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 View from southeast in 2007 | |
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| Address | 720 W. Mallon Avenue |
|---|---|
| Location | Spokane, Washington,U.S. |
| Coordinates | 47°39′57.6″N117°25′22.8″W / 47.666000°N 117.423000°W /47.666000; -117.423000 |
| Public transit |
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| Owner | Spokane Public Facilities District |
| Operator | Spokane Public Facilities District |
| Capacity | End Stage concert: 12,638 Basketball: 12,210 Hockey: 10,366 Indoor football: 10,771 Expansion possibilities: 14,000+ |
| Surface | Multi-surface |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | March 5, 1993 |
| Opened | September 10, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-09-10)[2] |
| Construction cost | $62.6 million ($129 million in 2024[1]) |
| Architect | ALSC Architects Ellerbe Becket |
| General contractor | Garco Construction |
| Tenants | |
| Spokane Chiefs (WHL) (1995–present) Spokane Shock/Empire (af2/AFL/IFL) (2006–2017, 2020–2021) | |
Numerica Veterans Arena, formerly known asSpokane Arena andSpokane Veterans Memorial Arena, is a multi-purposearena in thenorthwesternUnited States, located indowntownSpokane, Washington. Opened in 1995, it is home to theSpokane Chiefs of theWestern Hockey League (WHL).
With an undersized and agingSpokane Coliseum (1954) needing replacement, the Spokane City Council and Board of Spokane County Commissioners formed theSpokane Public Facilities District (SPFD) to acquire, construct, own, and operate sports and entertainment facilities with contiguous parking facilities. In 1990, the SPFD board members unanimously agreed to the following recommendations from an economic feasibility/market study. The recommendations were:
Voters rejected the Spokane Arena four times in six years before agreeing to build it in 1991.
In the fall of that year, two ballot measures were put out to voters and passed:
In the fall of 1991, another funding measure was put out to voters and was passed. It involved a 0.1% rise in the sales tax. The passage of all three measures completed the $44.8 million financing needed to build the arena.
Ground was broken on March 5, 1993,[3] and it opened 2½ years later, in September 1995.[2]
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Numerica Veterans Arena has a capacity for:
The arena has a state-of-the-art audio and video system. It consists of a 15-by-20-foot (4.6 by 6.1 m) Viacom Sports 12 mm LED display that can be used as two separate units. The video board has exceptional color reproduction and the best off-angle viewing available for any LED format. It can even be moved forward approximately 100 feet (30 m) and down to approximately 20 feet (6 m) off the arena floor. The arena also features a 350° color LED ribbon board mounted on the fascia of the Spokane Arena bowl. It can display text messages, animations, logos, scores, and statistics.
Powered by Crown Amplifiers, the audio system is driven by Community RS880 speakers in the arena bowl,Altec Lansing satellite speakers for the upper seating areas, andBose speakers serve the concourse, dressing rooms, and backstage hallways.
Large public areas are among the key features of the Numerica Veterans Arena. The arena floor is 32,000 square feet (2,970 m2), and the 14-foot (4.3 m) high concourse is a spacious 35,000 square feet (3,250 m2). Sixteen luxury suites contain a total of 146 seats. In addition, there are six meeting rooms, totaling 10,050 square feet (930 m2) of meeting space.
On the Events Level, there are five truck docks with 8-by-10-foot (2.4 by 3.0 m) loading doors, one 8-by-10-foot (2.4 by 3.0 m) drive-in door, and one 20-by-24-foot (6.1 by 7.3 m) drive-in loading door, allowing large shows to load and unload eight trucks simultaneously. Trucks can load and unload unobstructed, directly into the marshalling area at the arena floor's west end. Backstage are three star dressing rooms, two promoter offices (located in the marshalling area), even team dressing rooms, and a dressing room for officials.
Theelevation at street level is approximately 1,900 feet (580 m) abovesea level.
