Anaheim Convention Center

"Anaheim Arena" redirects here. For the newer venue known by this name early in its history, see Honda Center.

Anaheim Convention Center logo

The Anaheim Convention Center is a major convention center in Anaheim, California. It is located across from the Disneyland Resort on Katella Avenue. Much of the Anaheim Convention Center has been renovated in recent years with state-of-the-art facilities. The basketball arena, fronting Katella Avenue, was opened in July 1967, while the convention hall behind it opened to business shortly afterward. Since then, the convention hall has undergone three major expansions, and currently encloses over 800,000 square feet (74,000 m²) of floor space.

According to frequent news reports, the largest exposition held at the Convention Center in recent years has been the Winter NAMM Show. This music-equipment convention (trade only, not open to the general public) had 1,560 exhibitors and a record-breaking 88,100 attendees during the 2008 show. The NAMM Show has been running at the Anaheim Center since 1977, except for a 3-year break in 1998-2000 while the Convention Center underwent major renovations. Recent news reports indicate that NAMM's long-term lease with the Anaheim Convention Center authority ends in 2010, and NAMM is applying pressure to the City of Anaheim to further expand and improve the convention center.

The popular Anime Expo was held here in 1996 and from 2003 through 2006 and was one of the convention center's biggest public events of the year.

Blizzard Entertainment holds BlizzCon there. In 2005, they used the northern two conference halls, (and the arena for a concert one evening). In 2007 and 2008, it used three conference halls. In 2009, it used four conference halls. While tickets to the 2007 event sold out in 3 days, tickets to the October 2008 event sold out "within minutes," and tickets to the August 2009 event sold out in "56 seconds". Tickets to the 2010 Blizzcon reportedly have sold out within 30 seconds. Another large convention held at the Center is the Medical Design and Manufacturing Show, held shortly after Winter NAMM.

The arena of the Convention Center has a capacity of up to 9,100 people, depending on the configuration and sport being played. The newest sport team to call the Convention Center Arena home are the Anaheim Bolts of the Professional Arena Soccer League (PASL-Pro), the seating limit in this setting is 7,500, due to the fact that much of the lower level is not available for seating. It was home to the Anaheim Amigos American Basketball Association team. It also served as the venue for wrestling for the 1984 Summer Olympics. It hosted the Big West Conference's men's and women's basketball tournaments from 2001 to 2010. It also hosts the 76 Classic tournament. It was home to the Anaheim Arsenal of the NBA Development League. The Arsenal will no longer play in the convention center after announcing the team will be relocating to Springfield, Massachusetts for the 2009-10 season. During the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, the Los Angeles Clippers were forced to move Game 4 of their NBA playoff series versus the Utah Jazz to the Convention Center. Microsoft have announced that their Professional Developers Conference will be renamed to BUILD and will be held at Convention Center explaining developer story of its upcoming Operating System Windows 8.

The third annual VidCon conference will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in 2012 according to principal organizer Hank Green. The new venue will be able to offer a much larger capacity than the previously used Hyatt Regency Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, with attendance projected at 5,000.

Photos

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  Anaheim Convention Center.

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  Anaheim Convention Center's arena building.

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  Anime Expo 2004 at the Anaheim Convention Center

External links

• Official Website
• Some City of Anaheim history, including the Convention Center
• 1966 photo of the Convention Center under construction Anaheimvisitorsguide.com
• Walking distance from the Convention Center to local hotels
• Blizzcon Official Website