Pepsi Center
(aka The Can
) [1] [2] is an arena located in Denver, Colorado, USA. The building is home to the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Mammoth and Colorado Crush. When not in use by one of Denver's sports teams, the building frequently serves as a concert venue.
The arena is named for its chief corporate sponsor, PepsiCo. The building is properly called "Pepsi Center", not "The Pepsi Center". [3]
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Construction
Pepsi Center was constructed as part of a massive 6-year sporting venue upgrade in Denver along with
Coors Field, home of the
Colorado Rockies, and
Invesco Field, home of the
Denver Broncos. The complex was constructed to be readily accessible. The arena sits on Speer Boulevard, a main thoroughfare in downtown Denver, and is served by a nearby exit off of
Interstate 25. There is also
a light rail station on the western side of the complex.
Ground was broken for the arena on
November 20,
1997, on the site. Its completion in October 1999 was marked by a
Celine Dion concert. Capacity for the building is listed at 19,309 for basketball games, 18,007 for hockey and lacrosse, and 17,417 for arena football games. Also included in the complex are a basketball practice facility used by the Nuggets, and the
Blue Sky Grill
, a restaurant accessible from within and outside the Center itself. The
atrium of the building houses a suspended
sculpture depicting various hockey and basketball athletes in action poses.
Before the construction of Pepsi Center, the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche played in
McNichols Sports Arena, a building that has since been torn down to serve as a parking lot for nearby
Invesco Field.
Activity
Pepsi Center hosted the 2001
NHL All-Star Game, the 2001
Stanley Cup Finals, and the
2005 NBA All-Star Game. From 2004–2006, the center has hosted the
Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournament. The
NCAA Men's
ice hockey Frozen Four West Regional was hosted on
March 24 and
March 25,
2007. The
Centrix Financial Grand Prix of Denver was held in the parking lot from 2002–2006. In 2004,
Denver, Colorado was selected as one of five cities in the
U.S. to host the
Dew Action Sports Tour, a new extreme sports franchise that began in 2005. Titled the
Right Guard Open, the inaugural event was held at Pepsi Center from July 6–10. The Dew Action Sports returned to Denver for its second year in 2006 on July 13–16. During the week of July 2–8, 2007, the arena hosted the International Convention and Contests of the
Barbershop Harmony Society, a men's singing organization. Pepsi center also hosted
WWE Vengeance 2003.
The
NCAA Men's
ice hockey Frozen Four tournament was held at the arena on on
April 10 and
April 12,
2008. Pepsi Center also hosted the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament as a first and second round site. It hosted the tournament in the same fashion in 2004. The center was also used in aerial shot of the 2007 film
Blades of Glory starring Will Ferrell.
[4]
The arena also hosted the
2008 Democratic National Convention, although the party's
presidential nominee,
Senator Barack Obama, made his acceptance speech at the nearby
INVESCO Field at Mile High. To prepare for the convention, Pepsi Center underwent large scale projects including
electrical power increases and the installation of new
transformers by
Xcel Energy (which, as fate would have it, is the namesake of the
Xcel Energy Center in
St. Paul, which hosted the
2008 Republican National Convention the following week) and telecommunications wiring by
Qwest. A backup generator was installed that has the capacity to power the entire city of
Pueblo, CO. Roughly 12 miles of
fiber optic cables were installed for the massive communication needs of the convention.
References
- Pepsi Center in Denver, CO - AOL City Guide
- Denver Nuggets Tickets - Nuggets Basketball Tickets on Sale at Tickco.com
- http://www.pepsicenter.com/AboutUs/AboutKSE/Default.aspx
- Blades of Glory (2007) - Filming locations