World Sports Arenas

Blog about great sports arenas and stadiums

Archive for December, 2007

Quicken Loans Arena - Cleveland, USA

Quicken Loans ArenaQuicken Loans Arena (aka “The Q”) is a multipurpose arena in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Until August 2005, it was known as Gund Arena, named for Gordon Gund, a former owner of the Cavaliers, after he paid for the naming rights. It is home to the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA, the Lake Erie Monsters of the AHL, and the Cleveland Gladiators of the AFL. It was previously home of the now-defunct Cleveland Lumberjacks of the IHL, the Cleveland Barons of the AHL, and the Cleveland Rockers of the WNBA. The arena was opened with a concert by Billy Joel on October 17, 1994; the Cavaliers played the first game in the arena a few weeks later. It is owned by the Gateway Economic Development Corporation, which leases it to the Cavaliers.

On May 16, 2006, the then-inactive Utah Grizzlies franchise of the AHL announced that it would move to the Quicken Loans Arena. On January 25, 2007, the team name was announced as the Lake Erie Monsters.[1] It will begin play in the 2007-2008 season.

On October 16, 2007, the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League announced that they would move to Quicken Loans Arena.

The arena replaced the Coliseum at Richfield, which was located south of Cleveland near Akron. Part of the Gateway Project to revitalize downtown Cleveland, the arena and neighboring Jacobs Field were paid for with a sin tax on alcohol and tobacco. In the summer of 2005, Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert (owner of Quicken Loans) renovated the arena, installing new seats, state of the art scoreboards, video systems, sound systems, arena graphics, signage, security, locker rooms, and suite upgrades, all of which werein place for the start of the Cavaliers 2005-2006 season.

Staples Center - Loas Angeles, USA

Staples CenterStaples Center is a multipurpose sports arena in Downtown Los Angeles, California adjacent to the LA Live development. It is located next to the Los Angeles Convention Center complex. Staples Center was financed privately at a cost of $375 million and is named for the Staples office-supply company, one of the center’s corporate sponsors that paid for naming rights.

There are a total of 12 locker and dressing rooms, including team-specific locker rooms for the Lakers, Clippers, and Kings. There are a series of meeting rooms in the arena, including the Bank of America conference area on the suite level and additional rooms in the attached, three-story office tower. There are extensive hospitality facilities, including a restaurant and club space on the suite level at one end of the arena, overlooking the arena floor.

Spectator amenities include a full-service ticket window, 1,200 television monitors throughout the facility, 23 refreshment stands spread among the arena’s five concourses, as well as the Fox Sports SkyBox restaurant on the main plaza, the Royal Room on main concourse, the Arena Club and Grand Reserve Club above the premier seating level, and the outdoor City View Grille, offering a look at the downtown skyline. There is also a TeamLA store on the plaza level, accessible from outside the arena, and offers a complete array of apparel and merchandise for the arena’s resident teams and top events. Event presentation is augmented by a $2 million specialty lighting package, a $1.5 million Bose sound system, a Mitsubishi eight-sided, center-court scoreboard and videoboard, as well as a fascia board along the upper seating level, provided by Daktronics.

Staples Center seats up to 20,000 for concerts, 18,997 for basketball, and 18,118 for hockey and arena football. Two-thirds of the arena’s seating, including 2,500 club seats, are in the lower bowl, and there are 160 luxury suites, including 15 event suites, on three levels between the lower and upper bowls. The arena’s attendance record is held by WWE WrestleMania 21 with a crowd of 20,193 set on April 3, 2005.