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 New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but most locals simply referred to it as "New Haven 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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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. Also, it was home of the Connecticut Coasters roller hockey team in 1993, and the New Haven Ninjas arenafootball2 team in 2002. Ice Capades has also been presented at the Coliseum.[1] New Haven Coliseum was also second home to Yale University Hockey, playing games sporadically at the Coliseum over the years. The U.S.A. Women's Olympic Squad played an exhibition game vs. Sweden on December 15, 2001.
Notably, in 1986, the Coliseum served as the setting for Van Halen's multi-platinum concert film Live Without a Net.[2] Many of the era's most prominent musical stars also appeared at the Coliseum.
The pilot episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown was filmed at the Coliseum on April 27, 1999, and aired on UPN two days later.[3]
Tool was the final musical act on August 20, 2002.[4]
The final event held at the Coliseum was a professional wrestling show held by World Wrestling Entertainment, one of the original attractions in the arena since 1972. The WWE considered the Coliseum its home arena, as it was the closest venue to WWE's headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Most matches were broadcast, first on WTNH, as well as on local UHF stations.[5]
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 Knights of Columbus building, was designed by the architects Kevin Roche of Roche-Dinkeloo. 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 unpopular because of the quarter-mile helical ramps required to access the parking. Vincent Scully, the revered architectural historian at nearby Yale University, often referred to the design as "Structural Exhibitionism" in his modern architecture lectures. Other features of the design, such as street storefronts and an exhibition hall, were never completed.
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 in the city of Wallingford, Connecticut 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. 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.[6]
The Coliseum's demolition was delayed by the state's refusal to award the $6.5 million that the city requested, 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,[7] 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.[8][9] Until the economy recovers, however, there will be no development of the lot until 2012 at the earliest.[10]
On January 12, 2009 the Knights of Columbus filed a lawsuit against the City of New Haven, Stamford Wrecking Company and Demolition Dynamics Company. The lawsuit seeks repayment for damages incurred to the Knights of Columbus Building and Knights of Columbus Museum across the street from the Coliseum.