Courtesy of Central City Arena. They also closed in June! June 23, 2018 at 11pm!
Photos courtesy of Central City Arena. Turned to roller hockey.
As of 2021, they are building this building to replace the closed rink. An Ultra-Modern building. Those are computer rendering of the new 50 stories/Storeys building for a college campus and class rooms. I believe the classrooms are on the first 5 stories. The rest above it are dormitory. Pretty nice for students! I doubt it. They are too busy with books and pencils and paper and computers. I cannot say what.. but I can tell you this. It is not prank and is not suicide proof since those two are the most common problems facing students and school administration staff.
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Stardust Roller Rink 10240 City Parkway, Whalley, Surrey, Vancouver, BC
Central City Arena 10240 City Parkway, Whalley, Surrey, Vancouver, BC
Central City Arena 10240 City Parkway, Whalley, Surrey, Vancouver, BC
Stardust Roller Rink was on 10240 City Parkway, in Whalley, Surrey, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was one of most well-known skating rink in Canada and even in North America. It was a Prototypical roller rink which the Burnside Family operated and managed the rink. Bonnie Burnside was the manager toward the end of the rink.
This Stardust was third rink as part of a chain in the area. Mel Ross and Bud Allen started this rink in 1964.
Stardust was a prototypical rink that many operators and managers and owners came up to check them out because Stardust were the first to install a large ten foot screen for music videos. In fact they could not receive MTV therein Canada so they had someone in State of Washington taped on VCR MTV videos and shows up to Stardust and when they received the video tapes. They played the VHS showing the videos of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper (how can I put the heart on here?), Prince, and Michael Jackson on their large white screen on the wall by the rink. Many rinks followed suit with this throughout the 80s and 90s. Not as much though today because of MTV is more of television show network than a music channel. You know now that cable do have music channel that plays more like a jukebox? Try those, operators! They are on like channel 150 or up depending on your cable provider locally. Oh you can even use your laptop or desktop connecting to streaming music videos. Stardust was truly ahead of their time.
Anyway, that is how this rink had to update after Disco died and survived well throughout the 80s. It was so packed that it took 45 minutes from the front door to the back! I know how you feel, Bonnie. I waited long time in my first day at Empire Skates that it was so packed that they opened their emergency side door just for skaters to come in faster. It was packed. Took about 30 minutes as I recalled. yes, for getting in original line till buying a ticket. That is not including walking all over. The following Friday I went, they did not open that door because it was making skaters go to 6 other rinks in my town to skate. But I remembered.
They were there for decades before its closure in 2005 due to the declining number of skaters and patrons at the rink. They had as many as 600 skaters a night to skate at the Stardust rink. Toward the end, they had 50 to 60 skaters a night at the rink. That is less than 10 percent of all skaters at the rink.
They a lot going on at Stardust including charity roll-a-thons, Battle of the Band events and of course, special Olympic programs.
The bird dance that Stardust rink started the "trend". We call that Chicken Dance. They were brought to the rinks as well. Stardust was the first. It may be awesome for kids but I never really liked chicken dances when I was at singles dances in my adulthood after I slowly faded from roller rinks. It was shown unpopular among adults at singles dances. It is the electric slide and line dances that made popular in late 90s and 2000s, not Chicken or Bird dance. The Chicken Dances were not popular as my old friend who hosted the singles dances realized it is not popular and disliked among other singles. They did request for electric slide or one of those more popular line dances.
In 1980s, Many functions occurred at the rink, including regular skating, school bookings, family nights and of course, roller hockey, ran nearly 24 hours a day. Although the rink has been closed for 12 years since 2005, it reopened for one last skate party "reunion" before the building falls to make way for a 53-storey tower.
Anyway, When they closed in Saturday June 25, 2005, Liquidation World store was in pace for the next five years, The place later became Central City Arena. It was just for Roller Hockey, not open to public skating but toward the end they did. That closed too.
