Victoria Royals
Rink: Save on Foods Memorial Centre
Capacity: 7,006
Built: 2005
League: WHL
City: Victoria, British Columbia
Home Of: Victoria Royals
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: February 5, 2025 vs Kelowna
Unique Arena: #109
WHL Arena: #23
The Save on Foods Memorial Centre (isn’t that a mouthful) sits just north of the downtown core of Victoria fairly close to an intersection which announces its presence to all in the immediate area. It sits on the former site of the old Victoria Memorial Arena which was home of the old WHL Cougars and torn down in 2003 to make way for its replacement. The Memorial Centre was oddly enough originally home to the ECHL’s Salmon Kings. When the Salmon Kings ceased operations in 2011 it was heavily rumoured that the AHL would take its place. But the WHL always wanted back on Vancouver Island so quickly they kidnapped the Chilliwack Bruins and moved them to the Memorial Centre in Victoria where the Royals remain today.
Street level is also ice level in Victoria as is the concourse which is nice and wide. Quickly it became clear to me having just gone to Kelowna 11 months prior to my visit here that the Memorial Centre in Victoria is almost an identical clone to Prospera Place in Kelowna except slightly better in most ways. The concourse is the same layout with the far side of the building holding the dressing rooms and both teams needing concourse access to make it to the ice. The team store was pretty standard as are the some 7,000 seats that circle the ice. There are suites running down one side of the building with some more behind one of the nets. The top of the bowl behind the opposite net holds a restaurant (again exactly like in Kelowna. The videoboard and scoreboard are also the same odd setup you see in Kelowna in that they are two separate structures and not exactly efficient. However, this one is much better than Kelowna’s and is perfectly serviceable with an HD screen and digital scores. In Kelowna the video is fuzzy and many light bulbs on the scoreboard are burnt out.
As with a standard clone the views in Victoria are all pretty good, with a solid sound system and decent enough A/V production. Its just slightly bigger than most clones you see. The extra 1,500-2,000 seats makes sense when you realize this is the premier entertainment venue for Vancouver Island and as such the list of upcoming events was more impressive than most mid-large sized rinks across the CHL. Unfortunately, the large size means the atmosphere suffers. My game was on a Wednesday night with a crowd of just over 2,600 which made for a pretty quiet evening despite a Royals victory during a season that they’re challenging for a division title. While I am sure the crowds for their weekend games are a bit more robust it’s never fun being at a game where you can hear a pin drop for most of the contest.
In short summary Victoria is a pretty average clone rink. There’s nothing bad about it beyond lacking atmosphere but nothing that is elite by CHL standards either. Perhaps it has the widest steps in the seating bowl I’ve ever seen.
For me Victoria is way more important as the rink where I finished all 60 CHL arenas for the first time and for that it will always hold a special place in my heart. A shout out is also needed for the Royals organization who treated me…. well like royalty when I was there and they found out I was finishing the CHL. The fans were all super friendly to me as well and I was treated like a rockstar by the locals.
While the rink itself isn’t one of the bigger standouts in the CHL I will always remember it fondly for what it will always represent for me. All 60 CHL arenas.
