Alex G.
Yelp
A great arena that - perhaps unfairly - is getting a little long in the tooth.
The CAA Centre is the de facto hockey arena for Brampton, handling events and hockey games for a number of minor and major teams, including the Brampton Beast, the "farm team" for the Montreal Canadiens. As many times as I've been in the area, it's few and far between that I get out to attend a game - but I picked a great opportunity to get back there.
I visited the arena to attend (and cover) the inaugural Hockey Night in Brampton fundraiser, which saw an all-star team of past and present NHL players play alongside councillors and other community advocates to raise funds for the William Osler Health Foundation. I was extremely fortunate to be able to cover the event, as one of only a handful of media outlets that confirmed their attendance. Doing so gave me a unique opportunity to explore the arena at my leisure and see both the good and the bad of the centre.
After checking in and getting a pass for the event, I had a good half-hour to wander around the place. The first thing I noticed was the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame, which is located right beside the main entrance - you can't miss it. While I still prefer the presentation of the Mississauga Sports Hall of Fame's exhibits, they are located so far out of the way in the Iceland complex as to be near-invisible. This display in the CAA Centre nicely captured the sports heroes of yore.
My pass afforded me access to a media scrum at rinkside, and it was a good chance to check out the state of the facility. In short - it's seen better days. Despite the apparent best efforts of the cleaning crew, the seats and rinkside have plenty of stains, scuffs and damage from years past. The scrum itself was at least interesting, with NHL stars Sean Monahan and (newly-signed Maple Leaf) Jason Spezza doing pressers, along with famed Leafs great Doug Gilmour making an appearance. I ended up taking a freight elevator accessed through the loading dock up to the suites level - the weakest part of the experience.
I was extremely disappointed with the layout and maintenance of the suites, especially given that this was where my seating was located. Not only did the hallways look extremely dated, but the press box was laughably untouched. When I say untouched, I mean, no one had used it in such a long time that there was a thick layer of dust covering the "desk" surface. A fellow sports reporter and I had great fun writing out our names in the dust, and had to tell fellow camera crews sitting in the area to watch their arms - are you telling me no one used this area in months?
The game itself was very fun, if extremely unlike other exhibition games. Envision the Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, running rings around players like Gilmour, Shayne Corson and Spezza and scoring half the goals in the game, while other players skated so slowly that it was like some kind of freakish half-time kids' team match. Not to mention that one side was taking it extremely seriously - Brown's team had muthatruckin' Malcolm Subban making one-handed saves while the opposite side had a goalie from the Mississauga Steelheads - trying his best, but no cigar.
Regardless, it was an extremely successful event (I understand over $400k was raised for Brampton hospitals) and the arena was the most packed I've seen it in months. If it inspires more people to visit for games, all the better. I just wish they'd spruce up the facility a little more and hold more marquee events like this.