The
Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, or
The Aud for short, includes a main
ice rink (the
Dom Cardillo Arena) with a
seating capacity of 7,234 and a total capacity of 7,777, including standing room. It is home to the
Kitchener Rangers of the
Ontario Hockey League and the
KW Titans of the
Basketball Super League. The original arena was built in 1950 and has been expanded three times since then. The Aud hosted the
2008 Memorial Cup from May 16 to May 25, 2008, with 437 additional permanent seats being added. The Aud previously hosted
1962 Memorial Cup,
1975 Memorial Cup and
1984 Memorial Cup games. Other notable
junior ice hockey events include the 1995 and 2003
CHL Top Prospects Game, the 1980, 1985, 1995
Ontario Hockey League All-star games, and the
1986 World Junior Championships. During the 1986 tournament, Canada defeated
West Germany 18-2 at The Aud, setting a record for most goals for, and largest margin of victory by the
Canada national junior hockey team at the tournament. The facility has also hosted major events such as: the
Four Nations Cup,
Homesense Skate Canada International, the
Scott Tournament of Hearts,
World Junior Figure Skating Championships,
WCW Monday Nitro and
World Wrestling Entertainment Its also hosted concerts by notable acts such as:
Kiss in april 1976,
Pearl Jam,
Backstreet Boys,
Bob Dylan,
Bryan Adams,
Elton John,
Genesis,
Hilary Duff,
INXS,
Led Zeppelin,
Michael Bublé and
The Tragically Hip It has also been used for
Toronto Maple Leafs training camps, and
NBA exhibition games.
Seating Approximate capacities: • 7,777 - Hockey • 7,312 - Basketball • 8,462 - End stage concert The Aud features 26 luxury suites and seated full-service restaurant.
History The current Aud replaced an earlier facility, the Queen Street Auditorium, at the corner of Charles St., built for $55,000 in 1904. Use of that building ended after a major fire in 1948. In its early days, the natural ice surface of the old Aud supported hockey, with the first game seeing Berlin trounce Brantford 7-3, in front of an audience of 2,000. Artificial ice was installed in 1927 and this was the home of the
Waterloo Siskins, a team formed in 1937. The
Kraut line also played at this facility. "It was home to me and it was a palace, as far as I was concerned," Milt Schmidt recalled in 2016. By the time of the
Second World War however, when most young men were overseas, so the building was used primarily as a
Big band era dance hall. Another factor in this change was that Silverwood Dairies, which had provided the refrigeration for the ice surface, moved to another location in 1938, ending the availability of inexpensive artificial ice. Afterwards, the city was without a large indoor ice surface until the new Aud was built. As of January 2020, talks are underway by the City of Kitchener to move the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium to a new location as the building nears a time when more renovations are required to the facility. ==Centennial Stadium==