The stadium also was the open-air venue (as an ice rink) for the National Hockey League's 2011 Heritage Classic match between the Calgary Flames and the Montreal Canadiens.

From 1945 to 1960, the Calgary Stampeders and other athletic organizations operated out of Mewata Park Stadium, a 10,000-person facility, later expanded to 16,700,[4] in the Downtown west end.

On January 1, 1960, the team General Manager Jim Finks, play-by-play commentator Eric Bishop and Calgary Herald columnist Gorde Hunter approached the McMahon brothers to finance the stadium, which they agreed to.

[7][10] The McMahon brothers donated $300,000 to the university and the citizens of Calgary, and guaranteed the balance of money for the stadium's construction.

[7] The stadium opened on August 15, 1960, with a Canadian Football League game seeing the Stampeders fall to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 38–23.

[9] Throughout the stadium's history temporary bleachers were employed for major events, including a record 60,000 at the opening and closing ceremonies for the 1988 Winter Olympics, and 50,000 for the 81st Grey Cup.

More recent renovations in 2001 and 2005, in which luxury boxes replaced bleacher seating in the higher rows of the grandstands, reduced the capacity to 37,317 in 2001, and to its current 35,650 in 2005.

These seats accounted for a stadium attendance record 46,020 spectators at the 97th Grey Cup, between the Montreal Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders on November 29, 2009.

It was the site of the 2011 NHL Heritage Classic regular season game between the Calgary Flames and Montreal Canadiens on February 20, 2011.