24-621: St. Louis Arena (known as the Checkerdome from 1977 to 1983) was an indoor arena in St. Louis , Missouri . The country's second-largest indoor entertainment venue when it opened in 1929, it was home to the St. Louis Blues and other sports franchises. The Arena sat across U.S.40 (now I-64 ) from Forest Park 's Aviation Field. The Arena hosted conventions, concerts, political rallies, horse shows, circuses, boxing matches, professional wrestling, Roller Derby competitions, indoor soccer matches,
48-794: A TV analyst), Marvin Barnes ("Bad News), Maurice Lucas and Moses Malone all played for the Spirits during their tenure at the Arena. The team was not included in the ABA–NBA merger in 1976, when the Indiana Pacers , San Antonio Spurs , Denver Nuggets and New York Nets joined the NBA. The Spirits and the Kentucky Colonels were disbanded. Spirits owners Ozzie and Daniel Silna pulled off
72-513: A coup in their dissolution agreement when the ABA–NBA merger was finalized. The Silnas negotiated to receive a portion of TV monies in perpetuity, a deal that netted them over $ 250 million before they were bought out by the NBA in 2014 for a reported $ 500 million. By the time the NHL's St. Louis Blues began playing at the Arena, it had fallen into such poor condition that it had to be heavily renovated for
96-427: A location, often with the specific intent of comparing an idea to a sporting event. Such examples of these would be terms such as "the arena of war", "the arena of love" or "the political arena". 1977%E2%80%9378 Kentucky Wildcats men%27s basketball team The 1977–78 Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team were coached by Joe B. Hall . The team finished the season with a 30–2 record and SEC Championship and won
120-476: Is also the sport of indoor American football (one variant of which is explicitly known as arena football), a variant of the outdoor game that is designed for the usual smaller playing surface of most arenas; variants of other traditionally outdoor sports, including box lacrosse as well as futsal and indoor soccer , also exist. The term "arena" is also used loosely to refer to any event or type of event which either literally or metaphorically takes place in such
144-429: Is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators, and may be covered by a roof. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the lowest point, allowing maximum visibility. Arenas are usually designed to accommodate a multitude of spectators. The word derives from Latin harena , a particularly fine-grained sand that covered the floor of ancient arenas such as
168-558: The 1967–68 season . As a condition of getting the expansion franchise, Blues owner Sid Salomon Jr. purchased the Arena from the Chicago Black Hawks and spent several million dollars to renovate the building and add some 3,000 seats, bringing the total to almost 15,000. It never stopped being renovated from that day on, and held almost 20,000 seats by the time the Blues left the Arena in 1994. Many fans considered its sight lines
192-594: The 1973 and 1978 NCAA men's basketball Final Four, the NCAA Men's Midwest Regional finals in 1982, 1984, and 1993, the 1992–94 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament, the 1968, 1969, and 1970 Stanley Cup Finals , and the 1975 NCAA Frozen Four ice hockey finals. It was demolished in 1999. At the conclusion of the 1904 World's Fair , St. Louis ended its long tradition of annually hosting large indoor agriculture and horse shows. The city tore down its huge St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall and built
216-578: The 1978 NCAA Championship over the Duke Blue Devils , 94–88. Noting the all-or-nothing pressure exhibited on the team by Kentucky fans, Hall remarked before the title game that "This season was without celebration for us." Those who witnessed it call Jack Givens ' 41 point game against Duke in the 1978 NCAA championship game one of the finest performances in the game's history. Givens made 18-of-27 shots in leading Kentucky to its fifth national championship and first in 20 years. This team also had
240-628: The Colosseum in Rome , Italy, to absorb blood. The term arena is sometimes used as a synonym for a very large venue such as Pasadena's Rose Bowl , but such a facility is typically called a stadium . The use of one term over the other has mostly to do with the type of event. Football (be it association , rugby , gridiron , Australian rules , or Gaelic ) is typically played in a stadium, while basketball , volleyball , handball , and ice hockey are typically played in an arena, although many of
264-592: The Red Army team at the Arena in the final match of Russian squad's three-city indoor soccer tour of North America. Attendance for the match was 12,241. In the 1978 NCAA Basketball Final, the Kentucky Wildcats and coach Joe B. Hall defeated Duke 94–88, led by the 41-point effort of Jack Givens . From 1980 to 1993, St. Louis Arena was the site of the Braggin' Rights basketball game played between
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#1732793611249288-500: The St. Louis Coliseum which was aimed at individual events such as boxing matches. In 1928 the National Dairy Show offered the city the opportunity to become the permanent location for its annual two-week meeting of dairymen and their prize animals. With no public funds available, a group of businessmen raised private funding for what was projected as a $ 2 million building. The National Exposition Company in charge of
