US Airways Center

US Airways Center (formerly America West Arena) is a sports and entertainment facility located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, arena football’s Arizona Rattlers, and the ECHL’s Phoenix Roadrunners. The NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes previously played here, from 1996 to 2003. Since then, the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL have made this their home. It was also the home of the indoor soccer Arizona Sandsharks.

Seating Capacity: Basketball: 18,422, Hockey: 16,210
Opened: June 1, 1992
Owner: The City of Phoenix
Operator: Phoenix Arena Development, L.P.
Construction cost: $90 million USD
Architect: Ellerbe Becket
Location: 201 East Jefferson, Phoenix, Arizona 85004

Construction of this arena began in 1988, as Suns owner Jerry Colangelo envisioned a need for a new playing facility to replace Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. In 1993, the arena was officially inaugurated with an 111-105 Suns win over the Los Angeles Clippers. After the Suns failed to win the NBA championship that year, a parade that attracted more than 300,000 Suns fans finished up at the arena.

When the Winnipeg Jets announced their intention to move to Phoenix as the Coyotes for the 1996-97 season, the arena was quickly retrofitted for hockey. However, the arena’s floor was not large enough for a hockey rink, unlike most modern arenas. Several seats had badly obstructed views. The problem was so serious that by the team’s second season in Phoenix, listed capacity for hockey had to be cut down from over 18,000 seats to just over 16,000–the smallest capacity in the NHL at the time.

In 2003 the US Airways Center hosted WWE SummerSlam and hosted WWE Judgment Day in 2006. In addition to sports events, many famous singers and musical acts, such as The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, REO Speedwagon, *NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys, Gwen Stefani, Vicente Fernandez and others have performed at the arena. Oscar De La Hoya had one of his first professional boxing bouts (versus Narciso Valenzuela) there, and Michael Carbajal also fought there various times.

The arena, which is situated across the street from Chase Field, is named after its sponsor, US Airways, under a naming rights arrangement. After America West’s merger with US Airways, it was announced that America West Arena would be renamed to US Airways Center on November 14, 2005 with the name change taking place in January 2006.

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