I'd better take an arena.
I'll take the oldest current arena in the NHL:
Pittsburgh Civic Arena (Mellon Arena now)
I prefer
"The Igloo" nickname though
WIKI:
Mellon Arena (formerly the
Civic Auditorium and
Civic Arena, nicknamed
The Igloo) is an
arena in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It primarily serves as the home to the
Pittsburgh Penguins, the city's
National Hockey League (NHL) franchise.
[1] Constructed in 1961, for the use of the
Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera (CLO) Mellon Arena has hosted multiple concerts, as well as hockey, basketball, tennis, boxing, wrestling, and soccer matches. The Arena was the world's first major indoor sports stadium with a retractable roof. It is named for
Mellon Financial, which purchased the naming rights in 1999.
History and events
On September 19, 1961, the
Ice Capades hosted the arena's first event. Over the years, multiple performing artists including
Frank Sinatra,
The Rolling Stones, and the
Grateful Dead performed at the Arena.
The Beatles and
Elvis Presley performed at the Civic Arena in 1964 and 1973 respectively. On January 30, 1999, 18,150 spectators attended a
World Wrestling Entertainment show, surpassing the previous attendance record at the Arena which was set at 17,764 for a
Robert Plant and
Jimmy Page concert in 1995.
[4] Sporting events including roller hockey, boxing matches including
Muhammad Ali,
Sugar Ray Robinson,
Sonny Liston and
Floyd Patterson took place at the Arena. The Universities of
Pittsburgh and
Duquesne,
Pittsburgh Pipers,
Pittsburgh Condors, and the
Harlem Globetrotters hosted basketball games at the Arena.
World TeamTennis and the
Pittsburgh Spirit association football team also hosted matches at the Arena.
[5][1] The 1983
World Figure Skating Championships and first and second round games of the
1997 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament were held at the Arena.
[4]
Hockey
The
Pittsburgh Hornets, members of the
American Hockey League (AHL) played home games at the
Duquesne Gardens, located in the
Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The team played 20 seasons in the Gardens prior to its demolition, which made room for an apartment building.
[6] The Arena opened on September 17, 1961.
[6] With the Arena available, the Hornets resumed play in the
1961–62 season and went on to win the
Calder Cup in the
1966–67 season.
[6]
As part of the
1967 NHL expansion, the city of Pittsburgh was selected to host one of six new franchises. With a hockey seating capacity of 12,508, Pittsburgh's Mellon Arena was eight seats over the NHL's minimum seating benchmark.
[3] Due to its outward appearance, the Arena was nicknamed "The
Igloo" which led to the naming of the Penguins.
[7] The Penguins debuted at the Civic Arena on October 11, 1967 in a 2–1 loss to the
Montreal Canadiens.
Andy Bathgate scored the Penguins's first goal in the arena. The Penguins won their first game at the Arena on October 21, when they became the first expansion team to beat an original NHL franchise—besting the Chicago Blackhawks 4–2.
[8] On January 21, 1990, the Civic Arena hosted the
41st National Hockey League All-Star Game. Pittsburgh's
Mario Lemieux scored three goals on his first three shots—the first coming 21 seconds into the game. He later scored a fourth goal and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
[9] The arena also hosted the
1997 NHL Entry Draft.
[10] Games of the
1991 and
1992 Stanley Cup Finals, which the Penguins won, were hosted at the Civic Arena, as were three games of the
2008 Finals.
[1]