Breadcrumb Trail Links
Don Cherry Gardens on Rose Cherry Place would be the perfect tribute to Grapes – a longtime resident of the city
Get the latest from Joe Warmington straight to your inbox Sign Up
Published May 27, 2026 • Last updated 47 minutes ago • 4 minute read
You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.
Don Cherry all decked out in Canada’s red and white on Canada Day (150) on Saturday, July 1, 2017. Photo by Craig Robertson /Postmedia NetworkArticle content
See more Toronto Sun on Google — save as a Preferred Source
Advertisement 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.
THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors
Article content
Sometimes you need to put a Cherry on top of the cake to make things taste better.
Article content
Article content
And now, ironically, for a less controversial move on what to call the arena in Mississauga.
Just call it Don Cherry Gardens!
It doesn’t get any more Mississauga than that. And with an election soon happening for that city’s mayor and council, people who like this idea can get to work on it. Of course, this opening for what the arena will be named, made the news in a very public tussle between Paramount Foods founder and CEO Mohamad Fakih and the City of Mississauga and Mayor Carolyn Parrish.
Fakih took to social media saying after ten years Paramount had decided to move on from its naming rights agreement calling it the Paramount Fine Foods Centre while the Mayor say Paramount owes the city $1.6 million and they will go to court to get it.
It’s a hot mess.
Don Cherry at Iceland in Mississauga, October 2, 2008. Photo by Dave Abel /Toronto SunGlory days for Mississauga’s arena
As of June 1, the 5,400-seat arena that hosts the Raptors 905 G-League basketball club will be temporarily called the safe but boring Mississauga Sports and Entertainment Centre while they find a new sponsor.
Advertisement 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
When it opened in 1998, it was called The Hershey Centre and those were some glory days. The main team was the Ontario Hockey League’s Mississauga Ice Dogs, which were partially owned by the star of Hockey Night in Canada’s Coach’s Corner and former coach of the Boston Bruins, Donald S. Cherry.
Your Midday Sun
Thanks for signing up!
Article content
Advertisement 4
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Grapes always teased his good friend, former iconic mayor Hazel McCallion, saying they built the arena for Cherry’s team but what she really wanted was the women’s hockey world championships – something the great ice barn did host in the year 2000 with a dramatic Team Canada gold medal win.
The Tragically Hip played there and so did comic legend Russell Peters. The place has hosted Toronto Thunderbirds indoor soccer, the Harlem Globetrotters and top Skate Canada figure skating championships, as well as McCallion’s funeral service in 2023 with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford in attendance.
The City of Mississauga is renaming the Paramount Fine Foods Centre after it claimed the chain failed to make payments. Photo by Peter J. Thompson /Postmedia Network
It was an amazing love in at the beginning. They even named the roadway going into the barn Rose Cherry Place – in tribute to Don’s late great and much-loved wife Rose who died of cancer in 1997.
It was a perfect arrangement. But business is not perfect. The Ice Dogs didn’t stay there, nor did Hershey.
Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion shows off the ice rink at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga. Now called the Paramount Fine Foods Centre, the venue will host her state funeral Feb. 14, 2023. Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Toronto Sun
The next big iteration was seeing the Mississauga Steelheads arrive and the Paramount naming rights – neither of which worked.
Advertisement 5
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
The Steelheads moved to Brampton in 2024 and thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and arguably Fakih’s weighing into the Israel/Gaza war, what should have been a perfect marriage has become a nasty divorce.
For more than a decade, Paramount Fine Foods was proud to support one of Mississauga’s most important community spaces.
The Paramount Fine Foods Centre has been home to countless memories, from youth sports and community events to concerts, celebrations, and moments that brought… pic.twitter.com/yI2hUs1Dh7
— Mohamad Fakih, C.M. (@mohamadfakih8) May 25, 2026
Advertisement 6
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Don Cherry Gardens would be a beauty
But with trouble sometimes there comes opportunity and Mississauga has that now.
Centrally located with free parking, that arena is a beauty, just like Grapes is. And there is potential for it to flourish if the right decisions are made.
Mississauga should forget about a big corporate sponsorship and admit that it is a community arena, with four sheets of ice for minor hockey and basketball and soccer, and treat it like that. They can have sponsors and try to get big attractions, but the focus should be on local success.
Don Cherry and Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion.n/a
It doesn’t get any more local than Don Cherry – arguably Mississauga’s most famous resident who unabashedly promotes the great city every chance he gets.
He moved to the mighty Miss after his coaching career came to an end 46 years ago and he loves it.
Read More
Mississauga drops Paramount Fine Foods from venue name over payments issue
WARMINGTON: Don Cherry’s son says Sportsnet wanted apology and more before firing
WARMINGTON: Don Cherry reminds ‘you people’ who boss of Canada is still at Christmas
Advertisement 7
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
At 92, Grapes does not get out to local rinks like he once did, but Mississauga and minor hockey and youth sports remain close to his heart.
With the Don Cherry Gardens, why not give the OHL another try? Or perhaps a PWHL expansion team?
And with today’s social media capacity, encourage some industrious young people to broadcast the games to help spur on local interest like you see in places like Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor and London.
The funeral for former Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion held at the Paramount Centre. (Pictured) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bows his head at the memorial on Tuesday February 14, 2023. Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network
It would also be a cool idea of put the Mississauga Hall of Fame inside of the building and also add a cool hotel complex with a wave pool and waterslides on the property to make it perfect for hockey, soccer and basketball tournaments, conventions, concerts and big events that could make the place busy year round. Think outside the box.
Ironically, Cherry’s 2019 controversy over the “you people” should wear a poppy on Remembrance Day, was a torqued up situation in a hypersensitive time of political correctness and most people now see it was a mistake to treat Grapes that way.
Advertisement 8
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Don Cherry all decked out in red and white on Canada Day on Saturday July 1, 2017. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun)
It was an extreme overreaction and witch hunt. But things are different now and many want to make this right. This is a chance to do just that.
There are efforts, even from critics, to see Cherry’s name be added to the Hockey Hall of Fame’s broadcast division. And following him receiving the Order of Ontario, there are efforts to get him invested into the Order of Canada to join Fakih who is already a member.
Regardless, there would be no bigger legacy tribute to Cherry than to name this rink after him. Don Cherry Gardens on Rose Cherry Place is an appropriate and perfect fit.
Who says life in Mississauga can’t be a bowl of cherries once again?
Article content
Share this article in your social network