Incorporated into its original design was an area designated for future arena expansion. Expansion of the upper bowl would raise theseating capacity of the arena to over 15,000. In 2011, the Spokane Public Facilities District became concerned that the NCAA might tighten its criteria and require a true minimum of 12,000, with no allowance for seats lost due to tournament infrastructure.[4] In early 2012, the Spokane Public Facilities District had "Measure 1" put on the April ballot, which was proposing to extend 0.1% sales tax and a 2% room tax to pay for a 91,000-square-foot addition to the Convention Center and other projects, including adding 750 seats to the arena.[5]
Measure 1 passed, and all seats were replaced with additional seats, increasing total capacity to 12,000. In addition, a center-hung scoreboard was installed. Total cost was estimated at $3.547 million.[6]
In 2023, the Arena underwent another renovation, including updates to retractable seating, upgrades to lighting, and improvements to locker room showers. The renovation closed the Arena for three months, and the total cost was estimated at $10 million.[7]
Numerica Veterans Arena, in addition to its duties as being the host of Chiefs and Shock games, also has served as a secondary home for the men'sbasketball programs ofGonzaga University andWashington State University for nearly every year since opened. Washington State has played 33 matchups in the Numerica Veterans Arena in 19 of the 22 years, with a record of 18–15 (1–7 vs. ranked opponents), while Gonzaga has hosted 18 games in 15 of the 22 years, with a record of 12–6 (1–2 vs. ranked opponents). In-state rivals Washington State and Gonzaga have met in the arena five times (1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2014), with the Zags owning a 3–2 record against the Cougars. TheBulldogs' faced off against local rivalEastern Washington University at the arena in four consecutive years (2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005), each won by the Zags, but just like with the Cougars, the rivalry has gone dormant due to the rise of the Zags' program to major status since the late 1990s, while the Cougars and Eagles have not seen much national spotlight. Washington State has often hosted home games at the Numerica Veterans Arena as a part of itsPac-12 Conference men's basketball schedule, holding a 7–9 against conference foes in the arena, facingUCLA (1996 and 2004),Oregon (1997 and 2011),Oregon State (1997, 2011, and 2017),Arizona (1998, 2001, and 2006),Washington (1999),USC (2000 and 2004),Stanford (2004),California (2005), andColorado (2014). With Gonzaga's rise to prominence, the Zags were able to bring high major schools like Washington (1998),Georgia (2003),Memphis (2007, 2009, and 2011) and Oklahoma (2009) to the Spokane Arena, with the Gonzaga holding a 2–3 record in those matchups, but with conference realignment and theWest Coast Conference's additions ofBYU (2011) andPacific (2013), the Zags have been more selective and limited in their scheduling with four less matchups in their non-conference schedule, so they have only played in the Spokane Arena once since 2012.[8][9]
It also hosted theWIAA Class B state high school basketball tournament annually until 2006. The tournament came back to the arena in 2007, but as the Class 2B tournament. The WIAA had split the B classification into 1B and 2B. TheYakima SunDome inYakima hosts the 1B tournament. The Class 1B tournament returned in 2011 when the WIAA changed the state tournament format.
Notably, this was the reason why theWest Coast Conference men's basketball tournament had never been in Spokane before 2006; the Class B and WCC tournaments clash every year, and Gonzaga's on-campus arena at that time, the 4,000-seatCharlotte Y. Martin Centre, was too small to host the WCC tournament. In2004, Gonzaga opened its new on-campus arena, theMcCarthey Athletic Center, which enabled it to enter the rotation; the WCC tournament moved to the neutralOrleans Arena inLas Vegas in2009.
Spokane Arena has been the site of several NCAA Division I basketball tournament games (men and women), withWashington State University as the designated host school. For themen, the arena hosted in the opening rounds in2003,2007,2010,2014,2016, and2024, the latter two of which were hosted by theUniversity of Idaho for the first time. Before the arena's opening, the NCAA tournament was held in the region on the WSU campus inPullman atBeasley Coliseum (1975,1982,1984).
The arena was awomen's regional site in2008,2011,2015,2018,2022 and2025. The 2011 regional was notable for Gonzaga becoming the lowest-seeded team ever to reach a regional final in the women's tournament.[10]
In 1999, theProfessional Bull Riders (PBR) made a stop in Spokane Arena for aBud Light Cup Series event in mid-April;[11][12] it was one of six wins for Cody Hart in 1999, the same year he became a PBR World Champion.
In January 2007, the Spokane Arena was one of two facilities to host the2007 U.S. Figure Skating Championships (the other being the Group Health Exhibit Hall at theSpokane Center several blocks away.) The arena, as well as the city, received many rave reviews and shattered the event's previous attendance record, previously held byLos Angeles, California, by over 30,000 attendees.
On May 5, 2008, it was announced that Spokane would once again host theU.S. Figure Skating Championships leading up to the2010 Winter Olympics. Spokane Arena was the sole venue for the2010 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Held January 15–24, it broke its own attendance record, selling 158,170 tickets during the ten-day event.
Also, the Spokane Arena hosted the very first2016 Team Challenge Cup, where athletes fromNorth America,Europe, andAsia competed in teams. Team North America won the event.
TheSpokane Shock of theaf2 and theArena Football League played at the arena from 2006 until 2015. The Shock hostedArenaBowl XXIII in 2010. The Shock then attempted to join theIndoor Football League in 2015, but the AFL withheld the franchise rights from the ownership. The owners then created theSpokane Empire and played in the IFL in 2016 and 2017 before ceasing operations. New ownership relaunched the Shock in 2020, but had its lease terminated by the city in February 2022.[13]
TheSpokane Chiefs of the WHL play their home games at the arena. The1998 Memorial Cup, hosted by the Chiefs, was played at the arena.
The arena hosted aNational Hockey League preseason game between theSeattle Kraken andVancouver Canucks on September 26, 2021.[14] This is not the first time an NHL game has been played at the arena. In fact, the first event in the arena's history was a preseason game between theSan Jose Sharks andVancouver in1995.[14]
The arena hostedAll Elite Wrestling'sTitle Tuesday event on October 8, 2024.[15]
TheStar Theatre is a 5,900-seat theater configuration used for theater concerts,Broadway, family shows, and other events. The configuration's eating capacity positions the "venue" between the seating capacities of the nearbyFirst Interstate Center for the Arts and the full-theater seating of the Spokane Arena.
| Events and tenants | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Home of the Spokane Chiefs 1995 – present | Succeeded by Current |
| Preceded by | Host of the ArenaBowl ArenaBowl XXIII | Succeeded by |
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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