Red Deer Rebels

Rink: Peavey Mart Centrium
Capacity: 7,111
Built: 1991
League: WHL
City: Red Deer, Alberta
Home Of: Red Deer Rebels
Games Attended: 5
First Game: May 23, 2016 Brandon vs London
Most Recent Game: May 29, 2016 London vs Rouyn-Noranda
Unique Arena: #38
WHL Arena: #2

The Peavey Mart Centrium is located in Westerner Park in the south end of Red Deer, surrounded by an expo hall and large parking lots. My only games in Red Deer came during the 2016 Memorial Cup tournament. During the day we had swung by the rink just to go to the tournament merch tent, but they still wanted us to pay to park. That might have just been a Memorial Cup policy, but it was quite annoying to us. Another weird thing during that tournament was coming out after the game at 10pm and walking into a much brighter evening than one would ever expect coming from Ontario. We forgot how much further north we were from home.

The seating and concourse setup in Red Deer is a similar one to some other arenas in the WHL. It reminds me of a mix between Regina and Lethbridge. There is a small lower bowl that extends fully around the ice of about ten or so rows. The upper bowl is probably closer to twenty or so rows of seats that extend high up to the back wall. The upper bowl is mainly just two large grandstands that run down either side of the rink ,though they do curve into the corners in one of the ends. That end has a stack of suites reminiscent of those seen at one of the ends in Kitchener. The opposite end of the ice has no upper bowl at all. There are some bathrooms there, and during the Memorial Cup they had some scaffolding built there for all the extra media covering the tournament.

The suites were added just a few years ago as that end of the house was much of the same as the other beforehand. It shows what you can do with all that open space at the end of the building. The seating setup here works well as you always feel close to the action unless you’re at the back of the upper bowl, and even then, you’re treated to a good view of the ice.

Red Deer is one of five CHL rinks I’ve only been to for Memorial Cup tournaments. I would love to get back one day for a regular Rebels game, perhaps when I finally go to an Edmonton Oilers game. Since I was there in 2016 there’s been some renovations, and all the green seats were replaced with new black ones. What you see below is easily my worst panoramic shot you’ll see on this website. Mainly because I lost the original file and had to screenshot this from Instagram and it just looks awful.

Games Attended

May 23, 2016: London 9 – Brandon 1

May 24, 2016: London 5 – Rouyn-Noranda 2

May 25, 2016: Red Deer 2 – Brandon 1 OT

May 27, 2016: Rouyn-Noranda 3 – Red Deer 1

May 29, 2016: London 3 – Rouyn-Noranda 2 OT