Sullivan Arena

Sullivan Arena
The Sully
Sullivan Arena
Full name George M. Sullivan Arena
Location 1600 Gambell Street
Anchorage, AK 99501
Owner Municipality of Anchorage
Operator SMG
Capacity Ice Hockey: 6,290 (seated), 6,490 (with standing room)
Basketball: 7,987
Concert: up to 8,751
Boxing/Wrestling: 8,935
Surface 200' x 100' (ice hockey)
Construction
Broke ground August 1981
Opened February 8, 1983[1]
Renovated 2015
Construction cost $25 million[2]
($59.4 million in 2016 dollars[3])
$9.1 million (2015 renovations)
Architect The Luckman Partnership Inc.[4]
Harold Wirum & Associates[2]
Project manager Hanscomb Heery, Inc.[2]
Services engineer Skogland, Inc.[2]
General contractor Kissee Contractors[2]
Tenants
Alaska Aces (ECHL) (1989–present)
Alaska Fighting Championship (2004–present)
Alaska School Activities Association
Alaska Wild (IFL) (2007–2010)
Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (NCAA) (1983–present)
American Wrestling Association (1985)
World Eskimo Indian Olympics (2007)
WWF/WWE (1986–present)

The George M. Sullivan Arena (commonly shortened to the "Sullivan Arena" and often referred to colloquially as "The Sully") is a 6,290 seat arena in Anchorage, Alaska, United States.[5] It is home to the professional ice hockey team, the Alaska Aces of the ECHL and the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves hockey team of the WCHA. It is the former home of the Great Alaska Shootout basketball tournament which has relocated to the Alaska Airlines Center as of 2014,[6] and is the current home of the Alaska Fighting Championship mixed martial arts events. In 2007 it briefly became home to the Alaska Wild of the Indoor Football League which is now a defunct team. The arena opened in 1983 and sits just east of Mulcahy Stadium as part of the Chester Creek Sports Complex.[7] Sullivan Arena hosted the 1989 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships along with the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center in Eagle River.

The arena is named after former Anchorage mayor George M. Sullivan. It is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage and operated by SMG, a nationwide property management company.

For hockey, the Sullivan Arena offers 6,251 seats with a standing room capacity of 6,451. If areas designated for wheel chairs are included, the arena can seat 6,290, plus standing room, during hockey games. The arena is known for its international-specification (Olympic-sized) ice rink (61 m × 30 m / 200 ft × 98.5 ft) instead of the more traditional NHL specifications (200 ft × 85 ft / 61 m × 25.9 m). The main arena floor contains 32,000 square feet of space.

In 2014, a new center-hung scoreboard, with four 8-by-8-foot video screens and a wraparound LED display system was installed to replace the 80s style scoreboard which had a black-and-white dot matrix display. The new scoreboard was previously installed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California where it was used by the ECHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks, the San Francisco Bulls. The Bulls purchased the scoreboard for their first season in 2012 but the team folded less than two years later. The scoreboard is made by Colosseo, a European company specializing in stadium and arena LED and entertainment technology.[8]

There are currently plans, projected for 2015, for the neighboring Mulcahy Stadium to be demolished and rebuilt to its west in order to create 400 new parking spaces for the Arena.[9] In addition, all seats and telescopic risers inside Sullivan Arena are being replaced, the arena floor is being rebuilt, and its ice-making equipment is being upgraded for the 2015-16 hockey season.

Coordinates: 61°12′20″N 149°52′21″W / 61.20556°N 149.87250°W / 61.20556; -149.87250

References

  1. ↑ Stabler, David (February 8, 1983). "70 More Tickets Available for Show". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Lindback, John (June 30, 1981). "Interest in Bids for Sports Arena May Grow". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  3. ↑ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Luckman Firm Named for Anchorage Project". Los Angeles Times. January 11, 1981. Retrieved September 23, 2011.
  5. ↑ https://admin.xosn.com/pdf9/2766508.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=13400&
  6. ↑ http://www.goseawolves.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPID=6647
  7. ↑ http://anchorageparkfoundation.org/
  8. ↑ http://www.adn.com/article/20140308/new-scoreboard-will-bring-sullivan-arena-video-age
  9. ↑ http://www.adn.com/article/20131225/city-boosters-eye-moving-mulcahy-ballpark-new-sullivan-arena-parking

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 21, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.