Centre Henry-Leonard

The Complexe récréatif Henry-Léonard in Baie-Comeau does not have a name that travels. Centre Sportif Alcoa is the title on the arena door, a five-year partnership that began in 2024, while the wider complex keeps the older name. The building opened in 1970 as the Centre récréatif de Baie-Comeau, replacing a structure that had become dilapidated, and it was renamed in 1995 for Henry Léonard, the former mayor who was in office when the original doors opened. The facility is smaller than most of its peers in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), with a capacity of 3,042 spectators. The Baie-Comeau Drakkar have played their home games here since 1997, the first senior or junior major team to call the place home. The main rink is regulation size, 200 feet by 85 feet, and the ice is artificial. The interior lights were replaced after the 2020–2021 season following a failure to meet league standards; no official attendance record exceeds the room's limit. The building has served other purposes as well. A concert by the French singer Julien Clerc was held there on March 30, 1985, and the Tournoi de hockey Molson Jules-Guy, a local adult tournament, has been running for over forty years. The town has not planned to renovate or replace the facility, a decision made public in 2019 when the city stated it could not afford the mandatory upgrades required by the QMJHL to bring the aging arena up to code. The arena sits at 70 Avenue Michel-Émond, in the eastern sector of the city within the Manicouagan Regional County Municipality.