Belleville Bulls
Rink: Yardmen Arena
Capacity: 3,757
Built: 1978
League: OHL
City: Belleville, Ontario
Former Home Of: Belleville Bulls
OHL Games Attended: 6
First Game: February 28, 2009 vs Brampton
Most Recent Game: April 2, 2015 vs Barrie
Unique Arena: #23
OHL Arena: #19
The now-named CAA Arena sits just a stone’s throw from highway 401 in the north end of Belleville and is part of a giant complex called the Quinte Sports & Wellness Centre. Before the renovations during the OHL days the main arena itself is a bit of a brick of a building, mostly ninety-degree angles and metal siding. Just to the right of the above photo sits the Wally Denver Arena, and behind that sits the newer part of the complex which houses all types of sports and recreation facilities. While this shot is taken close to the main road, there is tons of parking out behind the building where the main entrance to the complex sits.
During its OHL days the Yardmen Arena was basically just a two-grandstand setup with no seats in the ends; just standing room at ice level and up on the concourse which in the ends acted more like a balcony. Benches were on opposite sides of the rink which was of course Olympic-sized. It was odd that one of the smallest buildings in the OHL had the largest ice surface. Views from most of the seats were generally good as with a steep rake of the stands they were pretty close to the ice. However, sitting up in the top few rows gave a bit of an obstructed view with the balcony overhang. Also, the seats on the sides closer to the corners still all faced forward, so they weren’t exactly the best vantage points either. Of course, up in the balcony gave off the amazing top-down view of the ice you see above which I am glad I got to experience at least once.
Getting good angles for a picture at this rink could be hard, but I guess it’s one of those unique charms of the place. With it being the old odd design that it was, you would get a lot of odd nooks and crannies like the one above, and people just standing in random spots to catch a view of the game. One end of the ice had some suites to it, but an OHL game in Belleville was a very no-frills old-school vibe, and it was always awesome getting to go to a game there.
As I said this was a very intimate arena and I am sad that it is no longer part of the OHL circuit, but I am happy that it lives on with a new renovation to keep it open, and high level AHL hockey for the good people of Belleville to support.
