US Airways Center
(formerly America West Arena
) is a sports and entertainment arena located in Phoenix, Arizona. It opened in 1992, and is the home of the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association, the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association, the Arizona Rattlers of the Arena Football League, and the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL
The arena, which is situated down the street from Chase Field, is named after its sponsor, US Airways, under a naming rights arrangement. After America West's merger with US Airways, it was announced that America West Arena would be renamed to US Airways Center
on November 14, 2005 with the name change taking place in January 2006.
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US AIRWAYS CENTER TICKETS
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Sports teams and events
Basketball, arena football, and ice hockey are all played here, in addition to concerts,
professional wrestling, ice shows, and other events.
The
Phoenix Coyotes of the
NHL once called the US Airways Center home, starting with their move to
Phoenix in
1996, and up until
2003, when they moved to
Jobing.com Arena (formerly Glendale Arena), which was more suited for NHL hockey. It was also the home of the indoor
soccer team Arizona Sandsharks of the
CISL.
Its most common nickname is "The Purple Palace," though during the Rattlers' season it is known as "the Snake Pit."
Capacity for basketball was originally 19,023, but was downsized in recent years to 18,422.
Three of the games of the
1993 NBA Finals between the Suns and the
Chicago Bulls, including game six where
John Paxson hit
basketball's version of
the shot heard around the world
, were played there, as was one of the three
1998 WNBA finals games and two
ArenaBowl games. In
1997, the Rattlers won
ArenaBowl XI at America West Arena. The
NBA All-Star Game was played in the arena in 1995, and the arena has been named as the location for the 2009 NBA All-Star Game.
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In
October 25,
1998,
Celine Dion gave a
Let's Talk About Love Tour concert.
In 2003 the US Airways Center hosted
WWE SummerSlam and
WWE Judgment Day in 2006. It is set to host
WWE Cyber Sunday in 2008. In addition to sports events, many famous singers and musical acts, such as AC/DC,
Tim McGraw,
Van Halen,
Laura Pausini,
Bon Jovi,
Beyoncé Knowles,
Destiny's Child,
Chris Brown,
Puff Daddy,
Janet Jackson,
dc Talk,
Shakira,
Sarah Brightman,
Metallica,
Barbra Streisand,
Vikki Carr,
Amy Grant,
Britney Spears,
REO Speedwagon,
*NSYNC,
The Backstreet Boys,
Green Day,
Blink 182,
Gwen Stefani,
Cher,
Vicente Fernandez,
Maná and others have performed at the arena.
Oscar de la Hoya had one of his first professional
boxing bouts (versus
Narciso Valenzuela) there, and
Michael Carbajal also fought there various times.
History
Construction of this arena began in
1988, as Suns owner
Jerry Colangelo envisioned a need for a new playing facility to replace
Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum which was nicknamed "The Mad House on McDowell" (the Coliseum was located just off a street by the name of McDowell in downtown Phoenix). In
1992, the new arena was officially inaugurated with a 111-105 Suns win over the
Los Angeles Clippers. After the Suns lost the NBA championship series that year, a parade that attracted more than 300,000 Suns fans made its way through downtown and finished at the new arena.
Hockey Problems
When the
Winnipeg Jets announced their intention to move to Phoenix as the
Coyotes for the
1996-97 season, the arena was quickly retrofitted for hockey. There were no initial problems, in part because the seats are built on risers and the rise to the stands is fairly steep, making every seat close to the action.
However, unlike most arenas built since the 1960s, it was not designed with a
hockey rink in mind. The floor was just barely large enough to fit a regulation-size hockey rink. The building's sight lines, particularly in the upper deck, had been designed for the much smaller basketball floor. As a result, several thousand seats had badly obstructed views. For example, about a fourth of the ice (including one of the nets) couldn't be seen from four sections of the lower level and 10 sections of the upper level on the south end. Several fans claimed to have seen areas where the original concrete had been sheared off to create retractable seating for hockey.
The problem was so serious that, by the Coyotes' second season in Phoenix, the team had to curtain off some seats in the areas where the net couldn't be seen, cutting listed capacity from over 18,000 seats to just over 16,000. Even then, the setup was completely inadequate for the Coyotes. A small section of seats in the lower level actually hung
over
the boards, obstructing the view from over 3,000 seats. They also had to sell many obstructed-view tickets at a reduced price. In addition, an unfavorable lease caused financial troubles from which the franchise has never really recovered.
The Coyotes added a second video board in an area where the view was particularly obstructed, and also put up numerous proposals to improve sight lines in order to boost capacity back over the 17,000 mark. However, none of these plans worked, and they moved into an arena of their own,
Jobing.com Arena located in suburban Glendale for the
2003-04 NHL season.
Transportation
The Center will be served by
METRO Rail's Washington at 3rd Street station when service commences on
26 December 2008.
References
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