Alltel Arena
Encyclopedia
Verizon Arena is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 in North Little Rock, Arkansas
North Little Rock, Arkansas
the city was 62.55% White, 33.98% Black or African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.18% from other races, and 1.26% from two or more races...

, directly across the Arkansas River
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

 from downtown Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...

. The arena opened in October 1999. Currently, its primary tenant is the Arkansas Diamonds of the Indoor Football League
Indoor Football League
The Indoor Football League began in 1999 as an offshoot of the troubled Professional Indoor Football League. Keary Ecklund, the owner of the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs, left the PIFL after its first, financially-troubled, season to start his own league. Unlike the PIFL, the IFL was an...

.

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
University of Arkansas at Little Rock , is a public research university located in Little Rock, Arkansas, United States, and the second largest university by enrollment in the state of Arkansas....

 Trojans played home games at the arena from the time when the arena opened until the team moved in 2005 to a new arena, the Jack Stephens Center
Jack Stephens Center
Jack Stephens Center is a 5,600-seat multi-purpose arena in Little Rock, Arkansas and was built in 2005. It is home to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Trojans basketball team, and named in honor of billionaire philanthropist Jackson T. Stephens....

, on the school's campus in Little Rock. The Arkansas RiverBlades
Arkansas RiverBlades
The Arkansas RiverBlades was a short-lived minor-league ice hockey team located in North Little Rock, Arkansas.The Arkansas RiverBlades was an expansion franchise that entered the East Coast Hockey League for the 1998–99 season...

, a defunct ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team of the ECHL
ECHL
The ECHL is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Princeton, New Jersey with teams scattered across the United States...

, and the Arkansas RimRockers
Arkansas RimRockers
The Arkansas RimRockers were a NBA Development League team. They participated in minor league basketball based in Little Rock, Arkansas.Logo design: A red, white, and blue ball going through a basketball rim ....

, a defunct minor league basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team of the NBA Development League
NBA Development League
The NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the National Basketball Association's official minor league basketball organization. Known until summer 2005 as the National Basketball Development League , the NBA D-League started with eight teams in the fall of 2001...

, also played at the arena. The arena is also used for other events, including concerts, rodeos and auto racing, professional wrestling, and trade shows and conventions.

History

On August 1, 1995, Pulaski County, Arkansas, voters approved a one-year, one-cent sales tax for the purpose of building a multi-purpose arena, expanding the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, and making renovations to the Main Street bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock. $20 million of the sales tax proceeds went toward the Convention Center expansion, with the remainder used to build the arena.

That money, combined with a $20 million contribution from the State of Arkansas, $17 million from private sources and $7 million from Little Rock-based Alltel
Alltel
Alltel Corporation is a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before an acquisition by Verizon Wireless, it served 34 states. After the merger, Alltel continues to serve six states, mostly in rural areas...

 Corporation paid for the construction of a 377000 square feet (35,024.4 m²) arena, which cost nearly $80 million to build. When the doors opened in 1999, the facility was paid for and there was no public indebtedness.

Two sites in North Little Rock drew interest from county officials for the proposed arena. The first was a 19.5 acres (78,913.8 m²) commercial site west of Interstate 30, which contained a strip mall, a Kroger and an abandoned K-Mart storefront. The second site was an 11.6 acres (46,943.6 m²) plot at the foot of the Broadway Bridge.

The Pulaski County Multipurpose Civic Center Facilities Board selected the larger site for the arena in 1996 and paid $3.7 million for the land, some of which was acquired through eminent domain, a move protested in court by several landowners.
The second site later would be chosen for the new baseball stadium, Dickey-Stephens Park
Dickey-Stephens Park
Dickey-Stephens Park is a stadium in North Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. It is primarily used for baseball and serves as the home for the Arkansas Travelers of the Texas League. The fixed seat capacity of the ballpark is 5,800 people. It opened in 2007 as a replacement for Ray Winder Field...

, constructed for the Arkansas Travelers
Arkansas Travelers
The Arkansas Travelers, also known informally as The Travs, are a Minor League Baseball team based in Little Rock, Arkansas. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Major League club....

. The Class AA minor-league baseball team moved from the then 73-year-old Ray Winder Field
Ray Winder Field
Ray Winder Field is a baseball park in Little Rock, Arkansas. The ballpark was constructed during 1931, as a new home field for the Arkansas Travelers minor league baseball team...

 in Little Rock to a new $28 million home in North Little Rock at the start of the 2007 season.

The arena was the home of the 2003, 2006, and 2009 Southeastern Conference
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...

 Women's Basketball Tournament and the 2000 Sun Belt Conference
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference is a college athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Its football teams participate in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , the higher of two levels of Division I football competition . The Sun Belt has member institutions...

 men’s basketball tournament. The Arena holds the all-time attendance record for an SEC Women's Tournament when 43,642 people attended the event in 2003.

The arena hosted portions of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament in March 2008 and the SEC Gymnastics Championships in 2007.

The arena hosted the Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

 Awana
Awana
AWANA is an international evangelical nonprofit organization founded in 1950, headquartered in Streamwood, Illinois...

 Games in 2006 and WWE No Mercy
No Mercy (2002)
No Mercy was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment that took place on October 20, 2002, at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas. It was the fifth annual WWE No Mercy event and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brand.The event...

 in 2002 and they host WWE Smackdown and Raw events.

The arena is also used for other events: concerts (seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

 is between 15,000 and 18,000 for end-stage concerts; the arena has an 80-by-40-foot portable stage); rodeos and auto racing (seating capacity is 14,000); and trade shows and conventions (there are 28000 square feet (2,601.3 m²) of arena floor space plus 7050 square feet (655 m²) of meeting space and 2580 square feet (240 m²) of pre-function space). As a concert venue, its location prompted Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to play one of its most rarely performed numbers, 1973's "Mary Queen of Arkansas", during a March 2000 show on their Reunion Tour
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour was a lengthy, top-grossing concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place over 1999 and 2000....

.

The arena is owned by the Multi-Purpose Civic Center Facilities Board for Pulaski County. The arena was designed by the Civic Center Design Team (CCDT), Burt Taggart & Associates, Architects/Engineers, The Wilcox Group, Garver & Garver Engineering and Rosser International
Rosser International
Rosser International is an architectural firm formed from the merger of FABRAP and another Atlanta firm, Rosser White Hobbs Davidson McClellan Kelly.-Buildings:* AT&T Midtown Center* Turner Field* Arena at Gwinnett Center* Petersen Events Center...

 of Atlanta.

The arena held the 2004
American Idols LIVE! Tour 2004
American Idols Live! Tour 2004 was a summer concert tour featuring the Top 10 contestants of the third season of American Idol, which aired in 2004. The tour was sponsored by Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. It was the third in the series the American Idols Tour....

, 2007
American Idols LIVE! Tour 2007
American Idols Live! Tour 2007 was a summer concert tour in the United States featuring the top 10 contestants of the sixth season of American Idol, which aired in 2007. It was sponsored by Kellogg's Pop-Tarts...

 and 2009 American Idols LIVE! Tour
American Idols LIVE! Tour 2009
The American Idols LIVE! Tour 2009 was a summer concert tour in the United States and Canada that featured the top 10 contestants of the eighth season of American Idol...

 concerts on August 13, 2004, July 13, 2007 and July 25, 2009, respectively.

Because of the $28.1 billion sale of Alltel
Alltel
Alltel Corporation is a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before an acquisition by Verizon Wireless, it served 34 states. After the merger, Alltel continues to serve six states, mostly in rural areas...

 to Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....

, as of June 30, 2009, the Alltel Arena was renamed Verizon Arena.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK