Peoria Civic Center

Peoria Civic Center

Address	201 SW Jefferson St Peoria, IL 61602-1423
Owner	City of Peoria
Operator	SMG
Built	April 30, 1979 (1979-04-30) (Ground breaking)
Inaugurated	June 6, 1982 (1982-06-06)
Renovated	1992, 2007
Opened	February 1982 (1982-02)^[1]
Construction cost	$64.2 million ($209 million in 2015 dollars^[2]) $55 million (2007 renovations) ($66.4 million in 2015 dollars^[2])
Enclosed space
• Exhibit hall floor	108,668 square feet (10,095.6 m²)
• Breakout/meeting	17,355 square feet (1,612.3 m²)
• Ballroom	28,667 square feet (2,663.3 m²)
Website	Venue Website

The Peoria Civic Center is a convention center in downtown Peoria, Illinois, United States. It has an arena, a theater, an exhibit hall, and meeting rooms. It was built in 1982 and completed an expansion to expand its lobby and meeting facilities in 2008. The site of the convention center was built where the former Jefferson Hotel once stood. The hotel was a site along the Underground Railroad.^[3]

Carver Arena

Carver Arena is the home of the Bradley University Braves men's basketball team and the Peoria Rivermen Southern Professional Hockey League ice hockey team (and previous incarnations of the Riverman in the IHL, ECHL and AHL), and was formerly home to the Peoria Pirates arena football team. Prior to playing at Carver Arena, Bradley hosted its games at Robertson Memorial Field House. It hosted the 1988 Missouri Valley Conference men's basketball tournament title game. It seats 9,919 for hockey and indoor football, 11,433 for basketball and up to 12,036 for concerts.^[4]

Carver Arena also plays host to the Illinois High School Association boys' basketball state finals for two weeks every March. The interactive March Madness Experience takes places in the adjacent exhibition hall during the tournaments. Concerts, circuses, trade shows (an arena floor 124 feet (38 m) by 238 feet (73 m) for 29,512 square feet (2,741.8 m²) of space), wrestling matches and other events are held here. The arena also contains a 60-by-40-foot portable stage, a production office, eight dressing rooms (four large and four small), eight spotlights, and a 76-foot (23 m) ceiling height. There is also an arena club at Carver Arena, five concession stands, eight restrooms, and two luxury suites. It hosted the first CollegeInsider.com Tournament where the Braves lost to Old Dominion in the finals.

Tenants

Bradley Braves (NCAA Division I) (Men's Basketball)
Peoria Rivermen (SPHL) (2013–present).

Exhibit Halls

The Civic Center Exhibit halls feature 108,668 square feet (10,095.6 m2) of space and can hold up to 7,265 persons. It can be divided into four smaller halls and is used for banquets, trade shows, and other events.

Theater

The 2,244-seat theater is used for concerts, Broadway shows, ballet, orchestra concerts, and other events. It contains ten dressing rooms including a star dressing room, four 12-person chorus rooms, two 8-person dressing rooms, two 6-person dressing rooms and a 3-person dressing room, and a 1,250-square-foot (116 m²) rehearsal hall backstage. There are 1,450 seats in the main level, 378 seats in the lower balcony and 348 seats in the upper balcony.

Tenants

Peoria Symphony Orchestra
Peoria Ballet

Meeting rooms

There are ten meeting rooms totaling 16,889 square feet (1,569.0 m²) and divisible into sixteen meeting rooms.

Ballroom

The ballroom has flexible air walls that can divide the room into 9 different configurations and can hold up to 6500 people.

References

↑ Phelps, Tori (October 2002). "Peoria's Civic Center 20 Years". Arts Alive!. Central Illinois Business Publishers, Inc. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
↑ 2.0 2.1 Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2014. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved February 27, 2014.
↑ Thompson, Katie (January–February 2008). "The Long Road to Freedom". Peoria Magazines. Central Illinois Business Publishers, Inc. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
↑ "Arena". Peoria Civic Center. Retrieved August 12, 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peoria Civic Center.

Carver Arena - BRADLEYBRAVES.COM

Peoria Rivermen Hockey Team - rivermen.net

Bradley University

Athletics	Men's basketball Men's soccer

Buildings	Carver Arena Dozer Park Markin Family Student Recreation Center Renaissance Coliseum Robertson Memorial Field House Shea Stadium

Related	Lydia Moss Bradley WCBU

Bradley Braves men's basketball

Venues	Robertson Memorial Field House (1949–1982) Carver Arena (1982–present)

Culture & lore	Longest game in Division I history

People	Head coaches

Seasons	1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16

NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

Basketball arenas in the Missouri Valley Conference

Carver Arena (Bradley, men's) Renaissance Coliseum (Bradley, women's) Knapp Center (Drake) Ford Center (Evansville) Redbird Arena (Illinois State) Hulman Center (Indiana State) Joseph J. Gentile Arena (Loyola) JQH Arena (Missouri State) McLeod Center (Northern Iowa) SIU Arena (Southern Illinois) Charles Koch Arena (Wichita State)

Southern Professional Hockey League

Teams	Columbus Cottonmouths Fayetteville FireAntz Huntsville Havoc Knoxville Ice Bears Louisiana IceGators Mississippi RiverKings Pensacola Ice Flyers Peoria Rivermen

Arenas	Cajundome (Louisiana) Carver Arena (Peoria) Columbus Civic Center (Columbus) Cumberland County Crown Coliseum (Fayetteville) Lander's Center (Mississippi RiverKings) James White Civic Coliseum (Knoxville) Pensacola Civic Center (Pensacola) Von Braun Center (Huntsville)

Seasons	2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

President's Cup William B. Coffey Trophy Other Professional Hockey leagues