Visited AHL Arenas
Aitken University Centre - Fredericton, NB
The Aitken Centre was built in 1976 on the ground of the University of New Brunswick and has been home to the powerhouse UNB Reds hockey program ever since. It also hosted the university’s basketball teams until their own facility was constructed in 2011. In the 1980’s and 90’s the Maritimes were a big territory for the American Hockey League, and the Aitken Centre was home to two different AHL teams during those decades. First the Fredericton Express (from 1981 to 1988) who were affiliated with the Quebec Nordiques, and then the Fredericton Canadiens who were the Habs’ farm team from 1990 to 1999. Starting in the mid 90s AHL teams started moving out of Atlantic Canada to get closer to their NHL affiliates along the US east coast. As an AHL team would leave, a QMJHL team would quickly take their place in the market, and by the mid 2000’s all the former AHL cities in Atlantic Canada now had QMJHL teams. Except Fredericton. While no official reason has ever been given for this, the prevailing thought has been that while the Q would love to be in Fredericton, the University owns the building, and their Reds are the biggest game in town. If they allowed the Q to come in permanently it would hurt the Reds greatly. That said, the nearby QMJHL Moncton Wildcats have played some games here over the years, usually during the first round of the playoffs when their old home the Coliseum was booked for trade shows. The Saint John Sea Dogs also have three “home games” scheduled for the Aitken Centre in 2025-26. But for now the Reds are the highest level of hockey for the city of Fredericton.
Hersheypark Arena - Hershey, PA
The Hersheypark Arena was built in 1936 and sits on the grounds of the famous amusement park complex that bears the same name (minus arena of course). The arena hosted the AHL’s Hershey Bears from the time it opened right up until 2002, when the team moved across the parking lot to their new arena, the Giant Center. Over the decades the arena hosted many concerts, wrestling shows and political events. The arena’s most famous moment however comes from when the facility was hosting a neutral site NBA game between Philadelphia and New York on March 2, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a Philadelphia 169-147 win. It still stands today as an NBA record that will likely never be broken. The building lost out on most major events when the Giant Center opened in 2002, but the is still the home rink for the NCAA’s Lebanon Valley Flying Dutchmen hockey team as well as the USPHL’s Hershey Cubs, as well as all sorts of minor hockey and public skating events.
Kevin Jordan and I stopped in to check out the historic arena before a Hershey Bears game in January 2025. There was a public skate advertised that day so we brought our skates, eager to step on the ice in such a cool historic old barn. Unfortunately for us a huge snowstorm hit the area, and while the Bears game was still on later that afternoon, the public skate was canceled and the rink sat dimly lit and empty. However, with nothing now to do for almost 3 hours and the roads in a dangerous state, we decided to just hang out in the quiet and slightly dark arena with permission from security. We did return the next day before departing the area for photos with the lights fully up that you see below. It was quite a cool experience to sit in a dark empty rink and just soak it all in for an extended period of time.
