Scottrade Center is a 18,724-seat arena located in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It is the home of the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. The arena opened in 1994 and was known as Kiel Center until 2000 and Savvis Center from 2000 to 2006. The current name comes from financial firm Scottrade, based in St. Louis, who purchased naming rights in 2006. While it was anticipated the Arena would be renamed TD Ameritrade Center following their purchase of Scottrade, TD Ameritrade President and CEO, Tim Hockey, stated they are no longer pursuing the name change and will instead sell the naming rights back. There are no name changes planned until 2018.
Besides ice hockey, the arena features a range of programming, including professional wrestling, concerts, ice shows, family shows, and other sporting events. It hosts approximately 175 events per year, drawing nearly 2 million guests annually. For the first quarter 2006, Scottrade Center ranked second among arenas in the United States and fourth worldwide in tickets sold. Industry trade publication Pollstar ranks Scottrade Center among the top ten arenas worldwide in tickets sold to non-team events.
The largest crowd to attend an event at the arena was 22,612, which happened twice during the 2007 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, known as "Arch Madness".
The arena is frequently selected by the NCAA for championship events, and played host to the NCAA Frozen Four Hockey Championships in April 2007, the NCAA Women's Final Four Basketball Championships in 2009, and the NCAA Wrestling Championships in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2015.
The building is operated by SLB Acquisition Holdings LLC, owner of the St. Louis Blues, under its chairman, Tom Stillman.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
History
Kiel Center opened in 1994 to replace Kiel Auditorium, where the Saint Louis University college basketball team had played, which was torn down in December 1992. The Blues had played in the St. Louis Arena prior to moving into Kiel Center in 1994; however, they would not play in the arena until January 1995 due to the lockout that delayed the start of the 1994-95 season. The first professional sports match was played by the St. Louis Ambush, an indoor soccer team. The building is currently known as Scottrade Center, after naming rights were sold in September 2006 to Scottrade. The Kiel name still exists on the adjoining parking structure and the building cornerstone. Signs for the nearby MetroLink stop have been changed to read "Civic Center", since the building has been renamed three times in its short history.
The Opera House portion of the building was not razed when the original Auditorium was but remained closed since 1992, as members of Civic Progress, Inc., who promised to pay for the renovation of the Opera House, reneged on that promise, while opposing all outside efforts to achieve that renovation. In June 2009, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted 25-1 to subsidize the renovation and reopening of the Opera House under the direction of its new owners, Sports Capital Partners (who also own the Blues). The subsidies were funded by municipal bonds and state/federal historic tax credits. On July 12, 2010, it was announced that the name of the opera house would be changed to the Peabody Opera House, named after the company Peabody Energy. On October 1, 2011, the Peabody Opera House opened for the first time since the $79 million renovation.
Blues management decried its former naming-rights deal with tech company SAVVIS, as much of the compensation was in Savvis shares, then riding high. However, when the tech bubble burst, the team was left with nearly worthless shares.
In September 2006, Scottrade founder Rodger O. Riney and chief marketing officer Chris Moloney announced a partnership with the St. Louis Blues hockey club and arena. The new name of the arena, Scottrade Center, was revealed in a joint press conference. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but were described as "long-term and significant," by Moloney. Both Scottrade and the Blues said the agreement was "equitable" to both parties. Most of the signage and other promotions were changed to Scottrade Center prior to the first home game of the Blues on October 12, 2006. The Sports Business Journal in March 2007 described it as "one of the fastest naming rights deals in history."
In Fall 2006, an integrated LED scoring, video and advertising system from Daktronics in Brookings, South Dakota was installed in the arena, along with 1,075 feet (328 m) of 360° ribbon display technology. The centerhung display is made up of 12 different video displays and four 15 feet (4.6 m)-long ribbon displays.
On May 22, 2011, Bon Jovi set an attendance record for the venue with their Bon Jovi Live Tour with 20,648 in attendance.
