19,000 tickets gone in 80 minutes for Rogers Place open house

Almost 20,000 free tickets for an open house at Rogers Place were scooped up in 80 minutes on Monday by those wanting an inside look at the new arena in downtown Edmonton.

The event is slated to be held on Sept. 10 and it took just minutes for thousands of tickets to be claimed after the online reservation system opened at 2 p.m.

"(People) want to see what it's like on the inside, they've seen what it's like on the outside and I'm expecting a lot of people wanting to have a look," said Rick Daviss, executive director of the downtown arena project for the City of Edmonton.

The general contractor for the $480-million building, PCL, is expected to hand over the keys some time this week.

Daviss said he expects the building to be a "finished project" for the opening.

But not all of the amenities surrounding the project will be complete any time soon.

Specifically, visitors will have to walk through a purpose-built "passage" from 103rd Street and 103rd Avenue to access the Winter Garden, now known as Ford Hall. From there, visitors can enter the arena.

"It's kind of strange that you're not entering off 104th Avenue, but because of construction activity most people will be coming off of 103rd Avenue," Daviss said, calling the passage a "workable and safe solution."

The plaza won't open to the public until 2018.

The open house will be for self-guided tours. Among the highlights, visitors will see the largest high-definition scoreboard in the NHL and a massive mosaic by acclaimed Indigenous artist Alex Janvier.

Those visiting must reserve time slots for their tour. There is a four-ticket limit per email address. The open house will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and tours are expected to take about an hour.