Charlotte Arena
|
|
The Charlotte Arena is an arena currently under construction in the Uptown area of Charlotte, North Carolina, for the National Basketball Association's Charlotte Bobcats; it is scheduled to open in time for the 2005-06 NBA season in November. The facility will seat 18,500 for pro basketball games and will be expandable to over 20,000 for premier events such as the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA college basketball tournaments. The arena is configured with basketball in mind for a feeling of intimacy for fans; The arena name is tentative, and will likely be changed via a sponsorship deal before the venue opens. The city's Women's National Basketball Association team, the Charlotte Sting, will also use the arena, but will not play there until 2006 because the new arena will not be ready for the Sting's 2005 season, which is played in the summer. The Bobcats are playing their inaugural season (2004-05) in the existing Charlotte Coliseum, where the Sting now play. The Charlotte Checkers, Charlotte's ECHL hockey team which won the Jack Riley cup championship in 1996 will also play their next season at the new arena. The Charlotte Checker's will leave the the Cricket Arena, which was Charlotte's original arena built in 1955. The arena remains an historical monument for Charlotte and the rest of the world as the largest free standing building ever built during that time. After a extensive reinovation in 1988, The Charlotte Checker's became part of that history and played their first home game in 1993.