When the Edmonton Oilers joined the NHL as part of the league’s 1979 merger with the WHA, they had advantages. The most noteworthy advantage was retaining Wayne Gretzky after acquiring him from the Indianapolis Racers midseason. One other advantage they enjoyed, along with the Hartford Whalers, was having an arena built in the middle of their WHA tenure.
Forty-two years later, history repeated itself with no merger required. The Oilers entered a new age of NHL hockey with the 2016-built Rogers Place, and Connor McDavid. Since 2021, the Oilers’ home-ice advantage has been difficult to match. However, the fan experiences of Rogers Place and the Northlands Coliseum are quite different.
So which arena is “better”? It’s a pretty subjective question that can’t be answered off the hop. That means it’s time to compare the two experiences, and objectively analyze which barn comes out on top.
Category 1: Location and transportation
This is a rather fascinating one when you look at the situations of other teams, for context. The Calgary Flames, for example, have forever played on the Stampede grounds; a factoid that won’t change with Scotia Place’s arrival. The New York Rangers have played in the same rink even longer, since 1968. Conversely, teams like the New York Islanders, Florida Panthers, and Los Angeles Kings have played in entirely different municipalities.
The Oilers began up at the Exhibition Lands, before moving Downtown. Those are not the same area of Edmonton, but they’re both comfortably within city limits. And as such, both have been easy to get to.
Ample parking existed around the Coliseum, as it did with most 1970’s sporting venues. There’s still lots of parking Downtown, despite what your social-media buddy may otherwise say. But it being far more spread-out is a minus.
Where Downtown redeems itself is with transit access. Not necessarily with MacEwan LRT Station, as prominent as it appears, because the Coliseum had its own station. Not with buses either (several routes Downtown versus several routes to Coliseum Transit Centre). But with a second LRT station being just three blocks south (Bay/Enterprise Square), and a Valley Line stop nearby (102 Street).
Ultimately, the coup de grâce is landed by pedway connections. With Rogers Place connected to the Downtown pedway system, you’re well protected from wintry elements. The Coliseum did not have that at all. So Rogers Place wins this round, but only marginally.
Category 2: Concession options
This category will only focus on what each arena offered by itself, not the surrounding places. Counting the surroundings would take too much time, and potentially be lopsided towards Downtown. Although, this observer dearly misses the Fireside Restaurant, which was located across from the Coliseum for its entire 43-year lifetime.
Some things remain the same between the two barns. Both have regular concession stands, and both offer Pizza 73 to showcase the Edmonton pizza scene to visiting fans. This is, after all, also the birthplace of Boston Pizza, Royal Pizza, and Roadrunner Pizza & Donair, among others.
At the end of the day, Rogers Place still does offer so much more than the Coliseum. Even if a Coliseum beer just hit differently than anything you can find in 2026, it never had a Bobby Nick’s burger. It didn’t have an attached Molson Hockey House, although it did have the oil derrick used by the Hockey House.
The Coliseum was built during an era where concession offerings were much more straightforward. Rogers Place was built when concession offerings were becoming far more elaborate. It’s not fair to compare eras, but it counts still.
Category 3: Affordability
Like with the previous category, this one is a touch unfair. Inflation has made nearly everything much more expensive compared to even 10 years ago. And naturally, a new arena usually means prices go up a bit, unless you’re the Atlanta Falcons’ home field, Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
If anything, though, MBS proves that the concession prices at Rogers Place are highway robbery. Ticket prices have also notoriously not been cheap at Rogers since it opened. At the Coliseum, you could get a pair of tickets for eighty bucks, a pair of those famed beers for eight, and still be able to add a couple food items on with a $100 budget. You’re forced to choose what to spend $100 on at Rogers, more often than not.
Granted, Rogers Place isn’t the only venue guilty of being overpriced. And there may be an arena (or stadium) or three that cost more to enjoy a night at. But even adjusting for inflation, the Coliseum would still win here.
Category 4: Atmosphere
This is the most difficult to gauge, at face value. Compare these two Overtime winners in the first round of Stanley Cup Playoffs past, which each spurred a Stanley Cup Final run. One of these even might have saved the current era of Oilers hockey. But there’s not much difference outside of lighting, is there?
One building was more compact, and amplified a smaller crowd of 16,839. The other building is larger, and so you now have 18,347 screaming at the same volume, with still-decent reverberation. You can’t determine this category based on noise factor.
What ultimately breaks this tie is one Rogers Place still has to earn, to some degree: History. This observer, walking into a Coliseum game, could instantly feel the spirits of Oilers teams past that greeted you at the doors. Legends from Kevin Lowe to Ryan Smyth, Jacques Plante to Grant Fuhr, and then on to Curtis Joseph. Oh, and this McDavid kid, in 2015–16, who might just become the next Gretzky if Brandon Manning doesn’t happen again.
Rogers Place is still a cool experience that will blow away any visiting fan, to be sure. But it hasn’t fully inherited the Coliseum’s legacy yet. There’s no shame in that; it took Centre Bell in Montreal a full 25 years to inherit the famed Forum ghosts. However, that means the Coliseum still does hold the edge here.
Category 5: Amenities
Northlands Coliseum suffered from being pretty tightly packed in, and it showed with things like Club offerings. Beyond the Scotiabank Club, you had skyboxes, and a small ring of luxury boxes. That was it, that was all. And that was part of its eventual downfall, given that the focus of newer venues has shifted to those options.
Rogers Place not only brought along more Clubs, skyboxes, and luxury suites when it opened. It also introduced Edmontonians to this newfangled concept of “loges” which, purportedly, other cities already had. That was how far behind we had fallen in offering amenities.
The Coliseum’s design had been modeled after Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Compared to what Pacific was able to offer, and the fact it had to be replaced as an NHL home in 1995, Northlands acquitted itself rather well. But it still can’t hold a candle to what we have with the current digs.
Newer rinks win, but the Coliseum was iconic and hard to beat
This should say a lot more about what went in to building Rogers Place than it should anything else. Replacing what was, in 2016, the second-oldest active NHL arena was no easy feat. This was a place where four Stanley Cups were won and a fifth squad brought home the Cup from Boston. It was a host of seven Stanley Cup Finals (to the Saddledome’s three, for reference), and saw many all-time greats grace its ice.
The Coliseum, furthermore, adapted to the NHL as the league evolved, until it no longer could. It was aging, crammed, and 161 seats below the league’s usual capacity benchmark of 17,000. But the character it built over 42 years could only be matched by other icons of NHL lore, like the Nassau Coliseum or any Original Six cathedral.
Rogers Place was purposefully built to follow in Northlands Coliseum’s footsteps. It’s not an easy task to replace hockey history, but Rogers Place has so far succeeded. And perhaps, in 32 years’ time, we’ll be saying about it what we say now about the Coliseum.
Interested in joining our writing or social media team? Apply here.
