The OHL Arena Guide - Mountain Arena, Hamilton Fincups

Mountain Arena has a bit of a chequered history as an OHL building. Opened in 1966, it is unmistakeably a close cousin of the former Oshawa Civic Auditiorium, with virtually the same interior layout, the same low ceiling, and only a slightly lower capacity. The rink was never intended as a permanent home to an OHL team, but it has been pressed into service for two full seasons, 1977-78 and 1984-85.

The arena is located on the top of Hamilton Mountain in a residential area, a stone's throw away from the big box strip lining Upper James St. When I first visited in 2004, the arena was a standalone, but the arena has been twinned since then and the main entrance is now located behind the building.

You enter the building on the ground level and enter into the narrow lower concourse which is lined with collages from Hamilton hockey history. When I first visited the walls were all Hamilton Red Wings red, but with the major tenant being the GOHL's Hamilton Kilty B's, there is now black and gold paint everywhere. The rink has the same four-corner design as seen in mid-60's contemporaries in London, Brantford, Oshawa and Sherbrooke, with stairs leading up to a top concourse above the seats.

The arena is a small one, with about 2,500 seats, currently all blue plastic. A squat centre scoreboard hangs over the middle, and banners from Hamilton minor hockey line the walls. There is also a display for the arena's current namesake, Hamilton native Dave Andreychuk.

The arena's OHL history begins with the demolition of the Hamilton Forum. The Hamilton Fincups' ownership attempted to sign a lease as a stopgap up on the Mountain, but the local neighbourhood association apparently didn't want an OHL team nearby, so they moved to St. Catharines for that season. The next year, a lease was finally worked out, and the Fincups took up residence on the mountain for 1977-78. Apparently the team drew reasonably well, but team ownership became frustrated with the fact that Hamilton City Council still had no plan to replace the Forum, and left at the end of that year to become the Brantford Alexanders.

In 1984, the same team was back - Copps Coliseum was under construction by that point, and the now-named Hamilton Steelhawks played their first season on the Mountain before moving downtown in 1985. From my research, it also appears that the ill-fated Dukes of Hamilton played occasional games here their final season in 1990-91 when it became obvious that they wouldn't draw more than the Mountain's capacity at Copps.

I finally went to a GOHL game at Mountain Arena in February 2026, and my takeaway was that the rink would likely rock for a big game, but with only 130 people present for a Kilty B's game, it certainly wasn't an epic experience. But if I ever had the chance to go to a GOHL final game there, I'm sure it would be a terrific time. Just as Brantford's Civic Centre is a smaller clone of the London Gardens, Mountain Arena is a smaller clone of the Oshawa Civic Auditorium, and I am certain that old-time Generals fans would enjoy the trip if no one else.