312-639: The University of Missouri and the University of Illinois . After the 1968 departure of the NBA's Hawks , the Carolina Cougars moved to the city and took the name Spirits of St. Louis . The Spirits played in the Arena for the final two seasons of the American Basketball Association (ABA), 1974–75 and 1975–76. Their announcer on KMOX radio was a young Bob Costas . Young players such as Steve Jones ("Snapper", now
336-434: The Arena and the Blues were purchased by Ralston Purina , which rechristened the building the Checkerdome after the company's checkerboard logo. By 1983, the cereal and pet food corporation had lost interest in the Blues and the Arena, and forfeited the team to the league. The team was nearly moved to Saskatoon , Saskatchewan , before it was purchased by Harry Ornest , a Los Angeles-based businessman, who promptly returned
360-460: The Arena to its original name. The Blues played their final game at the Arena on April 24, 1994, losing game four of the first round to the Dallas Stars 2–1. Phil Housley scored the Blues' final goal in the Arena while Dallas' Mike Modano scored the building's final two goals. After the Blues moved to their new home, the venue now known as Enterprise Center , during the 1994 offseason,
384-403: The appearance of fish scales. The huge structure was completed in 1929, just over a year after construction began. At 476 feet (145 m) long and 276 feet (84 m) wide, it was behind only Madison Square Garden as the largest indoor entertainment space in the country. A 13-story building could have been erected inside of it. The Arena was not well-maintained after the 1940s, and its roof
408-491: The best of any arena in the league, which is remarkable considering that it was not originally built for hockey. It was also known as one of the loudest arenas in the league. The Blues played their first game at the Arena on October 11, 1967, against the Minnesota North Stars , which ended in a 2–2 tie. Bill Masterton scored the building's first goal while Larry Keenan scored the first Blues goal. In 1977,
432-631: The final event at the St. Louis Arena was a concert by Christian artist Carman Licciardello . As a condition for the private financing of the demolition of city-owned Kiel Auditorium and the construction of privately owned Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center ) on the same Downtown site, local business group Civic Progress, Inc. insisted that the Cheltenham -neighborhood would not be allowed to compete with Kiel Center for any events, while
456-525: The insurance burden for the building was left with the City of St. Louis . With no income allowed for the Arena while insurance expenses continued, the building sat vacant while pressure built on the city government to either make it revenue-producing (essentially impossible under the Civic Progress-imposed non-compete clause) or raze it. The Arena remained vacant for nearly five years before it
480-588: The larger arenas hold more spectators than do the stadiums of smaller colleges or high schools. There are exceptions. The home of the Duke University men's and women's basketball teams would qualify as an arena, but the facility is called Cameron Indoor Stadium . Domed stadiums, which, like arenas, are enclosed but have the larger playing surfaces and seating capacities found in stadiums, are generally not referred to as arenas in North America. There
504-536: The project hired Gustel R. Kiewitt as architect and the Boaz-Kiel Construction Company as general contractor. Kiewit's design called for a lamella roof supported by 20 cantilever steel trusses, eliminating the need for view-obscuring internal support pillars. The lamella design consisted of Douglas fir ribs, 3.75 inches (9.5 cm) thick, 17.5 inches (44 cm) wide and 15 feet (4.6 m) long, fitted together diagonally and giving
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#1732793611249528-485: Was damaged by a February 1959 tornado . After repairs, it was re-opened as the home of the Central Hockey League 's St. Louis Braves , a Chicago Black Hawks farm team. The renovations included the removal of the fencing that enforced segregation , dating back to the time of the St. Louis Eagles . On March 19, 1971, the St. Louis Stars hosted the 1971 NASL Professional Hoc-Soc Tournament here, which
552-464: Was demolished in 1999. A business/residential development, The Highlands (named after an amusement park that was once adjacent to the site), now occupies the land that the St. Louis Arena called home, and includes the following: Sports teams that called the Arena home include: Indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre , musical performances , and/or sporting events . It
576-464: Was the first indoor soccer tournament sanctioned by a Division One professional league in U.S. history. In the 1973 NCAA Basketball Final, the UCLA Bruins and legendary coach John Wooden defeated Memphis State 87–66, behind 44 points from Bill Walton who went 21 of 22 from the floor. Over 19,000 were in attendance at the Arena. On February 13, 1974, the St. Louis Stars played host to
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