Oilers get keys to new arena

Photo: Twitter - Edmonton Oilers

The NHL Edmonton Oilers officially sever ties with their lovable lunch-bucket home today and take the keys to a new curvilinear, shiny, silver fun palace filled with four types of seats, chefs, bars and TVs.

"It's an amazing look on the outside and then you come in and see this, it's a pretty special place," said Connor McDavid, the Oilers star centre after being the first to test the ice last week at downtown Rogers Place.

Rogers Place replaces Rexall Place, home to the Oilers since 1974 in a city, and region, that loves the team, names streets after its players and delivers year-over-year sellout crowds.

It seats 18,641 built at a cost of almost $614 million — a price tag shared by city taxpayers, ticket buyers and the Oilers.

It is the centrepiece of a broad plan to revitalize the city's downtown, an area long-dismissed as an after-hours hibernation zone landmarked by wind-swept parking lots and shuttered store fronts.

Around the rink, in what has been branded the Ice District, a hive of business towers, condos, and hotels, are slowly taking shape.

Inside Rogers Place, it's a world of wide seats, open concourses, curtains and walls demarcated by 38 different ticket price points.

Everything is upscale, punctuated above centre ice by a massive, high-definition scoreboard that spans blue-line to blue-line.

Between the lower and upper bowls are exclusive rings of executive suites, theatre suites and loge seats.

At the far end are a sports bar and an after-hours-type club. Between the blue-lines in the lower bowl are wider club seats, with exclusive lounge access.

Ticket prices are higher than Rexall Place, in some cases double for a similarly located seat. A season ticket in the corner nosebleeds is $2,600. Sitting near the boards near centre ice for the year will cost $9,765.