RiverCentre

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For the San Antonio Rivercenter, see Rivercenter.

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The RiverCentre is a large convention center located in St. Paul, Minnesota. It has twice been honored as "Best Convention Center" by Minnesota Meetings and Events Magazine. It hosts a large variety of events, and has been the home of the annual Festival of Nations since 1934.

[edit] RiverCentre Arena

RiverCentre Arena (originally the St. Paul Civic Center) was an indoor arena that was part of the RiverCentre. The arena, which was opened on January 1, 1973, was the home of both incarnations of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA - the first from 1973-1976 and the second from 1976-1977. The arena seats 16,000. It was renamed in 1998. The arena was torn down in 1998 to make way for the Xcel Energy Center which opened in 2000. The boys' state high school hockey and basketball tournaments were also held at the Civic Center as well as three NCAA Frozen Fours.

The Civic Center was unique, in that the hockey boards were made of clear acrylic glass all the way down to the ice. This was because the seating configuration was round, meaning the closest seats at center ice were not right up against the glass. The clear boards made for better sightlines for those spectators.

The clear boards were replaced with normal wood boards when the IHL Minnesota Moose played there, as the professional team needed to be able to sell advertising on the boards. This wrecked the sightlines for what should have been the best seats, and proved that to get an expansion NHL team a new arena was needed.