St. Pete Times Forum
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| St. Pete Times Forum | |
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| Location | 401 Channelside Drive Tampa, Florida, USA 33602 |
| Broke ground | 1995 |
| Opened | October 20, 1996 |
| Owner | Palace Sports and Entertainment |
| Operator | Palace Sports and Entertainment |
| Construction cost | $139 million |
| Architect | Ellerbe Becket |
| Former names | Ice Palace (1996–2002) |
| Tenants | Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL) (1996-present) Tampa Bay Storm (AFL) (1997-present) |
| Capacity | Hockey: 19,500 Basketball: 20,500 Concert: 21,500 Arena Football: 19,500 |
The St. Pete Times Forum is an arena in Tampa, Florida, that is used for hockey games, basketball games, arena football games, and concerts. It is currently home to the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League.
The venue, located in Downtown Tampa's Channelside District was a secondary location chosen after the failure of Tampa Coliseum Inc. to secure funding to construct an arena on Tampa Sports Authority land near Tampa Stadium. It opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace. Its first event was the Lightning hosting the New York Rangers. The Lightning won by a score of 5–2.
The arena was built as a new home for the Lightning to replace the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg, Florida, which has since changed it's name to Tropicana Field and is currently home to Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays. Upon the completion of the Ice Palace, both the Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm, also a tenant of the Thunderdome, moved in and have made it their home since then.
Control of the venue has changed hands three times since the building's opening in 1996. The lease agreement ties the arena to the ownership of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Currently Palace Sports and Entertainment (owned by billionaire William Davidson) operates the venue, and has held control since summer 1999 when Davidson purchased the Lightning from then-owner Art Williams.
Naming rights to the Ice Palace were sold to the St. Petersburg Times, a daily newspaper which circulates throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Other entertainment events occasionally held in the Forum include concerts, NBA exhibition games, USF Basketball and NCAA Tournament games, tennis, professional wrestling, boxing, figure skating, and rodeos.
The building played host to the 1999 NHL All-Star Game, World Wrestling Federation Survivor Series 2000, and first and second round games of the 2003 NCAA men's basketball tournament. The Forum played host to 4 of the 7 games during the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, as the Lightning defeated the Calgary Flames 4 games to 3 to win their first Stanley Cup. The Forum also hosted ArenaBowl XII (1998) and ArenaBowl XVII (2003) and the 2007 ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.
In 2012, the St. Pete Times Forum will play host to the NCAA Hockey Frozen Four championship finals; this will be the first time the "Frozen Four" will be held outside the northern US since 1999, when the University of Alaska Anchorage hosted the event at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, now the Honda Center, in Anaheim, California. The Frozen Four will be hosted by the University of Alabama in Huntsville, the nearest collegiate hockey team to Florida.
WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown has been held at the arena numerous times, the most recent was on November 20th, 2007.
Among the events scheduled to be played at the St. Pete Times Forum in the future are:
- 2009 Southeastern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament
- 2009 NCAA Women's Volleyball Division I Final Four [1]
- 2012 NCAA Hockey Frozen Four
[edit] Trivia
- In the 2008 Men's NCAA Tournament all four lower seeded teams won in the first round. It is the first time in tournament history that all of the lower seeded teams won at the same venue in the first round.
- Van Halen played here on February 18, 2008 on there reunion tour with David Lee Roth. After this show a rumor came to circulation that the bands guitarist Eddie Van Halen had a fight with his son Wolfgang Van Halen (Who was playing bass on the tour) causing Eddie to elegidly enter rehab causing the tour to be put on hold until April 19, 2008.
[edit] Gallery
 St. Pete Times Forum. |
 After the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, a mural was commissioned by the Colonial Bank of Tampa, which hangs above its main branch at Park Tower on Kennedy Boulevard. |
 Inside the St. Pete Times Forum, April 8th, 2006. |
[edit] External links
- St. Pete Times Forum - official website
| Preceded by ThunderDome |
Home of the Tampa Bay Lightning 1996 – present |
Succeeded by current |
| Preceded by ThunderDome |
Home of the Tampa Bay Storm 1997 – present |
Succeeded by current |
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