Scotiabank Place (Place Banque Scotia in French) is an arena in Ottawa, Ontario and home to the NHL's Ottawa Senators. When it was completed, the arena seated 18,500 people for hockey. The arena is located in the former city of Kanata, which was amalgamated into Ottawa in 2000. Its capacity was expanded to 19,311 during the locked out season of 2004-05.

For several years after the Senators' franchise was granted, the team had trouble securing financing for the construction of an arena. The team received no financial help from the provincial government, including a refusal to pay for a new highway interchange to serve the proposed arena site. Despite the lack of financing, a ground-breaking ceremony was held in June 1992. On August 17, 1993, Bruce Firestone, the original Senators' owner, resigned after missing mortgage and development payments and was replaced by Rod Bryden, a former high tech tycoon. A year later, Bryden managed to borrow enough to pay for the $188 million arena [1]. Unfortunately this debt proved too much for the Senators' organization to handle, and the club declared bankruptcy in 2003. However, on August 26, 2003, billionaire businessman Eugene Melnyk finalized a deal to purchase both the Senators and the arena.

Although widely acknowledged as a well-designed arena, it has been criticized in the years since construction for being difficult to reach. It is located in the far west-end of Ottawa, which puts it at a fair distance from some parts of the National Capital Region, especially from the east-end of Ottawa or from the Outaouais. Difficulties are compounded by frequent traffic congestion at game time. Another problem is the isolation of the arena from many restaurants and bars, which makes it difficult for celebrations to continue naturally after the game as in many other more centrally located arenas.

The arena, originally called "The Palladium", opened on January 15, 1996 with a concert by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams. The first NHL game took place two days later, with the Montreal Canadiens defeating the Senators 3-0. A month later, the Corel Corporation, an Ottawa software company, signed a 20-year deal to purchase the naming rights for the Palladium, thus rebranding it as the "Corel Centre". On January 13, 2006 the arena became known as Scotiabank Place after reaching a new 15 year naming agreement with the bank. [2]

On December 30, 2004 the arena hosted the largest attended crowd ever witnessed in the Ontario Hockey League at 20,081 as the Ottawa 67's were defeated by the Kingston Frontenacs. This came as a result of the arena seating capacity being expanded by 2,000 seats.

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