The Scotiabank Saddledome is not only one of Calgary's most recognizable buildings but also one of the world's most distinctive sports venues.
Thousands of arenas have hosted hockey games, concerts, and championship celebrations. Few have also welcomed rodeos, Olympic events, political figures, and generations of families beneath a roof shaped like a cowboy saddle.
For 43 years, Calgarians have simply called it the ’Dome.
No one has written the definitive biography of the Saddledome, chronicling memorable game-winning goals, concerts by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performers, and Team Canada practices. However, when someone eventually does, they could spend months combing through archives and interviewing former athletes, entertainers, and executives.
Or they could spend an afternoon with Rick Tulsie.
Tulsie holds no executive title. He is not a vice-president, historian, or curator. Yet, after nearly two decades of leading tours through the building, he has become something far more meaningful: the face and unofficial ambassador of the Saddledome.
“I don’t have a title,” Tulsie said. “I’m not a VP or whatever, but VPs want to tour with me.”
Executives regularly contact him when a scout, a player’s family member, an agent, or a special guest wants to see the arena.
“I’m talking to executives, and I still think, ‘Little old me?’” he said. “I haven’t lost that. I think that’s part of my charm. I’m still a kid who feels like it’s Christmas every day when I’m in here.”
Long before he began guiding visitors through the Saddledome, Tulsie entered the building as a teenager with his future wife, Myla. The couple were 17-year-old church kids when they received tickets to see Christian singer Amy Grant on Nov. 8, 1985. Their seats were near the top of the arena, among the final rows of tickets that had not been sold and were donated to local churches.
“My wife and I sat right there and watched Amy Grant sing,” he said, pointing toward the upper level during a recent tour. “We’ve now been married for more than 30 years, and those two seats are still there. On an anniversary, we need to come here and drink champagne in those seats.”
At the time, Tulsie could not have imagined that his face would one day appear on the Saddledome’s website. He grew up in a Caribbean immigrant family in Calgary’s Inglewood neighborhood. His father sacrificed everything to give Tulsie and his brother a better life, an experience that still shapes how he views his career.
“My family came here like many immigrants, with no money,” he said. “My dad gave everything up so my brother and I could have a better life. I wish my dad were still alive so he could see my face on the city’s NHL rink. I pinch myself. I say that humbly because, growing up as a poor kid, you appreciate what you have forever.”
The Torch Is PassedTulsie began working at the Saddledome as an usher around the time of the Flames’ 2004 Stanley Cup run. During his second year, his career took an unexpected turn.
At the time, Saddledome tours were informal, with no dedicated department, elaborate schedule, or extensive behind-the-scenes route. A handful of senior employees occasionally showed visitors around the building during the summer. One of those employees was Al McClone.
“Al was the senior gentleman who did the tours here,” Tulsie said. “It’s a bit of a sad story. He was diagnosed with cancer and never told anybody.”
McClone approached the young usher and told him he was retiring from tours because he wanted to travel. He then asked Tulsie to take over.
“When you’re a tour guide, it’s your passion,” Tulsie said. “When you pass that torch to somebody, it’s like passing the captaincy of a team. It has to be somebody respected and meaningful, and I didn’t think of myself that way back then.”
Tulsie did not learn the real reason behind McClone’s retirement until after his death.
“What he didn’t tell me was that he had cancer,” he said. “I didn’t find out until he passed away. It broke my heart. He handed the tour torch to me, and it changed my career.”
The tours Tulsie inherited lasted approximately 45 minutes. They were free and generally limited to the concourse and a quick look inside the arena. Dressing rooms and other operational areas were not included. Tulsie began promoting and expanding them, driven by his love for the building and the people who passed through it.
“I took it on because I’m passionate about it,” he said. “They grew and grew.”
Over time, the tours evolved into one of the building’s most sought-after experiences. CSEC created a more formal operation, with approximately 10 tour assistants available to help Tulsie manage scheduling and accompany groups on their walks. During the Saddledome’s farewell season, newly announced dates often fill within minutes.
