Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena
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| Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena | |
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| Spokane Arena | |
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| Location | 720 W. Mallon Avenue Spokane, Washington 99201 |
| Broke ground | March 5, 1993 |
| Opened | September, 1995 |
| Owner | Spokane Public Facilities District (SPFD) |
| Operator | Spokane Public Facilities District (SPFD) |
| Surface | Multi-surface |
| Construction cost | $44.8 million |
| Architect | ALSC Architects/Ellerbe Becket Architects |
| Main contractors | Garco Construction |
| Tenants | Spokane Chiefs (WHL) (1995–present) Spokane Shock (af2) (2006–present) |
| Capacity | End Stage Concert: 12,638 Basketball: 12,210 |
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena (popularly known as Spokane Arena) a multi-purpose arena located in Spokane, Washington, USA. The building is home to the Spokane Chiefs hockey team of the WHL, and the Spokane Shock arena football team of the af2.
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[edit] Facility
[edit] Construction
With an aging Spokane Coliseum, along with a need for a larger facility more than twice the coliseum's capacity, the Spokane City Council and Board of Spokane County Commissioners formed the Spokane Public Facilities District (SPFD) to acquire, construct, own and operate sports and entertainment facilities with contiguous parking facilities. In 1990, the SPFD board members unanimously agreed on the following recommendations made by an economic feasibility/market study. The recommendations were:
- To build an arena opposed to a domed stadium
- An arena that could seat 12,000 to 14,000 with expansion capabilities
- To build the new arena on city-owned land located adjacent to the old coliseum with on-site parking for 2,000 automobiles
In the fall of that year, two ballot measures were put out to voters, and passed:
- One, to publicly finance the construction of the arena through a property tax bond issue worth US$38 million
- Two, a measure to validate the SPFD. Validation was important, because it would allow the district to implement a 2% hotel tax to further fund construction
In the fall of 1991, another funding measure was put out to voters and was passed. It involved a 0.1% raise in the sales tax. The passage of all three measures completed the US$44.8 million financining needed to build the arena.
The Spokane Arena broke ground on March 5, 1993, and opened in September 1995.
[edit] Building facts
The Spokane Arena has a capacity for:
- 12,638 for end-stage concerts
- 12,494 for center-stage shows
- 12,210 for basketball
- 10,700 for ice hockey
- 10,471 for arena football
- 6,951 for half-house shows
The arena has a state-of-the-art audio and video system. It consists of a 15-foot x 20-foot Viacom Sports 12 mm LED display, which is capable of being used as two separate units. The video board has exceptional color reproduction and the best off-angle viewing available for any LED format. It can even be moved forward approximately 100 feet and down to approximately 20 feet off the arena floor. On all four corners of the arena bowl are PC-based, color, message center panels capable of displaying text messages, animations, logos and statistics. Powered by Crown Amplifiers, the audio system is driven by Community RS880 speakers in the Arena bowl, Altec Lansing satellite speakers for the upper seating areas, and Bose speakers serve the concourse, dressing rooms, and backstage hallways.
Large public areas are one of the greater features of the Spokane Arena. The arena floor is 32,000 square-feet, and the 14-foot high concourse is a spacious 35,000 square-feet. 16 luxury suites containing a total of 146 seats. In addition, there are six meeting rooms located at the Spokane Arena, totalling 10,050 square-feet of meeting space.
On the Events Level, there are five truck docks with 8-foot x 10-foot loading doors, one 8-foot x 10-foot drive-in door, and one 20-foot x 24-foot drive-in loading door, allowing large shows to load and unload eight trucks simultaneously. Trucks can load and unload unobstructed, directly into the marshalling area at the arena floor's west end. Backstage are three star dressing rooms, two promoter offices (located in the marshalling area), and seven team dressing rooms, as well as a dressing room for officials.
[edit] Future
Incorporated into its original design was an area designated for future expansion of the arena. Expansion of the upper bowl would raise the seating capacity of the upper bowl to about 14,000. There are currently no plans to expand the Spokane Arena because there is no current need to do so. Expansion would likely occur only if the city of Spokane was to land a professional sports team or major event.
[edit] Events
[edit] Sports
[edit] Basketball
Spokane Arena, in addition to its duties as being the host of Chiefs and Shock games, also serves as a secondary home for the men's basketball program of Gonzaga University for at least one big matchup per year. Historically, the Bulldogs' annual game with local rival Eastern Washington University was played here, but the rivalry has gone dormant due to the rise of the Zags' program to major status in the early 2000s. Today, the visiting team at Spokane Arena is generally another national power, such as Memphis in 2007.
It also hosted the Washington Class B state high school basketball tournament annually until 2006. The tournament came back to the arena in 2007, but as the Class 2B tournament. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association had split the B classification into 1B and 2B. The Yakima SunDome in Yakima, Washington hosts the 1B tournament.
Notably, this was the reason why the West Coast Conference tournament had never been in Spokane before 2006; the Class B and WCC tournaments clash every year, and Gonzaga's arena at that time was too small to host the WCC tournament. In 2004, Gonzaga opened a new basketball arena, the McCarthey Athletic Center, which enabled it to enter the WCC tournament rotation.
The arena has also hosted several NCAA Division I basketball tournament first- amd second-round games for both men and women. In 2008, it was a women's regional site.
[edit] Football
The Spokane Shock, of the af2, play their home games at the arena. Expansion of the horseshoe style upper level would help tremendously in any event of Spokane being a candidate city for any professional sport (i.e. the Arena Football League).
[edit] Ice hockey
The Spokane Chiefs, of the WHL, also play their home games at the arena.
[edit] Other sports
In January 2007, the Spokane Arena was put in the national spotlight once again. It was one of two facilities to host the 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the other being the Group Health Exhibit Hall at the Spokane Convention Center several blocks away. The arena, as well as the city received many rave reviews and also shattered the previous attendance record for the event, previously held by Los Angeles, California, by over 30,000 attendees. On May 5, 2008, it was announced that the City of Spokane would host the 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships and that the Spokane Arena would be the sole venue for the event.
[edit] Concerts at Star Theater
The Star Theater is a 5,900-seat theater within Spokane Arena, used for theater concerts, Broadway and family shows, and other events. Artists such as Cher, The Eagles, Elton John, Destiny's Child, Creed, the Dixie Chicks, Beyonce, Dave Matthews Band, and Garth Brooks have performed concerts at the facility.
[edit] Other events
Numerous other activities have taken place at the Spokane Arena including circuses, large conferences, monster truck shows, and much more.
[edit] Notable events hosted
- 1997 NCAA Volleyball Final Four
- 1998 Memorial Cup
- 1998 WWF Monday Night Raw
- 2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
- 2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Spokane Coliseum |
Home of the Spokane Chiefs 1995 – present |
Succeeded by Current |
| Preceded by None |
Home of the Spokane Shock 2006 – present |
Succeeded by Current |
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