Scotiabank Arena

Home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, built from a former postal delivery building.

Scotiabank Arena, formerly known as Air Canada Centre (ACC), is a multi-purpose arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the home of the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). In addition, the minor league Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League (AHL), the Raptors 905 of the NBA G League, and the Toronto Sceptres of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) play occasional games at the arena.

The arena was previously home to the Toronto Phantoms of the Arena Football League (AFL) and the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League. Scotiabank Arena also hosts other events, such as concerts, political conventions and video game competitions. The arena is owned and operated by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. (MLSE), which also owns the Leafs and the Raptors, as well as their respective development teams.

Quick Facts

Address: 40 Bay Street
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Groundbreaking: 1938 (original building); March 12, 1997 (reconstruction)
Opened: February 19, 1999
Acreage: 61,780.5 m² / 0.024 sq mi
Owner: Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment
Former names: Toronto Postal Delivery Building; Air Canada Centre (ACC) (1999–2018)
Architect: Brisbin Brook Beynon Architects (Architect of Record); HOK Sport (Consulting Architects)

Lore & Background

The building was constructed in 1941 as the Toronto Postal Delivery Building for postal deliveries and was temporarily used by the Department of National Defence during World War II. After the war, the building was transferred to Canada Post in 1946 where it functioned as the main postal terminal for Metropolitan Toronto until 1989 when Canada Post moved its services to the Eastern Avenue facility. The Postal Building was sold to a consortium of developers but was reverted to Canada Post ownership in 1993 due to financial woes, but the new ownership of the soon-to-be Toronto Raptors basketball team acquired the building in December 1994 to construct the new arena.

However, the Raptors were acquired by Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd., the owners of the Maple Leafs hockey team in 1998 during construction that began a year prior, to replace their outdated Maple Leaf Gardens arena. The arena was opened on February 19, 1999, at the cost of $288 million, with the Leafs playing the Montreal Canadiens the following night, and the Raptors playing the Vancouver Grizzlies the night after that.

Reader's Guide

Scotiabank Arena is connected to Union Station's railway, subway and regional bus services and is connected to the Path. The venue is located on land that was once part of Toronto's inner harbour. The arena retains the eastern and southern walls of the original postal structure through a process of facadism.

Did You Know?

In 2018, Scotiabank Arena was the 13th busiest arena in the world and the busiest in Canada.
It is the most photographed location in Canada on Instagram according to BuzzFeed.
The building's exterior features a 13-part series of limestone bas relief carvings by Louis Temporale Sr. depicting the history of transportation and communication in Canada.