most diehard of fans ever try to embark on. When you arrive you are greeted with the GFL Memorial Gardens, whose onsite parking lot was the site of the old Memorial Gardens which was torn down upon completion of the current rink in 2006. But one piece of the old rink that remains, the Memorial Tower which was attached to the old arena and erected to remember past war dead. It still stands proudly next to the current rink. The downtown location means there isn’t a ton of parking on site, but there is a lot just across the street at the Station Mall.
The GFL Memorial Gardens is just like its sister rinks in Guelph and Sarnia, with 5,000 seats and an open concourse that gives views of the ice from the concession lines. Unlike Guelph and Sarnia, it does lack a full restaurant, however on my most recent trip I noticed a somewhat temporary sit-down area that people can use for eating. It also has less suites than its cousins, as there are only suites on one side of the arena. One thing I hadn’t really noticed until my last trip was that I felt the seating is a tad shallower than it is in Guelph or Sarnia. Not by much, but slightly noticeable. Also, another war memorial that hung in the old building was saved and brought over to the new one, and it hangs on the wall behind the far net as you see in the photo above which is a fantastic touch.
In the past I had complained about how bad the old scoreboard that you see in the above picture was, and how on my trip in 2016 the scoreboard itself wasn’t working whatsoever. However, since then a new HD board has been added to the building, which you can see in the other photos on this page. But I figured I would leave one older photo up so you can see the original board, a style of videoboard that dominated the OHL in the mid 2000s when teams first started getting them.
It’s a shame the Soo is so far away from the rest of the league, but I guess that can be part of the allure to actually going to a game there. Going there as an OHL fan feels like a sort of accomplishment. While the rink itself isn’t anything special, it is packed with knowledgeable and loud fans and can be a very fun trip if you ever get the chance.
I just wish my team (whether it was Brampton or Guelph) didn’t always get their asses totally kicked when I made the drive up. It remains the only current arena in the OHL that I haven’t seen my Guelph Storm win a game in.