“They went from almost nothing to something people now look at as, ‘Do a tour with Rick at the Saddledome before it’s gone,’” he said. “I’ll give myself credit for that. I never intended for it to reach this level.”
The attraction is no longer simply the opportunity to explore the Saddledome. For many visitors, the tour guide defines the experience. That became clear when CSEC considered training additional guides to conduct the tours.
“I remember our executives saying, ‘It’s got to be with Rick,’” Tulsie said. “I was humbled. I was blushing. I told them, ‘Whatever you come up with, I’ll oblige.’”
One Final Look Inside the 'DomeThe Scotiabank Saddledome enters its 43rd and final NHL season before the Calgary Flames move to Scotia Place in 2027. (Photo: Imagn Images)As the Saddledome enters its final season before the Calgary Flames, Calgary Wranglers, Calgary Hitmen, and Calgary Roughnecks move to Scotia Place, Tulsie and CSEC are offering fans one last chance to explore the building.
Historically, many tour visitors traveled from outside Calgary. During the farewell season, however, Tulsie has noticed more local residents purchasing tickets to see areas they may have walked past for decades without fully appreciating.
The Hockey News joined one of the final offseason tours, days before the Saddledome’s ice installation began on Aug. 5. The tour started at the West Entrance, where a plaque commemorates the building’s official opening on Oct. 15, 1983.
Tulsie explained that CSEC operates the arena under an agreement with the City of Calgary. Once operations end, the company will clean the building, shut off the lights, and return control of the facility to the city.
One of the most frequent questions concerns what will happen to the seats, signs, and other pieces of Saddledome history. Tulsie recalled a previous meeting between executives and season-ticket holders in which they discussed the possibility of selling memorabilia. No final decision has been announced, but many fans hope pieces of the building will become available as keepsakes rather than disappear during demolition.
From the entrance, the tour moved through concourses where the C of Red has gathered for four decades. On that Friday afternoon, the arena was almost completely silent. The most noticeable sound came from dehumidifiers cooling and preparing the building for the upcoming ice installation.
Before continuing, Tulsie asked everyone to remain quiet for 30 seconds.
He encouraged the group to focus on whatever held the most meaning: the empty seats, the championship banners, the arena floor, or the curved roof above.
For half a minute, no one spoke.
It was an opportunity to absorb the reality that one of Canada's most historic sports venues was nearing the end of its life.
Stories in Every HallwayTulsie has accumulated enough stories to fill several tours, but he still makes room for the building’s most important and memorable ones each time.
He reminds guests that Canadian Olympic hockey teams dressed and trained inside the building before winning gold medals on the international stage. In the visitors’ dressing room, he talks about players such as Marc-André Fleury, Jarome Iginla, and Connor McDavid walking through the same hallways and getting ready for practice ahead of international tournaments.
He also points out that the Montreal Canadiens celebrated their 1986 Stanley Cup championship in the room where visitors can now sit in the same stalls used by Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Martin Brodeur.
Upstairs, the conversation shifts to the Saddledome’s unique engineering. Tulsie describes the building’s famous saddle-shaped roof, the cables embedded in its structure, and the sightlines that allow spectators in the final row to see the arena floor.
The venue has hosted many of the world’s most recognizable performers, including The Rolling Stones, Guns N’ Roses, KISS, and Taylor Swift. As concert productions became larger and heavier, however, the Saddledome’s roof limitations prevented it from accommodating some modern stadium-sized shows.
Still, the Saddledome has remained one of the continent’s busiest event venues.
Along with hockey and lacrosse, it has hosted professional wrestling, comedy shows, speaking events, rodeos, and countless concerts. Most notably, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama have spoken inside the arena. Meanwhile, the WWE has transformed the floor into a wrestling venue where Hall of Famer and Calgary native Bret "The Hitman" Hart wrestled before friends and family. Once these shows are over, crews clean the stands and convert the floor to whatever event is next on the schedule.
Tulsie’s background is in events, and his knowledge stretches well beyond hockey.
