Gray Civic Center
Encyclopedia
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 Albany, Georgia
Albany, Georgia
Albany is a city in and the county seat of Dougherty County, Georgia, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. It is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia metropolitan area and the southwest part of the state. The population was 77,434 at the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the...
.
It is home to the Albany Panthers
Albany Panthers
The Albany Panthers are an indoor football team in the Professional Indoor Football League. Based in Albany, Georgia, their home games are played at the Gray Civic Center....
indoor football team
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
, playing in the Southern Indoor Football League
Southern Indoor Football League
The Southern Indoor Football League was an indoor football league based in the Southern and Eastern United States. The most recent incarnation of the league was a consolidation of an earlier league of the same name that was formed by Thom Hager along with Dan Blum, Robert Winfrey and Dan Ryan in...
.
With the opening of the Albany Mall in 1976, long-established firms closed their stores in downtown Albany, Georgia. Mayor James H. Gray, Sr. led an effort to revitalize the downtown area by constructing a 10,240-seat civic center. The arena was named in honor of Mayor Gray after his sudden death in 1986.
It was designed to also be an arena and a convention center
Convention center
A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
; as a result the arena features 46000 square feet (4,273.5 m²) of exhibit space plus an additional 6000 square feet (557.4 m²) of meeting room space. As a rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
arena it can seat 7,782; for Disney on Ice
Disney on Ice
Disney On Ice is a touring ice show produced by Feld Entertainment under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows feature figure skaters dressed as Disney cartoon characters in performances that each derive their music and plot from elements collected from...
the arena can seat 6,570; as a 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...
arena the Civic Center holds 8,436; for Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
Live the arena seats 9,082; and for boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
and wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
the arena seats 9,013. For concerts the arena seats 5,728 in a half-house configuration, 10,297 end-stage and 10,711 for a center-stage show. Up to 1,932 seats can be accommodated on the arena floor; there are only 905 retractable seats in addition to 7,794 permanent seats.
The arena is a part of the Albany Civic Center Complex, a group of entertainment venues located in downtown Albany, Georgia, that also includes the Albany Municipal Auditorium
Albany Municipal Auditorium
The Albany Municipal Auditorium, located in downtown Albany, Georgia, U.S., was built in 1915 to replace a wooden auditorium on the same site used for chautauqua programs. It was abandoned in 1972 and was restored beginning in 1986 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as...
and the Veterans Park Amphitheater
Veterans Park Amphitheater
Veterans Park Amphitheater is a 2,500-seat amphitheater located in Albany, Georgia. It is part of a sports, entertainment and convention complex that also includes Gray Civic Center. It is used for concerts, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Veterans Day celebrations.-External links:* * * *...
.
The arena hosted part of the 1992 Great American Bash wrestling card and WCW
World Championship Wrestling
World Championship Wrestling, Inc. was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance , named Jim Crockett Promotions until November 1988, when Ted Turner and...
SuperBrawl
SuperBrawl
SuperBrawl was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view in World Championship Wrestling during the month of February from 1991 through 2001. Along with Starrcade, Bash at the Beach, The Great American Bash and Halloween Havoc, SuperBrawl was booked to be one of WCW's flagship pay-per-views....
1994 in its entirety.
The Run-DMC music video for the song, "Mary, Mary
Mary, Mary (song)
"Mary, Mary" is a song written by Michael Nesmith. It was first recorded by The Butterfield Blues Band for their 1966 album, East-West. The Monkees, featuring Nesmith, would later record the song themselves...
", was filmed at the Albany Civic Center in 1988.