The surviving original owner, Ross, sold the property in 2016 for 8.7 Million CAD (in 2016 USD: 6,844,342 or 7 Million USD in 2021) and presented Burnside and another longtime employee Noel Hardy with a share of the proceeds, 11 years after it closed. Now, that is quite a bit of money for a skating rink in 2016! Making this the most expensive ever known for its size. The reason is it is prime area for real estate that there are now all skyscrapers practically in any direction of the rink. The old photo when they were operational, you can see in the background were trees! Now it is a major city. I believe the rails above the streets are monorails or trains.. one or the other. I would have to agree with Bonnie, the former manager and operator who said the rink should go because of the changing taste in the area. It became towers... a major city. Rinks used to be stable in downtown cities but not anymore from 1960s on. Usually a suburb kind of business.
Because of the popularity and the beloved members of the family of Stardust, they rebooted in 2013 as a rolling business.. that is, they go school to school where the schools would host a skating session for their schools. Even from other schools and earn money for school needs. It is nonprofit.
The Interior.
I do not have much of interior and seen some old Black-and-White news photos and it was not any good. And I see the hockey rink arena in more recent times which really updated completely away from the Stardust appearance. They actually had NHL appearance with the walls and Plexiglas shields. It had a few rows of seatings.
The Exterior.
Since Red and White are Starburst company colors, it was mostly Red with White colors as you can see in the early days of the rink. It had that 1960s style tall diamonds for décor outside with a big sign with Las Vegas style Starbust logo.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 18,000 SF. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1964 to Saturday June 25, 2005, 11pm, 2010 to Saturday June 23, 2018 11PM.
Stardust Roller Rink: 1964 to Saturday June 25, 2005 at 11PM, Reopened one more time for one night- Saturday night June 23, 2018 at 8pm, closed forever on Saturday June 23, 2018 at 11pm. (shortest run of a rink-- ONE night!)
Central City Arena: 2010 to Saturday June 23, 2018.
West Coast Wheel Kids (Rebooted Stardust): 2013 to N/A.
Reason for Closure:
Stardust Roller Rink: Declining number of skaters.
Central City Arena: Too limited to just Roller Hockey. No growth.
West Coast Wheel Kids (Rebooted Stardust): N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: CBC - Reunion party; Central City Arena - defunct website archives; Vancouver Sun - Last skate party;
Roller Skating BC - rebooted Stardust; Langley Advanced Times - Closing of the rink;
BC Local News - Final skating; Vancouver Sun - 50 story building proposed replacing the rink;
Pinterest.ca - 1; Pinterest.ca - 2; Four Square - Stardust; Surrey Now-Leader - Return of skating just for one nigh;
Tom Zillich -Twitter video; Surrey Now-Leader - video of chicken dance and others;
Date of issue: 09 February 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
This Stardust was third rink as part of a chain in the area. Mel Ross and Bud Allen started this rink in 1964.
Stardust was a prototypical rink that many operators and managers and owners came up to check them out because Stardust were the first to install a large ten foot screen for music videos. In fact they could not receive MTV therein Canada so they had someone in State of Washington taped on VCR MTV videos and shows up to Stardust and when they received the video tapes. They played the VHS showing the videos of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper (how can I put the heart on here?), Prince, and Michael Jackson on their large white screen on the wall by the rink. Many rinks followed suit with this throughout the 80s and 90s. Not as much though today because of MTV is more of television show network than a music channel. You know now that cable do have music channel that plays more like a jukebox? Try those, operators! They are on like channel 150 or up depending on your cable provider locally. Oh you can even use your laptop or desktop connecting to streaming music videos. Stardust was truly ahead of their time.
Anyway, that is how this rink had to update after Disco died and survived well throughout the 80s. It was so packed that it took 45 minutes from the front door to the back! I know how you feel, Bonnie. I waited long time in my first day at Empire Skates that it was so packed that they opened their emergency side door just for skaters to come in faster. It was packed. Took about 30 minutes as I recalled. yes, for getting in original line till buying a ticket. That is not including walking all over. The following Friday I went, they did not open that door because it was making skaters go to 6 other rinks in my town to skate. But I remembered.
They were there for decades before its closure in 2005 due to the declining number of skaters and patrons at the rink. They had as many as 600 skaters a night to skate at the Stardust rink. Toward the end, they had 50 to 60 skaters a night at the rink. That is less than 10 percent of all skaters at the rink.
They a lot going on at Stardust including charity roll-a-thons, Battle of the Band events and of course, special Olympic programs.
The bird dance that Stardust rink started the "trend". We call that Chicken Dance. They were brought to the rinks as well. Stardust was the first. It may be awesome for kids but I never really liked chicken dances when I was at singles dances in my adulthood after I slowly faded from roller rinks. It was shown unpopular among adults at singles dances. It is the electric slide and line dances that made popular in late 90s and 2000s, not Chicken or Bird dance. The Chicken Dances were not popular as my old friend who hosted the singles dances realized it is not popular and disliked among other singles. They did request for electric slide or one of those more popular line dances.
In 1980s, Many functions occurred at the rink, including regular skating, school bookings, family nights and of course, roller hockey, ran nearly 24 hours a day. Although the rink has been closed for 12 years since 2005, it reopened for one last skate party "reunion" before the building falls to make way for a 53-storey tower.
Anyway, When they closed in Saturday June 25, 2005, Liquidation World store was in pace for the next five years, The place later became Central City Arena. It was just for Roller Hockey, not open to public skating but toward the end they did. That closed too.
The surviving original owner, Ross, sold the property in 2016 for 8.7 Million CAD (in 2016 USD: 6,844,342 or 7 Million USD in 2021) and presented Burnside and another longtime employee Noel Hardy with a share of the proceeds, 11 years after it closed. Now, that is quite a bit of money for a skating rink in 2016! Making this the most expensive ever known for its size. The reason is it is prime area for real estate that there are now all skyscrapers practically in any direction of the rink. The old photo when they were operational, you can see in the background were trees! Now it is a major city. I believe the rails above the streets are monorails or trains.. one or the other. I would have to agree with Bonnie, the former manager and operator who said the rink should go because of the changing taste in the area. It became towers... a major city. Rinks used to be stable in downtown cities but not anymore from 1960s on. Usually a suburb kind of business.
Because of the popularity and the beloved members of the family of Stardust, they rebooted in 2013 as a rolling business.. that is, they go school to school where the schools would host a skating session for their schools. Even from other schools and earn money for school needs. It is nonprofit.
The Interior.
I do not have much of interior and seen some old Black-and-White news photos and it was not any good. And I see the hockey rink arena in more recent times which really updated completely away from the Stardust appearance. They actually had NHL appearance with the walls and Plexiglas shields. It had a few rows of seatings.
The Exterior.
Since Red and White are Starburst company colors, it was mostly Red with White colors as you can see in the early days of the rink. It had that 1960s style tall diamonds for décor outside with a big sign with Las Vegas style Starbust logo.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Maple. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: 18,000 SF. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Truss Steel-Walled Warehouse - like Building.
Roof: Gable.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: (Overall)-- 1964 to Saturday June 25, 2005, 11pm, 2010 to Saturday June 23, 2018 11PM.
Stardust Roller Rink: 1964 to Saturday June 25, 2005 at 11PM, Reopened one more time for one night- Saturday night June 23, 2018 at 8pm, closed forever on Saturday June 23, 2018 at 11pm. (shortest run of a rink-- ONE night!)
Central City Arena: 2010 to Saturday June 23, 2018.
West Coast Wheel Kids (Rebooted Stardust): 2013 to N/A.
Reason for Closure:
Stardust Roller Rink: Declining number of skaters.
Central City Arena: Too limited to just Roller Hockey. No growth.
West Coast Wheel Kids (Rebooted Stardust): N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: CBC - Reunion party; Central City Arena - defunct website archives; Vancouver Sun - Last skate party;
Roller Skating BC - rebooted Stardust; Langley Advanced Times - Closing of the rink;
BC Local News - Final skating; Vancouver Sun - 50 story building proposed replacing the rink;
Pinterest.ca - 1; Pinterest.ca - 2; Four Square - Stardust; Surrey Now-Leader - Return of skating just for one nigh;
Tom Zillich -Twitter video; Surrey Now-Leader - video of chicken dance and others;
Date of issue: 09 February 2021.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.