Jobing.com Arena

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Jobing.com Arena (formerly Glendale Arena) is an indoor arena located in Glendale, Arizona, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. It is home to the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL and the Arizona Sting of the NLL. Completed in 2003, the arena cost $180 million. It seats 17,500 for hockey and lacrosse. Jobing.com Arena sits across the street from University of Phoenix Stadium, the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

	Capacity		17,653
	Opened		2003
	Owner		City of Glendale
	Operator		City of Glendale
	Construction cost		$180 million
	Architect		HOK Sport
	Location		9400 West Maryland Avenue, Glendale, Arizona 85305

The arena is part of the much larger Westgate City Center development, which is going to be an entertainment and retail hub located around the arena; a 320-room Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center was recently completed.

History

The arena’s construction broke ground in 2002, and the Coyotes moved into the arena a year later in late 2003. The team had spent its first several seasons since relocating from Winnipeg in 1996 in the America West Arena (now the US Airways Center) in downtown Phoenix. The AWA was not an old arena (it had made its debut as the new home of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns only four years earlier, in 1992) but it was primarily designed for NBA basketball. It was quickly retrofitted for hockey. However, the arena floor was just barely large enough to fit a regulation hockey rink, and several seats had badly obstructed views. As a result, before the team’s second season in Phoenix, it had to be cut down from over 18,000 seats to just over 16,000–the second-smallest capacity in the NHL at the time, until the Colorado Avalanche moved into the Pepsi Center in 1999 and the Toronto Maple Leafs moved to Air Canada Centre later in the season; after that point, America West Arena was the smallest NHL venue. A small section of seats on the lower level actually hung over the boards, obstructing the views from 3,000 seats. In addition, an unfavorable lease caused financial problems from which the Coyotes have still not recovered.

When the Coyotes were sold to a partnership led by Steve Ellman, that group committed to building a new arena in suburban Glendale. Originally promised to open in 2001, “Glendale Arena” opened midway through the 2003-04 season, on December 26th, 2003, with the Arizona Sting of the National Lacrosse League defeating the Vancouver Ravens, 16-12. The first NHL game was held the next evening, as the Coyotes dropped a 3-1 decision to the Nashville Predators on December 27, 2003.

Jobing.com Arena was expected to gain the 2009 NHL All-Star Game after losing the 2006 All-Star Game because of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement ratification in the National Hockey League, however the Montreal Canadiens and their arena Bell Centre were rewarded the 2009 All-Star Game. Under the terms of the new agreement, the All-Star Game would not be held during the year of the Winter Olympics for players to participate in the Winter Olympics. Philips Arena in Atlanta, which lost the All-Star Game in 2005 because of the lockout, has been awarded the 2008 All-Star Game.

Beginning in 2005, Jobing.com Arena has been host to the Arizona state high school basketball, volleyball, wrestling and cheerleading tournaments in a mega-event called “February Frenzy”, as the result of a formal agreement between the city of Glendale and the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA).

The Arizona Sting announced they would not play in 2008, electing to return to the National Lacrosse League for the 2009 season.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Jobing.com Arena website
Jobing.com Arena wikipedia entry
Phoenix Coyotes website
Arizona Sting website
NHL website

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