Hershey Centre

History

The Hershey Centre is the home arena of the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League and home court of the Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League.

It previously housed the Mississauga IceDogs (hockey) from 1998 to 2007, the Mississauga Power (basketball) from 2011 to 2015, and the Toronto ThunderHawks during the 2000-2001 National Professional Soccer League season. It has also been the venue for numerous musical acts, including The Tragically Hip, Green Day, The White Stripes and Hatebreed.

First opened in 1998, the Hershey Centre is located on Rose Cherry Place, named after the late wife of Don Cherry, founder and former owner of the IceDogs. It is located beside highway 403. The closest major intersection is Kennedy Road and Matheson Boulevard East.

In 2007, a new multi-sport facility called Hershey SportZone opened just to the north of the main bowl. SportZone houses a full-size indoor soccer field, a full size FIBA basketball court, a gymnastics facility, and two outdoor soccer fields.

Hockey

Along with being the home of Mississauga's OHL teams since its opening, the Hershey Centre has hosted several hockey events.

In the year 2000 the Hershey Centre hosted the OHL All-Star Classic as well as the IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship.

The OHL Championship Series for the J. Ross Robertson Cup has twice been held at the facility in 2004 and 2011.

In May 2011 the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors hosted the 2011 MasterCard Memorial Cup. The Saint John Sea Dogs defeated Mississauga in the Final 3-1.

Basketball

The National Basketball League of Canada announced that the Oshawa Power would relocate to Mississauga and play as the Mississauga Power at the Hershey Centre starting in the 2013-14 season.

The Toronto Raptors announced that beginning in the 2015–16 season, they will have a team in the NBA Development League in Mississauga and play as the Raptors 905 at the Hershey Centre.

Figure skating

The arena has hosted the Skate Canada International figure skating competition, part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series in 2000, 2003, 2011 and will again host the competition in 2016.

It hosted the Canadian Figure Skating Championships for the first time in 2013.

2015 Pan and Parapan American Games

During the 2015 Pan American Games the Centre hosted the four combative sports of judo, karate, taekwondo and wrestling. During that time the centre was temporarily renamed the Mississauga Sports Centre due to naming rights. The venue also hosted the parapan sports of goalball, powerlifting and it also featured the debut of wheelchair rugby.

Other events

The NARCh (North American Roller Hockey Championships) Finals were held at Hershey Centre in July 2006, 2009 and 2013.

The arena also featured the only Extreme Championship Wrestling show in Canada before the promotion's demise in 2001.

The Hershey Centre was also the venue for the inaugural Heritage Cup, an international indoor lacrosse tournament.

It was the host venue of the 2009 World Cup of Curling.

A funeral for a fallen Peel Regional Police officer, constable James Ochakovsky who was killed in the line of duty following a deadly car crash in Brampton on March 1, 2010, took place at the Hershey Centre on March 9, 2010. Thousands of police officers from various police forces across Canada including Toronto Police, Peel Regional Police, Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police attended the funeral.

For many years now, the arena has also hosted an international highschool robotics competition called FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) held by the non-profit organization called FIRST Robotics Canada.

Hershey Field

The grounds of the Hershey Centre are also home to outdoor field facilities, known as Hershey Field or Hershey Park. The field is currently home to the Sigma FC of League1 Ontario and the North Mississauga Soccer Club's Centre of Excellence training program and League 1 Team.