“There are people on the tours who know much more about hockey than I ever will,” he said. “I’m an events guy. I know that I helped Rihanna go from Stage A to Stage B. That’s my joy, interacting with the artists.”
Through it all, his love for the building turns technical details into living stories. A beam or cable is not simply part of the roof, and a hallway is not merely a route between rooms. Every corner gives him another opportunity to describe who stood there, what happened, and why it mattered.
Friends Around the WorldDespite the history, Tulsie’s favourite part of the tour has little to do with the building itself.
“Meeting the people, honestly,” he said.
Visitors have arrived from Japan, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and countless other countries. Tulsie has stayed connected with many through social media, sometimes years after their tours.
“I have friends worldwide who tell me, ‘Rick, come visit. You can stay at our house,’” he said. “After spending an hour and a half or two hours with somebody, you almost become friends.”
One Belgian family recently contacted him after seeing his posts about the Saddledome’s final tours. Their daughter, Ashley, had been 13 when Tulsie showed them the building a decade earlier.
“They sent me pictures and said, ‘Rick, we had such a great time with you 10 years ago,’” he said. “Their daughter is now a nurse. She’s married and has children of her own. She would have stood right here in this corner.”
Those relationships have become part of the Saddledome’s legacy.
“That’s the connection,” he said. “It’s the people.”
The Saddledome Comes Back to LifeFew moments tested that connection more than the 2013 Calgary flood.
Water filled the Saddledome’s lower levels, damaging offices, equipment, dressing rooms and irreplaceable memorabilia. The building required an intense recovery effort before it could reopen. For approximately 69 days, Tulsie watched crews rebuild the arena piece by piece.
“I watched the progression from dirty, damaged sections to the building coming back to life,” he said. “It was almost like watching a time-lapse, except it happened over 69 days.”
The boards and glass eventually reappeared. Workers removed sections of the lower bowl and took them off-site to disinfect them. University students, contractors, and specialized cleaning companies worked inside the building as the community pushed toward reopening.
“The entire lower bowl had to be disinfected,” Tulsie said. “I watched the building return to life in time for the first concert, which was the Eagles, and the first preseason hockey game against Edmonton. It was beautiful and heartwarming. It went from ugly to, ‘I can’t believe we lived through that.’”
The recovery was not without complications. During the Eagles concert, an entire section of newly installed seats collapsed because it hadn't been properly anchored.
“Those were some of the hiccups behind the scenes,” he said.
Like so many of Tulsie’s stories, it captures the reality of running an arena. Fans see the finished product. Behind the scenes, thousands of details must come together, sometimes with little room for error.
Above the IceOne of the most anticipated — and feared — parts of the tour is the Saddledome catwalk.
The elevated walkway stretches above the seating bowl, connecting the arena to media booths for broadcasters, team executives, and league personnel.
During this tour, visitors walked through the television media booth, located adjacent to the Flames general manager’s room and the NHL replay booth. Although those two rooms remained off-limits, the vantage point offered a perspective normally reserved for working media and team officials.
Tulsie had no hesitation when he first walked onto the catwalk.
“I loved it,” he said. “I’m a heights guy.”
He occasionally eats lunch or drinks coffee above the arena floor, surrounded by decades of history.
“So many legends have used these catwalks: media members, players, general managers and owners,” he said. “Members of the media would have stood there going back 43 years, watching players I may know very little about.”
During the 1988 Winter Olympics, journalists walked those same paths while covering some of the most memorable international hockey games ever played in Calgary.
Scotia Place will not recreate the catwalk. Will he miss it?
“One hundred percent,” Tulsie said.
He insisted on its inclusion in the current tour.
“When we started charging for tours, I said, ‘We need to bring people onto the catwalk,’” he said. “Nobody questioned it.”
That trust reflects his standing within the organization. Tulsie does not operate from a restrictive list of places he cannot go. Instead, the company relies on him to determine what can be done safely.
“The company completely trusts me,” he said.
