Granby Bisons
Arena Name: Aréna Leonard Grondin
Capacity: 3,000 (2,346 seated)
Built: 1967
Address: 601 rue Léon Harmel, Granby, QC, J2G 2V1
Last Game: 1997
Ice Surface Size: Regulation
QMJHL Championships: 1, in 1995-96
Memorial Cup Championships: 1, in 1995-96
Aréna Leonard Grondin
What's the Arena Like?
The Leonard Grondin Arena doesn't look even close to being a CHL arena from the outside. Named for a local businessman and located next to a high school in a quiet neighbourhood, the building is covered in aluminum siding and has no architectural presence at all; on the outside it's indistinguishable from hundreds of identical buildings across Canada. On normal days, the front doors are locked, and one enters the building via a side door that opens into a single community sheet of ice with no stands or anything else of the like. Surely this was not the home of the 1996 Memorial Cup champions? However, the feeling changes when you walk through a little alcove and into the main arena.
It doesn't seem possible that an arena that feels as spacious on the inside as Leonard Grondin Arena could be the same as the aluminum barn seen from the outside. It's a clean, well-kept and colourful building on the inside, with a wide main concourse at ice level and a ring of seats raised above the arena floor to the top of the building. The wooden seats are a typical 1960's red, blue, yellow and orange, but all the accents in the rink are a classy green and white. A small scoreboard and press box complete the setup, as does one single banner. There is no sign of the 1996 Memorial Cup championship team here, but there is a retired number for the one legend to have played junior hockey in Granby - Patrick Roy.
These days, the only Bisons one will find in Granby live at the legendary Granby Zoo. But Granby will always have their Memorial Cup, and their arena is, as surprising as it looks from the outside, not too far off of QMJHL standards for the province of Quebec.
Inside Aréna Leonard Grondin
What's the Arena Used for Today?
The arena was built with the name of the Granby Palais des Sports. In a decade and a half in Granby, the Bisons were generally an also-ran in the Q, and were best known outside the South Shore of the St. Lawrence for developing Patrick Roy. That all changed in 1995 though - the team was renamed the Prédateurs and given hideous-even-by-Quebec-standards purple and red uniforms modelled after St. Louis's pinstripe design and an ugly dragon logo. The team went on a tear in 1995-96, culminating their season by winning the province of Quebec's first Memorial Cup since 1971.
However, the small capacity of the Arena Leonard Grondin and even smaller crowds within sent the team packing to Cape Breton in 1997, where they became the Cape Breton Eagles. The arena today is home to community skating as well as the Granby Inouk of the ridiculously-named Quebec Junior A League, the LHJAAAQ.
However, the small capacity of the Arena Leonard Grondin and even smaller crowds within sent the team packing to Cape Breton in 1997, where they became the Cape Breton Eagles. The arena today is home to community skating as well as the Granby Inouk of the ridiculously-named Quebec Junior A League, the LHJAAAQ.
Retired Numbers
30 Patrick Roy
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Last Revised: December 16, 2019