Maple Leaf Gardens, one of Toronto's most iconic structures, will see its exterior preserved and its interior transformed under a three-party renovation plan unveiled Tuesday.
Perhaps most importantly, a hockey rink for Ryerson University students will be part of the building's future, along with an athletic centre.
"It's pretty exciting just thinking about it. I'm getting goosebumps," Tessa Dimitrakopoulosa of the Ryerson Stingers women's hockey team told CTV Toronto on Tuesday.
When the building opens in 2011, Dimitrakopoulosa and others will be skating on a rink that former Toronto Maple Leafs greats from Syl Apps to Mats Sundin and Doug Gilmour called home until the team departed for the Air Canada Centre in early 1999.
Ryerson students helped make the deal possible by agreeing to a $126 fee increase.
The Conservative government announced it will contribute $20 million to the project
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Infrastructure Minister John Baird pledged the funds during a morning press conference at the Gardens, where an artist's rendering of the new facility was unveiled.
The building will also host a flagship Loblaw grocery store, which will be built under the rink.
Loblaw Companies CEO Galen Weston said players will be looking up at the original Gardens roof, "which I imagine will be quite a thrill for all of us who have the luxury of being able to skate on this ice again."
Ryerson will contribute $20 million to the project. Students voted earlier this year to pay an extra $126 in athletic fees per year to raise the school's share of the funds.
Ryerson and Loblaw Companies Ltd., which owns the 60 Carlton St. building, will raise another $20 million through a joint fundraising campaign, which will include a $5 million contribution from the company.
According to Flaherty, the Ryerson Sports and Recreation Centre will house an NHL-sized rink, a running track, basketball and volleyball courts, and a fitness centre, among other facilities.
"This centre will generate excitement across the Greater Toronto area," Flaherty said. "It will create jobs in the Toronto region, it will be remarkable once it's completed."
The Gardens opened in 1931. The Toronto Maple Leafs played their first game there on Nov. 12, a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. The last game took place on Feb. 13, 1999, with Gilmour, then a Blackhawk, and Sundin taking the faceoff. The Blackhawks won 6-2.
The building has hosted figure skating competitions, and basketball and lacrosse games, and numerous entertainers have performed there, including Elvis Presley and The Beatles, Flaherty noted.
Loblaw, which bought the property in 2004, has said it will preserve the building's historic fa�ade.
"This is a building that will live in Canadian history and certainly will now because we're going to make sure that it's to good use," Flaherty said.
Christopher Hume, architecture critic for the Toronto Star, called the plan fantastic.
"The important architecturally is the exterior, and it basically remains intact. The inside will be completely redone, but to my mind, this is not the important part," he said.
The backhoes will soon be coming in to break up the rink. The hand and footprints of former Leafs owner Harold Ballard are in the concrete at centre ice.
Janet Mowat, a Ryerson spokesperson, said those will be preserved, likely in a heritage area, but it's too soon to specifically say what the plan will be.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney and files from The Canadian Press
