Rejected Names For The Downtown Arena

In December 2013, we were formally introduced to the name of the next home of the Edmonton Oilers, Rogers Place. It’s the 3rd arena among teams in the Big four sports leagues in North America with Rogers on a building, joining Rogers Centre in Toronto and Rogers Arena in Vancouver and when it finally opens this fall it will be the crown jewel building in the NHL but Rogers were not the first ones to try and get the naming rights.

I was able to talk to some sources close to (as in they walked by Daryl Katz one day) Oilers big whigs and heard about other names that were floating around for the new barn.

The Daycare

With the amount of youth on the Oilers roster it appeared to be a fitting name until Oilers brass realized that yes, this is a team full of youth but forgot that no matter how good an 8 year old on YouTube who just went top shelf on a kid in a atom game, they can’t actually draft him until he turns 18. If Auston Matthews has a younger sibling the Orange and Blue are already giving him a look.

The Barn

Inspired by the idea of Brian Burke and Kevin Lowe fighting in an old barn, this name was shot down when those involved realized this could only work if Lowe and Burke actually fought every time the Oilers took on the Flames at home. The name also goes back to the days of when we didn’t always have corporate sponsors on an arena, it’s a straightforward name that I wish really won out.

Purple Onion Centre

A staple of the Edmonton nightlife scene in the 80s and 90s, this name was also rejected due to the fact that the bar shut down in the mid 2000s and not a single fan born after 1998 would understand what the Purple Onion was. (I KNOW I’M 23 BUT I’VE HEARD STORIES ABOUT IT).

All in game music would have come from MuchMusic Dance Mix CDs from before 2000 to really give the place a retro feel.

The Rebuildatorium

A suggestion for arena seating with a name like this was having every seat inside being known as “Tier 1” with another section being called “Tier 2” where 17,000 seats would be placed directly outside of the building. Intermission segments would have involved in game host Ryan Jespersen having fans flipping over gold envelopes for prices for every home game.

In an era of multimillion dollar naming rights, Rogers was always going to win out in the end, but I can’t help but think how much fun we could have had if one of these other names were on the new home of the Oilers in big letters that could have probably been viewable from space.