Beauport Harfangs
Arena Name: Aréna Marcel-Bédard
Capacity: 2,000
Built: 1973
Last Game: 1997
Address: 655 boul. des Chutes, Beauport, QC, G1E 2B6
Ice Surface Size: Regulation
Aréna Marcel-Bédard
What Was the Arena Like?
Just a few miles downriver from the heart of old Québec City lies the suburb of Beauport, a nondescript place with a spectacular view across the bend in the St. Lawrence. Back in 1985, faced with dwindling crowds and interest in the face of competition from the NHL, the original Québec Remparts packed up shop and moved down to Longueuil, leaving the capital region without junior hockey for the first time in recent memory. The league, for obvious reasons, wanted a team back in the capital, but to just re-place a team at the Colisée would have been a futile exercise, and so instead an expansion team was granted in 1990 to Beauport, called the Harfangs (snow owls). The new team needed a place to play, and so Marcel Bédard Arena was drafted into service as a Q rink for the next seven seasons.
Marcel Bédard Arena is an unattractive dark brown brick and concrete rink with little charm or ambience from the outside, located just a stone's throw from the highway on a tiny lot with a few parking spaces. Inside, the building has a tiny lobby and four rows of seats that stretch around the building, meaning a tiny capacity. It's a lot more intimate on the inside, and one can see why it's is nicknamed "La Petite Cabane", or "the tiny shack". There is also no centre scoreclock. The rink compares with St. Mike's Arena in Toronto or any other reasonably well-sized junior B rink across the country.
Beauport served its purpose in allowing the Q to maintain a presence in the capital region during the dark years, but with the Remparts once again thriving and frequently selling out downtown, there's no conceivable way that this tiny little bandbox will ever host major junior hockey again.
Inside Aréna Marcel-Bédard
What's the Arena Used for Today?
The Harfangs drew well enough in the tiny Marcel Bédard Arena, which accomplished the league's goal of maintaining a presence in the capital region. In 1997, with the Nordiques having left town and no real competition in the city save the IHL (which doesn't count anyway), Harfangs ownership decided to resurrect the Remparts name and move back to the city proper.
The arena in Beauport today still hosts youth hockey, and there is no trace that such a small and inadequate arena hosted the Q for more than half of the 1990s.
The arena in Beauport today still hosts youth hockey, and there is no trace that such a small and inadequate arena hosted the Q for more than half of the 1990s.
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Last Revised: December 18, 2019