The Heart of the SaddledomeAfter visiting the concourses, seating bowl, clubs and media booths, the tour descended into the basement, where the Saddledome’s daily operations unfold.
Beneath the Telus Club entrance are the staff café and media room, where the Flames have conducted countless postgame press conferences. During the tour, the media tables were gone, leaving only the podium and familiar sponsorship backdrop. Tulsie explained that the room had also been converted into the Flames’ draft headquarters, where the organization announced its latest selections at the 2026 NHL Draft.
For fans who have never received a media credential, the room provides a glimpse at where beat writers gather before and after games, waiting for players and coaches to address the night’s events.
Just down the hallway is the Flames’ dressing room, the only significant area excluded from the tour.
“Flames dressing room, because everybody wants to see that,” Tulsie said, describing where he wishes he could take visitors. “There are offices in there. They’re so guarded. They’re so busy.”
The Flames' dressing room remains off-limits during Saddledome tours, although visitors are invited to stand outside the door and imagine players making their way to the ice. (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)Visitors are instead encouraged to stand with their backs against the iconic dressing room door and look through the tunnel toward the bench. Tulsie asks them to imagine their favorite Flames player leaving the dressing room, walking down the tunnel, and stepping onto the ice.
Tour guests can then sit on the same bench used by Mikael Backlund and previously occupied by Flames legends such as Johnny Gaudreau and Al MacInnis.
The basement tour continued through the Zamboni entrance, where Tulsie explained that larger production trucks reverse into the garage and unload equipment for concerts and special events. He pointed to places where performers such as Gene Simmons and Bruce Springsteen once stood while preparing to take the stage.
For most people, it was a loading area. For Tulsie, it was another chapter in the building's long history.
Memories That Cannot Be MovedWhen asked which event stood above the rest, Tulsie chose the 2012 World Junior Championship.
He arrived at approximately seven in the morning and sometimes remained until 11 at night, working through three-game days. Employees cleaned sections between games, often alongside directors, vice-presidents, and other senior officials.
“We were all one team working here,” he said.
The tournament also changed how he viewed hockey culture.
“I learned that different countries watch hockey differently,” he said. “Swiss fans bring vuvuzelas and large bells. Czech fans chant like they’re at a soccer game. I never knew that was a thing. I watched it and thought, ‘That is so cool.’”
Yet when asked what he would miss most about the Saddledome, Tulsie did not choose an Olympic event, a Stanley Cup game, or a sold-out concert.
“The memories,” he said.
His first date with his wife. The employees he watched grow into careers. The families who returned years later with a new generation.
“I’ve met children here when they were three years old and watched them grow up,” he said. “I’ve met families where the parents later passed away, and now the children return with kids of their own. There are police officers, doctors and nurses who were once ushers, security guards, or employees who worked alongside me in this building.”
Those memories will not disappear when the lights are turned off.
Neither will Tulsie.
He expects to lead tours at Scotia Place, although the idea of starting over makes him nervous.
“I have to learn a building I know nothing about,” he said. “I grew up in this building. I attended games here before starting as an usher, so I had all those experiences behind me before I began conducting tours. At the new building, it will be the reverse. They’ll probably want tours that first summer, before we’ve even had the chance to create memories there.”
The Saddledome gives Tulsie more than four decades of material. He can draw from the experiences of former employees, athletes, reporters, and fans. He can take something mentioned during one tour and incorporate it into the next.
“I could talk for hours about what has happened here because of its legacy,” he said. “You learn the legacy from reading online and from other people.”
Scotia Place will not have that history at first. It will be a new building waiting for its first unforgettable moment.
Tulsie will have to tell a different kind of story — not one based on what happened decades ago, but one about what may happen next.
“I will be conducting tours at the new building,” he said, “but I’m very nervous about it.”
He should not be.
The Saddledome’s shape, banners, catwalks and concrete roof made it iconic. Its athletes, performers and historic events made it important.
But people such as Tulsie made it feel alive.
For information on upcoming Saddledome tours, visit the venue’s official tour page.
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