A real chance to bring life back to the Forum

Community sports complex a perfect fit for Habs’ old home, Adam Zara writes.

Twenty-one years after the Canadiens abandoned their spiritual home and moved into the Bell (then-Molson) Centre, what’s left of the old Forum today is more akin to a sad, abandoned suburban mall than Canada’s most storied entertainment venue.

In 1996, the arena was gutted, sold for parts and reborn as an “entertainment complex.” Hopes were that it would revive the derelict neighbourhood it inhabited. To any true fan at the time, the transformation of the “temple” that played host to Stanley Cup after Stanley Cup was seen as blasphemy; a total desecration.

Now, nearly a quarter century on, the old Forum’s management appears to be staying the course and doubling down on its property’s vocation. A recent news report suggests the plan is to fill the numerous vacancies with other restaurants hoping to capitalize on the recent population influx in the neighbourhood, and possibly student housing for nearby Dawson College.

Shrug.

This is a huge wasted opportunity. Indeed, the last five years have seen a great densification of downtown Montreal’s livable space and the outright revival of nearby Griffintown and St-Henri.

The expected development of the old Children’s Hospital site — Devimco has proposed to construct six new mixed-use towers — will bring thousands of new residents to the area.

As an outcome of such growth, area residents have been consistently lamenting the lack of such neighbourhood essentials as elementary schools and recreation centres — facilities worthy of the city’s claim of wanting families moving back to Montreal’s core.

In that vein and without a shadow of a doubt, the old Montreal Forum could fill some of that

The old Forum’s current ownership has a great opportunity on its hands.

void. It would be a prime and appropriate location for a community sports complex, complete with rentable hockey rinks, synthetic soccer fields, basketball courts and free indoor parking, of course.

Truth be told, this should have been done 21 years ago. The Montreal Canadiens should have shown more respect to their historic house of glory by transforming it into the team’s very own practice hub, rather than moving across the Champlain Bridge to Brossard’s Complexe Bell (itself a multi-sport complex open to the public) over a decade later.

And while we’re on the topic, the franchise should have also kept the Forum’s ghosts appeased by opening a Canadiens Hall of Fame there, with most of the original memorabilia from the arena left intact. Dare I suggest — being the Habs homer that I am — they may have actually won something during all those years, had that been the case?

Back to 2017: If the building’s current management and the Molson family could hash out an agreement to make any, if not all, of this happen when the lease is up in Brossard, while providing rentable sports facilities to the community, it could truly be a win-win. Heck, if they really wanted to take it a step farther, they’d throw in a Canadiens-themed hotel within the complex and a rooftop outdoor skating rink overlooking the city — but I digress.

Regardless of this fan’s far-fetched wish list, and independent of his dreamed-up Molson family involvement, the old Forum’s current ownership has a great opportunity on its hands to right this historic wrong. At the very least, any form of restructuring toward a recreational community vocation would breathe new life into the building, thereby only benefiting eventual street-level tenants, which they so desperately need.

(Full disclosure: Not only did I enjoy amazing moments as a child watching the Habs play at the Forum, but the movie theatre it now houses — the only major tenant left within the complex — was the location of my very first date with my eventual wife and where I proposed years later. Yes, this is more than just sports nostalgia and fandom talking).