The barrel vault arena was originally built in 1949, seating 10,034, to replace a building on the same site that had burned down a year earlier. Built by architects Rinfret and Bouchard with designs drawn up by Robert Blatter and F. Caron, the arena was a mix of International Style exterior and Art Deco interior.[6] It was known as "The House that Béliveau Built", as it was often filled to capacity in its early years to watch Jean Béliveau star for the Quebec Aces before he moved up to the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens. Two decades later, sellout crowds came to see Guy Lafleur as a member of the Quebec Remparts, before he too would join the Canadiens.
Le Colisée underwent major renovations in 1980. The old entrance was taken down and replaced with a massive glass facade, and the seating capacity was increased to 15,750 to meet NHL standards of that era after the Nordiques made the jump from the WHA to the NHL. PepsiCo bought the naming rights on November 18, 1999, and its final capacity was 15,176. Coincidentally, the former Quebec Nordiques, now known as the Colorado Avalanche, currently play at what was formerly known as Pepsi Center (now Ball Arena) in Denver.
Quebec City has entertained several proposals in recent years to return NHL ice hockey to the city; prior to the completion of Centre Vidéotron, most of these proposals envisioned using the Colisée as a temporary home while the new arena was built next to the existing facility. On October 10, 2009, Quebec City newspapers such as Le Soleil reported that negotiations were held between the city and the NHL concerning the possibility and pertinence of relocating or creating an NHL franchise into the city.
Former Nordiques owner and Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut originally said that there were no plans to demolish the Colisée Pepsi even if a new arena was built. Aubut mentioned a prospective future Winter Olympics bid among other justifications for maintaining the existing arena.[12] As part of the agreement constructing the new arena, an additional $7 million was set aside for renovating the Colisée, should the city have landed a potential National Hockey League expansion franchise before the new arena was completed in 2015.[13]
Videotron Centre opened on September 8, 2015. The Colisée's final event was a Metallica concert on September 14, 2015 for the Lords of Summer Tour; two days later, the band would also play the first concert at Videotron Centre. The Colisée was then closed to the public, with minimal operations and maintenance since.
In September 2019, the Colisée's neon sign was removed pending an expected demolition.[14] ExpoCité announced plans to sell 4,000 of the arena's wooden seats to the public on the weekend of October 19 and 20, 2019, while the remaining 11,000 plastic seats would be given to municipalities, schools and other institutions.[15] The city planned to start demolition by summer 2020 and finish by December 18, 2020.[16] It was announced in 2021 that demolition would not proceed, as the building had been leased to be used as storage space. The lease runs until September 2023.[17] In 2024, Quebec City mayor Bruno Marchand stated that he supports demolishing the Colisée.[18]