Scottrade announced on October 24, 2016 that it was being sold to TD Ameritrade for $4 billion. Once the deal is closed, Scottrade Center was to become the TD Ameritrade Center in a naming rights deal set to run until 2021. However, less than a year later, TD Ameritrade announced that it would give back its naming rights upon the closure of the Scottrade acquisition.
Seating capacity
The seating capacity for hockey has gone as follows:
Tenants
It is the home of the St. Louis Blues hockey franchise. A number of other events are scheduled throughout the year, such as concerts, ice shows, circuses and similar large gatherings.
Former tenants of Scottrade Center include the Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball team from Saint Louis University, St. Louis Vipers roller hockey team, St. Louis Ambush and St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer teams, the St. Louis Stampede arena football team, and the River City Rage indoor football team.
Events
Sports
- Every March, starting in 1995, the Scottrade Center has hosted "Arch Madness", the men's basketball conference tournament for the Missouri Valley Conference.
- Hosts the annual "Braggin' Rights" men's college basketball game between the universities of Illinois and Missouri.
- The PBR has hosted a Built Ford Tough Series (formerly Bud Light Cup) event at this venue annually since 1997.
- 1997 Conference USA men's basketball tournament.
- Hosts the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Challenge Cup and Wickenheiser Cup finals for high school hockey teams in St. Louis
- 1998 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Midwest Regional
- Women's Final Four in 2001 and 2009
- Hosted the 2006 State Farm U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January 2006, which was used as the primary means to select the United States Figure Skating team for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
- Scottrade Center hosted the 2007 Frozen Four college ice hockey tournament on April 5 and April 7, 2007.
- 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament 2nd round & Regional Quarterfinals
- NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships host in 2000, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2017
- Hosts yearly NBA preseason games. The most recent game took place on October 24, 2014, between the Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
- 2016 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament 1st round & Regional Quarterfinals
- In 2018, the Scottrade Center hosted the Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament for the first time in the center's history.
MMA & Boxing
- Hosted the Cory Spinks vs. Zab Judah undisputed welterweight title fight in 2005.
- At Bellator 157 on June 25, 2016, Michael Chandler won the Bellator Lightweight Championship by knocking out Patricky Freire, and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Jackson edged Olympic gold medalist judoka Satoshi Ishii on points.
Concerts
Wrestling
- No Mercy (2001)
- Survivor Series (1998)
- Raw is Owen
- Badd Blood: In Your House
- Judgment Day (2007)
- Elimination Chamber (2010)
- Royal Rumble (2012)
- Raw 1000
- Extreme Rules (2013)
- Survivor Series (2014)
- Battleground (2015)
- Money in the Bank (2017)
Many historic WWE moments have taken place at the Scottrade Center. Former WWE and World Heavyweight Champion Kane made his WWE debut at this arena in 1997 at the event Badd Blood: In Your House. At that same event, the very first Hell In A Cell match took place. The Rock won his very first WWE Championship in the building at the Survivor Series event in 1998. Chris Jericho won his first World Championship in this arena at the No Mercy event in 2001, and won his latest World Championship in the arena at the Elimination Chamber event in 2010. In 2005 John Cena was revealed here as the first draft pick for Monday Night Raw, where he would remain for most of his career. Dave Batista won his second WWE Championship at the Elimination Chamber event in 2010. The 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw was also held there. At the 2014 Survivor Series Sting made his official debut in WWE. Arguably the most emotional wrestling card held at Scottrade was "Raw is Owen", held in the aftermath of Owen Hart's death the previous night at Over the Edge across the state in Kansas City. That night, ten matches were held with all booking put aside, and many wrestlers and fans paid tribute to the popular Hart.
The arena, alongside Madison Square Garden in New York City, the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center and the Allstate Arena in Chicago, is known for having one of the best crowds in WWE. St. Louis native Randy Orton is particularly well-supported, much like how the Allstate Arena crowd was firmly behind Chicago native CM Punk. Often one can see fan signs saying the words "Orton Country", among others, whenever Orton is scheduled to compete.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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