Early drywall work underway at Scotia Place as new event centre remains on schedule

The new home of the Calgary Flames is coming along as scheduled, city officials say, with the project aiming for a 2027 open.

Drywall is being installed and early finishing work is already underway on the event level of Scotia Place.

The focus of most of the work on Calgary’s new event centre now is to get the building fully enclosed before the winter as the project races toward its fall 2027 opening target.

“We’ve got to try and get it watertight as quickly as we can, and we should be there by August (or) September,” said Bob Hunter, with the city’s project committee, in a Tuesday update at city hall.

“The amount of activity in the last year and a half is going to be very, very significant.”

The project is said to be on time and on budget, Hunter added. It’s set to be open in time for the start of the 2027-28 NHL season.

“Things are progressing really well,” said Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly.

“Council had a tour about a month ago, and it’s looking really good.”

Structural work is progressing, the concrete seating bowl is taking shape and work on the 6th Street S.E. underpass is also underway.

While staying within the $926-million budget for the building itself is always considered a risk due to the ever-changing supply and tariff situation, Hunter said most of the contracts have been secured.

“Somewhat comforting is the fact that we’ve only got five per cent of the budget still to contract. And so, it’s a lot of the late stuff, as you can appreciate—furniture, all the stuff that goes into the building near the end. So, it’s nice to know that 95 per cent of (the contract signing) is behind us,” he said.