advertisement
FYI

Hamilton’s Largest Venue Set For A $280M Renovation

Hamilton, ON’s largest sports and concert venue, FirstOntario Centre, is due for a multi-million-dollar refurbishment, with work beginning next spring and a re-opening set for the fall of 2025.

Hamilton’s Largest Venue Set For A $280M Renovation

By FYI Staff

Hamilton, ON’s largest sports and concert venue, FirstOntario Centre, is due for a multi-million-dollar refurbishment, with work beginning next spring and a re-opening set for the fall of 2025.


The $280-million renovation is spearheaded by L.A.-based Oak View Group (OVG)–one of the largest developers of sports and live entertainment venues in the world.

As per the announcement, the facility will have an 18,000-seat capacity with a new facade, “premium seating, enhanced acoustics, improved sightlines, upgraded concourses, optimized clubs and suites and artist lounges.” The newly modernized venue will join a rapidly growing southwestern Canadian marketplace with the ability to accommodate larger shows alongside Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.

advertisement

Initially opened in 1985 as Copps Coliseum, the complex that includes two smaller venues has, over the years, been home to The Hamilton Steelhawks, and was where Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux scored the winning goal against the Soviet national ice hockey team in 1987.

FirstOntario Concert Hall and the Hamilton Convention Centre will remain open and continue to host events during the arena’s renovation, officials say.

Live Nation joins OVG as a booking partner to bring concerts and other live events to the city centre.

A new naming rights partner is expected to be announced later.

Upcoming shows at FirstOntario Place include Carrie Underwood, Bush, The Glorious Sons, and Cirque du Soleil.

advertisement
Théodora
Courtesy Photo

Théodora

Concerts

Francos de Montréal 2025 Highlights: One Language, A Thousand Faces

From June 13 to 22, Montreal transformed into a vibrant capital of Francophone music. From French rapper Théodora to local rockers Corridor, this year’s acts showed that the French language, far from static, is an endless playground.

In Montréal, June rhymes with music, and Francos de Montréal are the perfect proof. Once again this year, the festival celebrated the full richness of the French language in its most lively, vibrant, and above all, varied forms. While French served as a common thread, every artist inhabited it in their own unique way – with their accent, life experience, expressions, imagery and struggles. Between urban poetry, edgy rock and hybrid Creole, Francos 2025 showed that French has never been so expansive – or popular.

What Francos 2025 proved is that the French language is no fixed monument. It’s alive, inventive, plural. It can be slammed by a poet from Saint-Denis, chanted by an afro-futurist rapper, whispered by an indie band, or hammered out in Montréal neighbourhood slang. From Congolese expressions to Québec regionalisms, from playful anglicisms to Creole nods, the French language danced in every form this year. It was « full bon »!

keep readingShow less
advertisement