Monterrey Arena
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Monterrey Arena | |
|---|---|
| La Arena | |
  |
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| Location | Ave. Madero #2500 Oriente, Colonia Obrera Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico C.P. 64800 |
| Broke ground | January, 1994 |
| Opened | November 27, 2003 |
| Owner | Publimax (TV Azteca Northeast) |
| Operator | Publimax (TV Azteca Northeast) |
| Construction cost | $50 million USD |
| Tenants | |
| Fuerza Regia (LNBP) | |
| Seats | |
| Basketball: 17,599 [1] | |
Monterrey Arena is an indoor arena in Monterrey, Mexico. It is primarily used for concerts, shows and indoor sports like indoor soccer or basketball. It was the home arena of the Monterrey Fury indoor soccer team. It currently hosts Fuerza Regia, a team in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional.
The Monterrey Arena is owned by Publimax S.A. de C.V. (TV Azteca Northeast), part of the Dataflux Group, who owns 80% and by TV Azteca who owns 20%. Both corporations are owned and directed by Ricardo Salinas Pliego. The arena is 480,000 square feet (45,000 m²) in size.
[edit] History
The project of the arena started on 1989 when the Asociacion para el Fomento de Deporte y Recreacion A.C, lead by the businessmen Jorge Lankenau and Hernan Garza presented the project to the then president Carlos Salinas. The project gained support from the Government of the State of Nuevo Leon who gave the land for the arena to be constructed in the Fundidora Park.
The Arena was originally planned to start construction on May 1992 and was meant to be finished by 1993, but it actually started the construction on January of 1994 and was planned to be finished by 1996; However due the 1994 economic crisis in Mexico, on May 1995 the project suffered a slowdown in the construction process and finally came to a complete halt by 1996 due the lack of economic resources.
On April 2001 the Government of the State of Nuevo Leon invited 11 groups of investors to discuss the possibilities of restarting the construction of the arena. On June 1, 2001 the government announced that there were only 5 groups of investors willing to take over the debt and finish up the project and 2 weeks later, Publimax S.A. de C.V. was announced winner of the contest because it was the group with the most money eager to invest in the project (50 million USD).
Before the construction was restarted, Hernan Garza accused the government of illegaly revoking the concession that was given to him to build and finish the project. The government revoked the concession because of the halt of the project in 1995, but Garza alleged that the economic crisis obliged him to stop it for some time. This, among other problems such as the government delay in giving full control of the arena and Publimax rejecting to do any investment until the control was fully given (Which happened in July 2002), caused the project to restart by the end of 2002 with a projected finish date of the first trimester of 2004.
However by the last trimester of 2003 the project was almost completed and the first event in the arena took place on thursday november 27 2003 with a concert performed by Juan Gabriel.
[edit] Important Events
There have been several events in this arena, some of these are:
International Summits
- Press Center for the Monterrey Special Summit of the Americas - January 2004
Sports Events
- First WNBA game outside the United States: Detroit Shock vs San Antonio Silver Stars - May 2004
- Pre-season NBA Game: Denver Nuggets vs Golden State Warriors - October 2006
Concerts
- KISS - August 2004
- The Cure - September 2004
- Dream Theater - September 2004
- Yes - September 2004
- Backstreet Boys - October 2004
- Green Day - December 2004
- Duran Duran - February 2005
- Little River Band - May 2005
- Pearl Jam - December 2005
- Mötley Crüe - March 2006
- Mago de Oz - April 2006
- Juanes - April 2006
- Black Eyed Peas - April 2006
- Depeche Mode - May 2006
- Poison - August 2006
- INXS - November 2006
- Meat Loaf - November 2006
- Pet Shop Boys - November 2006
- Andrea Bocelli - December 2006
- The Killers - December 2006
