Streetsville Arena
Rink: Streetsville Arena
Capacity: N/A
Built: 1961
League: OJHL
City: Mississauga, Ontario
Former Home Of: Streetsville Derbys
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: September 11, 2016
Unique Arena #39
The city of Mississauga is the epitome of the suburbs. Despite being a very large city in its own right, it is swallowed up in the urban sprawl that is the Greater Toronto Area. If not for signs saying so, you would hardly know when you cross into or out of the city into neighboring places like Brampton, Oakville or Milton. Despite this, Mississauga (which itself was only incorporated as a city in 1974) has its own communities within it such as Port Credit, Meadowvale and Streetsville, which is home to the Vic Johnston Community Centre and the Streetsville Arena that lies within. The Streetsville section of Mississauga is perhaps the quaintest part of the urban sprawl. It has a stretch that feels as close to a small town setting as you can find in Mississauga. The Arena itself is located in a bit of a valley just to the east of the Queen St drag on Church St, surrounded by a park and forest. The exterior looks fairly new because it is. The arena opened in 1961 but was heavily renovated in 2008, which gives the outside a new, modern look. But you can still see the original barrel arched roof of the rink that lays beyond the front facade.
The Streetsville Debrys started life as a Junior C team in the mid 1960s and called the arena home as they rose through the ranks to Jr B and eventually Jr A. The team was quite successful, but eventually they ceased operations in 2011. The Derbys were resurrected in 2024 once again as a Jr C team now playing in the PJHL. I have never been to a Derbys game and am not planning to start taking up Jr C hockey anytime soon.
The reason this arena is on this site is I went to an OHL pre-season game here in 2016. Back when Mississauga had an OHL team, whether it was the IceDogs, Majors or Steelheads, they almost never played their pre-season home games at their actual home, the Hershey Centre. Instead, they would play any home pre-season games around the city in smaller community rinks like Port Credit and Streetsville. During the 2016 pre-season I attended a Guelph Storm vs Mississauga Steelheads game here. Even for a pre-season venue I was fairly surprised that the league would play a game at a rink this small. It even surprises me that this rink was home to a Jr A team for so long. There is no capacity listed anywhere online, but my best guess is the rink could hold a few hundred people in the three rows of plastic seats that stretch down both sides of the ice. Behind one of the nets is the main lobby/concession area which has windows looking into the rink, should viewers wish to watch from a warmer spot. The other end of the rink has the serviceable scoreboard and Zamboni area. The ceiling is an absolutely gorgeous barrel-arched roof made entirely of wood. Despite the high arch it still feels quite low to the ice, with the cross beams that go across the surface.
The bench side of the ice has doors leading to the dressing rooms, while the penalty box side has the back wall of the building which has large windows above the seats, looking out towards the wooded area behind the complex and allows for natural light to flow into the arena.
While the Derbys are alive again in the rink as a Jr C team, the arena is mostly used for youth and rec league hockey. With the OJHL and GOHL ever expanding and trying to become bigger leagues, I highly doubt a higher level of hockey will return to this arena.
