WATCH: Rogers Place arena tour from top to bottom

Rogers Place opened to Edmontonians Thursday after years of debate and construction. Global News was given an in-depth tour of the facilities on Wednesday. Scroll down to see photos and video of the various areas, split up into the levels of the arena. 

The project’s completion required thousands of workers, an enormous amount of material and hundreds of millions of dollars. Rogers Place replaces Rexall Place, home to the Edmonton Oilers since 1974. At 819,200 square feet, it’s almost twice as large as Rexall.

READ MORE: Today’s the day! Edmonton’s long-awaited Rogers Place downtown arena opens

Everything is upscale in Rogers Place, punctuated above centre ice by a giant, high-definition scoreboard — the largest in the NHL — that spans blue-line to blue-line.

Between the lower and upper bowls are exclusive rings of executive suites, theatre suites and loge seats. There are 15 escalators and 15 elevators to carry people between floors.

At the far end are a sports bar and an after-hours-type club. Between the blue lines in the lower bowl are wider club seats, with exclusive lounge access. The arena seats over 18,000 people at hockey games and over 20,000 for concerts. Over half of the seats are in the lower bowl.

READ MORE: How does Edmonton’s Rogers Place stack up against other NHL arenas?

Ticket prices are higher than Rexall Place, in some cases double for a similarly located seat. A season ticket in the corner nosebleeds is $2,600. Sitting near the boards near centre ice for the year will cost $9,765. Season seats in the loge area are $15,750.

Mezzanine and Ice Levels

Main concourse level

City of Edmonton officials said they were, at times, skeptical of the grand entrance to the arena. Rick Daviss with the city said they were very worried about the cost of the space but now, he thinks of it as the “signature element” of Rogers Place.

“This part of the facility is not an inexpensive part of the facility,” Daviss said.

“We weren’t confident that there would be additional development to tie into. It was affectionately called the ‘bridge to nowhere’ at times.”

Watch below: Vinesh Pratap takes us on a tour of the grand entrance

Scotiabank Suites, theatre seating

Loge Level

The seats, loading docks and dressing room

Using a steeper pitch and clever design, the City of Edmonton says every single person inside Rogers Place will have a good view of the ice.

“What you’ll find in most arenas is the upper deck – you load from the bottom,” Daviss said. “We provide a full amenity space at the top of the upper concourse.”

The underground, enclosed loading dock has four loading dock doors and a marshalling area. The west side of the building also houses a second loading dock.

“You’re on the street, you look at this building and you have no sense that there’s a massive loading facility in here,” Bob Black, executive VP with the Edmonton Arena Corp. said.

When it comes to the Oilers dressing room, that too is state-of-the-art.

“We spent a lot of time talking to our hockey ops people, of course, they were very deeply involved in the design,” Black explained.

“One of the things that we wanted to achieve was the ability for our team to walk out and step directly on to centre ice.”

Watch below: Vinesh Pratap takes a tour of the upper concourse, loading docks and the dressing room 

Watch below: Rogers Place officially opened on Thursday. Here’s a look at Global News’ ongoing video coverage of the grand opening events

With files from Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press.