New Haven Coliseum

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The Coliseum on the morning of the implosion, with much of the structure stripped away.
The Coliseum on the morning of the implosion, with much of the structure stripped away.
The controlled demolition of the New Haven Coliseum.
The controlled demolition of the New Haven Coliseum.

The New Haven Coliseum was a sports-entertainment arena located in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. Construction began in 1968 and was completed in 1972. The Coliseum was officially closed on September 1, 2002 by Mayor John DeStefano, Jr., and demolished by implosion on January 20, 2007.

The arena's formal name was Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but most locals simply referred to it as "the Coliseum." The Coliseum could hold 11,171 people at full capacity, and occupied 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) of land next to the Knights of Columbus Building and faced the Oak Street Connector/Route 34 downtown spur.

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[edit] Hosted events

The Coliseum hosted the New Haven Knights of the United Hockey League, New Haven Nighthawks, New Haven Senators, and Beast of New Haven of the American Hockey League, as well as the 1984 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and Yale University's 2002 National Invitational Tournament men's college basketball tournament opening round games. It was also home of the Connecticut Coasters roller hockey team in 1993, and the New Haven Ninjasarenafootball2 team in 2002. The special debut episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown! was filmed at the Coliseum on April 27, 1999, and aired on UPN two days later.

Among the musical stars who appeared at the Coliseum were Elvis Presley, Queen, The Who, Frank Sinatra, The Grateful Dead, Stone Temple Pilots, Guns N´ Roses, Iron Maiden, Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen and Bruce Springsteen, with Tool being the final musical performers prior to closing. 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. In fact, WWE considered the Coliseum its home arena, as it was the closest arena to WWE's headquarters in Stamford, CT. Mötley Crüe also played there during their Theatre Of Pain and Dr. Feelgood tours. During the Dr. Feelgood show, drummer Tommy Lee fell from a drum solo he was performing above the crowd. Tommy required medical attention as he suffered a concussion.

Expositions attracted tens of thousands of patrons to the Coliseum. Best known among these was the nationally renowned New Haven Antiques Show. This show utilized the entire rear staging area and front corridor as well as the Coliseum's main floor. Visitors to this semi-annual event came from throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Other expositions included the Connecticut Camping and Outdoors Show, New Haven Home Show and Connecticut Business Show. The Home Show was unique featuring a full-size landscaped, furnished, and decorated modular home erected on the Coliseum floor.

[edit] History

[edit] Construction

The Coliseum was built to replace the New Haven Arena, New Haven's prior indoor sports and entertainment venue. The Coliseum, as well as the neighboring K of C building, was designed by the architects Kevin Roche / John Dinkeloo & Associates. One interesting aspect of the arena's design was that the parking garage was built on top of the actual Coliseum structure; this was necessitated by a high water table in the area which made it overly difficult to construct sub-surface parking facilities. Though an interesting solution, this design was not very popular in the marketplace because of 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.

[edit] Deterioration

During the 1980s, the structure of the parking garages had deteriorated to the point where large canvas panels had to be attached to the outside to catch pieces of concrete that would occasionally drop off onto the sidewalk below. Renovations were made to correct that problem. The city shut down the facility 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 supported the plan to demolish the arena. Despite Mayor DeStefano's plan to close and demolish the building within six months, it ultimately took more than four years.

Among the reasons for the Coliseum's demise was the construction or renovation (often with state money) in the 1990s of alternative comparably sized venues within the southern Connecticut market. The Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport attracted a minor league hockey team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. Many musical acts started booking the Chevrolet Theatre, formerly the Oakdale Theater, in suburban Wallingford after it was upgraded and expanded. A large arena was built about an hour away at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Even though the state gave $5.5 million to the arena for new paint, signage, and scoreboards, the Coliseum simply could not compete with newer facilities, as even as early as 1980 the Coliseum was decried as a "White Elephant". Mayor DeStefano also had staked out a strategy of investing city resources into arts and cultural activities rather than attracting sports teams to the city.[1]

[edit] Demolition

The Coliseum's demolition was delayed by the state's refusal to award the $6.5 million that the city requested[citation needed], and the arena 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 2005 with removal of most of the arena area. At 7:50 a.m. on January 20, 2007, after years of wrangling and delay, the Coliseum was finally imploded, using more than 2,000 pounds of explosive. It was said that the implosion could be heard all the way to Meriden and Northford. As it came down, a massive cloud of dust and smoke covered the surrounding area, but blew away quickly toward the shoreline. Upwards of 20,000 people watched from the nearby Temple Street Garage and other buildings, and residents of nearby apartments were evacuated. The two helical ramps were not imploded, and were subsequently destroyed by conventional methods.

The city has tentative plans to replace the Coliseum with a new downtown/Long Wharf redevelopment plan,[2] including a relocated Long Wharf Theatre and a new campus for Gateway Community College.

A temporary 400-space parking lot opened on the former Coliseum site on December 4, 2007, but plans are advancing to redevelop the site with a mix of offices, apartments, and retail space, with proposals by such firms as Cesar Pelli, Related Companies and Robert A.M. Stern.[3][4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ [1] "Nightmare in the Elm City," New Haven Register, July 23, 2006
  2. ^ [2] New Haven's Gateway Downtown Development Project
  3. ^ Former coliseum site opens as parking lot, WTNH Channel 8 New Haven, December 4, 2007
  4. ^ Details on the Downtown New Haven Coliseum Site RFQs, May 2008

[edit] External links