The Bridgestone Arena (originally Nashville Arena and previous Gaylord Entertainment Center and Sommet Center ) is a multipurpose place downtown Nashville, Tennessee, completed in 1996, and is home to the Nashville Predator of the National Hockey League.
Video Bridgestone Arena
Ownership
Designed by Populous (formerly HOK Sport) along with Nashville-based architectural firm/tech, Hart Freeland Roberts, INC., Designed at an angle on the corner of Broadway and 5th Avenue in Nashville with a physical tribute to the historic Ryman Auditorium. , the original home of the Grand Ole Opry.
Bridgestone Arena is owned by the Sports Authority of Nashville and Davidson County and is operated by Powers Management Company, a subsidiary of the National Hockey League Nashville Predators franchise, which has been its principal tenant since 1998.
Maps Bridgestone Arena
Events
The Predator organized the NHL Entry Draft here in 2003; it's also the location for the 2016 NHL All-Star Game.
In 1997, it was the place of the Figure Skating Championship of the United States, and in 2004 hosted the US National Gymnastics Championships. It was the home of the Nashville Kats Arena Football League franchise from 1997 to 2001, and hosted the team's revival from 2005 to 2007, when Kats folded.
The Arena has hosted college basketball events, including men's tournaments (2001, 2006, 2010) and women from the Southeast Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference. Nashville will serve as the premier venue for the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament nine times between 2015 and 2025 (2015-2017, 2019-2021, and 2023-2025) after the SEC signed a long-term agreement with the Nashville Sports Council in 2013. It hosts the Final Four Women's NCAA 2014 and will host women's tournaments in 2018, 2022, and 2026.
In the odd years, this arena is regularly one of eight sites to host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Basketball Tournament for the first ten years of its existence, though it's taken off the rotation for several years, partly due to the octagonal scoreboard which was obsolete in the mid-1990s that hung on the floor of the arena. Was replaced in summer 2007 by a new $ 5 million scoreboard and digital control board. The NCAA tournament returns to Nashville in 2012.
Since 2002, the arena has hosted Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series events annually (except in 2005 and 2006) through 2010. The event moved to Arena in 2002 after previously occupying the Municipal Auditorium from 1994 to 2001; during the first year of organizing this event, the Built Ford Tough Series is known as the Bud Light Cup.
The venue also hosts concerts and religious gatherings. Early 2006, the Country Music Association Awards were held in the arena, after the awards ceremony was moved from the Grand Ole Opry House with a one-year stoppage in New York City at Madison Square Garden in 2005.
Because of the 2012 NHL Lockdown, Predators can not host games until January 19, 2013. Instead, the arena hosts a pre-season Southern Professional Hockey League game between Tennessee's only other Tennessee Hockey Pro's franchise, Knoxville Ice Bears, and its cross. Huntsville Havoc's border rivals on Oct. 20.
Seating capacity
Bridgestone Arena has a seating capacity of 17,113 for ice hockey, 19,395 for basketball, 10,000 for half house concerts, 18,500 for concert stages and 20,000 for center-stage concerts, depending on the configuration used. It also hosts several professional wrestling events and boxing cards since its opening.
This seating configuration is famous for its oddly shaped southern end, which has two large rounded roof support columns, no middle level seating, and only one level of suite, which brings the upper level seat closer to the floor.
The Arena can be converted to 5,145 Music City Theater seats, used for Broadway and theater concert shows and families, by placing a stage on the north end of the arena floor and hanging backstage curtains and another to hide the top deck. The Arena also has 43,000 square feet (4,000 m) of space on the trade show board. Bon Jovi rock band broke the record of presence in the arena in February 2017.
Construction of the arena
During the construction of the arena there was a big time loss accident October 5, 1995 when the temporary column collapsed. Lead ironworker connector Daniel Lane Foreman suffered a crushed pelvis and was hospitalized for 10 days at Vanderbilt University Hospital. Ironworker Raymond Vance Foreman received minor injuries and was treated and released.
