23-588: Apollo Stadium (officially called the Apollo Entertainment Centre ) was a multi-purpose indoor arena located at 41 Kingston Avenue, Richmond, South Australia , just 5 minutes from the Adelaide city centre . The stadium had an original seating capacity of 4,000 until the early 1980s when the bench seats were replaced by individual plastic seats giving a reduced seating capacity of 3,000 and an overall capacity of just 3,500. Opened in 1969,
46-474: A church for a few years but was eventually sold and demolished, with the site subsequently being redeveloped for housing. Apollo Stadium was Adelaide's major basketball arena from 1969 until 1991, being the home court of National Basketball League teams the West Adelaide Bearcats (1979–84), Glenelg Tigers (1979), West Torrens / Forestville Eagles (1980–81) and Adelaide 36ers , who were
69-518: 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". Mike McKay (basketball) Michael George McKay (born 15 October 1965) is an Australian former professional basketball player. He played most of his career with the Adelaide 36ers of the National Basketball League (NBL), winning
92-491: A sideline television commentator during 36ers games, often described the seating at Apollo as being so close to the action that you could literally get hit with sweat from the players as they ran past. The final NBL game at Apollo was the first game of the 1991 Semi-final series between the 36ers and the defending champion Perth Wildcats . In front of yet another sellout crowd, the Wildcats defeated Adelaide 102-99. Playing for
115-476: 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
138-429: 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
161-689: The Adelaide City Eagles in their first year (1982–91). The first ever NBL game was played at a half full Apollo Stadium on 24 February 1979 when the Glenelg Tigers defeated the City of Sydney Astronauts 68-65. Top scorer for the league's inaugural game was Sydney's David Leslie who went for 25 points on 11/22 shooting. For the Tigers, Rick Hodges led the way with 16 points on 7/14 shooting. The Bearcats and 36ers were almost unbeatable at
184-821: The Australian Boomers in 1989 and went on to represent his country at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. He was also a member of the Boomers who reached the quarter-finals at both the 1990 and 1994 FIBA Basketball World Cup , finishing 7th in 1990 in Argentina and 5th in 1994 in Canada. Starting in the 2012-13 NBL season , Mike McKay is an expert commentator for the NBL's online game streaming subscription service NBL.TV at Adelaide 36ers home games at
207-697: The Australian Boomers , as well as hosting games by various college basketball teams that toured Australia. The stadium also hosted a number of games featuring the Australian Opals . Apollo Stadium was the home of the State League Netball grand final (usually televised locally by Channel 9 ) as well as being host to international and national state netball games until the Powerhouse opened in 1992. Apollo Stadium also hosted other indoor sports such as volleyball and badminton and
230-628: 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
253-507: The NBL's Rookie of the Year award despite already having played in the NBL for two previous seasons. The 36ers would win their first NBL championship in 1986. After compiling a 24–2 record during the regular season, including going 13–0 at Apollo Stadium (the first NBL side to go through a regular season unbeaten at home), the 36ers would reverse the 1985 GF result with a three-game series win over
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#1732797833829276-680: The West Adelaide Bearcats in 1983. Along with fellow Bearcat players Al Green , Peter Ali and veteran guard Ray Wood, the then 19-year-old joined the Adelaide 36ers in 1985 after the Bearcats pulled out of the NBL at the end of 1984. Under the coaching of his former Bearcats coach Ken Cole , McKay helped the 36ers to its first Grand Final appearance where they lost to the Brisbane Bullets . McKay played in all 28 games in 1985, averaging 12.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists. McKay won
299-473: The 1986 Grand Final series). McKay would continue to be a star performer for the 36ers until the end of the 1995 NBL season, playing in losing semi-finals in 1987 ( Perth Wildcats ), 1988 ( Canberra Cannons ), 1989 (Perth) as well as 1991 and 1995 (Perth), as well as the losing 1994 GF Series against the North Melbourne Giants . With two years still left on his contract, McKay was released by
322-584: The 1986 championship with the team. McKay also played in the NBL for the West Adelaide Bearcats (with whom he started his NBL career in 1983), Brisbane Bullets , Canberra Cannons and the Wollongong Hawks . He was a frequent member of the Australia men's national basketball team during the late 1980s and early 1990s, including being part of the national team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Mike McKay started his professional career with
345-660: The 36ers at the end of 1995 and he joined the Brisbane Bullets in 1996 where he would win the NBL's inaugural Best Sixth Man award in his first year away from Adelaide. He played two seasons with the Bullets before moving on to two years with the Canberra Cannons (1998–99). After the 1999–2000 NBL season with the Wollongong Hawks , McKay retired from the NBL having played 448 games and averaging 12.7 points during his career. Mike McKay first won selection for
368-430: The 36ers in that game were Mark Davis , Darryl Pearce , Mark Bradtke , Butch Hays , Brett Wheeler and Mike McKay . For the Wildcats there was James Crawford , Kendall "Tiny" Pinder , Mike Ellis , Ricky Grace and Andrew Vlahov . During the 1970s and 1980s, Apollo also hosted numerous international basketball games with touring teams such as Croatia and the powerful Soviet Union playing local sides as well as
391-661: The Bullets 113-91 in Game 3 in what was coach Ken Cole's last game in charge of the club. As of the 2016-17 NBL season , no team has equalled Adelaide's 1986 NBL record of being undefeated at home during the regular season. The stadium hosted the 1981 NBL Grand Final when the Launceston Casino City defeated the Nunawading Spectres as well as the 1982 NBL All-Star Game with the East team defeating
414-514: The Bullets. Game 2 of the series saw Adelaide's only defeat of the season at home with the Bullets pulling off an upset 104–83 win. McKay suffered a serious knee injury during the year and was forced to miss about 10 weeks. Early on, McKay earned the nickname "Mad Max" for sometimes not being able to control his emotions on the basketball court (he was labelled a 'hot head' by some commentators, most notably by Brisbane based television commentator Gary Fleet after his clashes with Leroy Loggins during
437-500: The West 153-148 in a high scoring game. Despite its low spectator capacity Apollo Stadium was known as one of the loudest venues in the NBL during its use from 1979 until 1991. With a capacity crowd of 3,000 sitting very close to the action it was an intimidating task for opposition teams with 36ers players often referring to Apollo as the teams "6th Man". Award winning Adelaide based basketball journalist Boti Nagy, who also often doubled as
460-588: 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
483-518: The stadium was named for the Apollo Moon landing of the same year. During the mid-late 1980s, an increasing number of international music acts began to bypass Adelaide as Apollo was seen as too small. This led to the building of the new 12,000 capacity Adelaide Entertainment Centre which opened in 1991, and in 1992 the venue was superseded as the home of basketball and netball by the new 8,000 seat Clipsal Powerhouse . The building then became
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#1732797833829506-502: The venue was generally seen as the indoor home of South Australian teams in national competitions or tournaments. Apollo Stadium was a significant music venue in South Australia. Among the rock bands and musicians who performed at the stadium were: 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
529-695: The venue, with the Bearcats winning the 1982 NBL championship during their time in the league (the Grand Final win over the Geelong Supercats was played in Newcastle ). During the 1986 regular season , the 36ers were undefeated at home going 13-0. The only game they lost at Apollo all season was Game 2 of the Grand Final series when they suffered a shock 104-83 loss to the Brisbane Bullets . The 36ers won their first NBL Championship at Apollo two days after their Game 2 loss when they accounted for
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