New Haven Coliseum
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The New Haven Coliseum was a sports-entertainment facility located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Its formal name was Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but most locals simply referred to it as "the Coliseum". It occupies 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) of land adjacent to the Knights of Columbus headquarters building and faces the Oak Street Connector/Route 34 downtown spur. It hosted the New Haven Knights of the United Hockey League, New Haven Nighthawks and Beast of New Haven of the American Hockey League, as well as the 1984 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the Yale University's 2002 National Invitational Tournament men's college basketball tournament opening round games. It was also home of the New Haven Ninjas arenafootball2 team in 2002.
The Coliseum was built from 1970-1972 and was designed by the architects Kevin Roche / John Dinkeloo & Associates. One interesting aspect of the facility's design is that the parking lots for visitors to the Coliseum were constructed on top of the actual Coliseum structure. This design was not very popular in the marketplace, however, due to the quarter mile helical ramps required to access the parking. Other features of the design, such as street storefronts and an exhibition hall, were never completed. The Coliseum could hold 11,171 people at full capacity.
The Coliseum hosted events from 1972 to September 1, 2002, when it closed permanently by incumbent Mayor, John DeStefano, Jr. The final event held there was a Professional Wrestling show held by World Wrestling Entertainment, a popular attraction since the early days of the arena. The structure of the parking garages had deteriorated to the point where large canvas rectangles had to be attached to the outside to catch pieces of concrete which would occasionally drop off onto the sidewalk below. The city shut the facility down after concluding that it was a drain on city coffers. However, the city did not hold any public hearings, referendum votes, or conduct any surveys, and several groups, local stakeholders, and the Coalition to Save Our Coliseum mounted a campaign to save and renovate the Coliseum, to no avail. Others in the community support the plan to demolish the facility. However, Mayor DeStefano's plan was to close the building and have it demolished in six months. It is now over fours later and the building still remains.
The city has tentative plans to replace the Coliseum with a new downtown/Long Wharf redevelopment plan[citation needed]. The demolition was delayed by the state's refusal to award the $6.5 million that the city requested[citation needed], and the arena has remained empty and darkened. The office area was used in the meantime for practice by the New Haven Fire Department. Actual demolition work began in late October of 2005. The implosion of the parking superstructure by Stamford Wrecking Company was put on hold in early 2006, as underground utilities were safeguarded. The safeguarding has caused the project to go well over budget[citation needed], so the city of New Haven has postponed the implosion date indefinitely.