Important event
In addition to hosting Predator Nashville, Bridgestone Arena has seen many other famous artists and events:
- CMA Awards (every year from 2006-present)
- CMT Music Awards (every year from 2000-2005; 2009-2016)
- 2003 NHL Login Note June 21, 2003
- The Hockey League National All-Star League match of January 31, 2016
- 2017 Stanley Game Final Game 3, 4, and 6; June 2017
Awards and nominations
Bridgestone Arena was nominated for the Pollstar Industry Awards 2007 Awards from the Awards of the Year. This is the fourth time the place has been nominated. The first was in 1998 as the Nashville Arena, and later in 1999 and 2000 as the Gaylord Entertainment Center. In 2017 it was named the hardest arena in sport.
Name rights
The original name of the arena when it opened in 1996 was the Nashville Arena.
In 1999, the arena was renamed Gaylord Entertainment Center after 20 years, $ 80 million contract naming rights were signed between Predator and Gaylord Entertainment Company based in Nashville, which at the time was a minority owner of the team.
In February 2005, it was announced that the Predator and Gaylord (who had previously sold their shares in the team) had reached an agreement to end further involvement between them, and that Gaylord's name would remain in the building only until new buyers could be found for naming rights. As a result, many media in Nashville quickly re-named the facility with its original name. With the start of the 2006 season, the Predator started referring to the arena with his real name as well. Thus, the team replaced the "Gaylord Entertainment Center" wordmark on the central ice circle with the original "Nashville Predators" wordmark of its inaugural season. The name "Gaylord Entertainment Center", however, is still displayed on the building's exterior sign at the time.
The facility was officially renamed the Nashville Arena again, and all the Gaylord marks were removed from the exterior of the building on March 16, 2007.
On May 18, 2007, Sommet Group, a collection of companies based in Franklin, Tennessee whose services include human resource administration, payroll processing, software development, computer repair, insurance and risk management bought naming rights to the arena, and it became known as a Sommet Center. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company had previously been a corporate title sponsor for Predators during the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The agreement had lasted less than two years when the Predators sued the Sommet Group on November 25, 2009 for breach of contract, accusing the latter of having failed to make many payments under a naming rights treaty. As part of the lawsuit, the Predator declared the intention to seek a new title sponsor for the arena. The headquarters of the Sommet Group were then invaded by the FBI and IRS on suspicion of fraudulent activity, and the company subsequently filed for bankruptcy and liquidated. Sommet's founder, Brian Whitfield, was eventually convicted of fraud, including using some fake funds to secure the naming rights of the arena. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Unlike the separated Gaylord, the Sommet Group's name is stripped of all signs inside and outside the arena as soon as the team is legally allowed to do so. The building will soon be using the Nashville Arena moniker until February 23, 2010, when it was announced that the Predator has signed a naming rights agreement with Bridgestone Americas, Inc. headquartered in North America, a subsidiary of Bridgestone tire producers in North America. Arena became known as the Bridgestone Arena.
Remodeling
In the summer of 2007 a number of renovations were made for what was then called the Sommet Center at a cost of several million dollars. Renovations include changes to concession stands and public areas, as well as major changes to infrastructure. The most obvious change is the replacement in August 2007 from the central-dependent scoreboard (at a cost of $ 3.6 million) with a new scoreboard created by ANC Sports. The original analog scoreboard has become obsolete and is no longer supported by the original manufacturer, making parts hard to come by. The new scoreboard is referred to as a "megatron" by the arena and Predator staff. In addition, the TV-media control room was renovated at a cost of $ 2.6 million.
During the summer of 2011, the new NHL-mandated ice and dasherboard systems were built and installed in the arena. In addition, the southern side of the top concourse was redesigned as a "fan zone". The wall that separates the arena and part of the upper concourse has been removed.
In the summer of 2015, the Predator begins to replace all of the arena seating. The project is completed gradually, starting with the bottom bowl.
References
- Cass, Michael (January 11, 2007). "Predators and Metro Has Problems Not Completed". The Tennessean . Nashville . Retrieved January 11, 2007 .
External links
- Official website
- Bridgestone Arena Sitting Chart
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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