Bryce Jordan Center
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| Bryce Jordan Center | |
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| The Big Joint | |
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| Location | University Drive & Curtin Road University Park, PA 16802 |
| Coordinates | 40°48′32″N 77°51′21″W / 40.80889°N 77.85583°WCoordinates: 40°48′32″N 77°51′21″W / 40.80889°N 77.85583°W |
| Broke ground | April 7, 1993 |
| Opened | January 11, 1996 |
| Owner | Pennsylvania State University |
| Operator | Pennsylvania State University |
| Surface | Multi-surface |
| Construction cost | $52,762,000 ($73.9 million in 2012 dollars[1]) |
| Architect | Rosser Int'l. Inc. |
| General Contractor | Gilbane Building Company[2] |
| Capacity | Basketball: 15,261 Concerts: 16,000+ |
| Tenants | |
| Penn State Nittany Lions men's basketball (1996–present) Penn State Lady Lions basketball (1996–present) |
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Bryce Jordan Center is a 15,261-seat multi-purpose arena in University Park, Pennsylvania. The arena opened in 1995 and is the largest such venue between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It replaced Rec Hall as the home to the Penn State University Nittany Lions men's and women's basketball team, the Pride of the Lions Pep Band, and for the men, its student section, Nittany Nation. It also plays host to a number of events such as music concerts, circuses, and commencement ceremonies for colleges within the university. The arena is named after former Penn State University president Bryce Jordan who was instrumental in acquiring the funding needed to build it. The arena is associated with the Arena Network, a marketing and scheduling group of 38 arenas. [1]
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[edit] Location and layout
The arena is located across the street from Beaver Stadium on Curtin Road, on the eastern part of the campus. This part of campus is home to many of the school's athletic facilities, including the recently built Medlar Field at Lubrano Park baseball facility and Jeffrey Field soccer stadium. There is a large electronic display outside the arena which provides advertisements for future events. The university also recently contracted with ANC Sports to install over 900 feet of LED ribbon board signage to be used for sponsor advertisements and game prompts.[3]
[edit] Operations
Even though the arena is technically owned by the university, the Arena Network actually does much of the booking for the facility. Even more unusually, because of the process to obtain the original funding for the arena, Penn State must pay rent to use the arena for its basketball games and offices.[4]
[edit] Notable events
In March 2006, the arena hosted first and second rounds of the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship. The arena also hosts the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Basketball Championships on a yearly basis.[2]
In 2007, the Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, commonly known as THON, was moved to the Bryce Jordan Center.[5] The event, designed to raise money to fight pediatric cancer, raises millions of dollars every year.
It also hosts numerous concerts and World Wrestling Entertainment events, including RAW.
Parts of Aerosmith's 1998 live album, A Little South of Sanity, were recorded at the Bryce Jordan Center. Lead singer Steven Tyler can be heard yelling "State College" out to the audience in order to rile them up during "Love in an Elevator".
The music video for The Backstreet Boys' 2000 hit, "The One", was filmed at the arena.
Tina Turner was scheduled to perform during her Twenty Four Seven Tour on September 29, 2000, but the show was cancelled, due to scheduling conflicts.
The arena played host to the politically-motivated Vote for Change Tour on October 1, 2004, featuring performances by My Morning Jacket, Jurassic 5, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals and The Dave Matthews Band.[6]
On October 13, 2008, it played host to Change Rocks: A Concert to Benefit Obama, among guests playing included The Allman Brothers Band and Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, all four of whom were members of The Grateful Dead.
[edit] References
- ^ Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved December 7, 2010.
- ^ Caldwell, Hope (August 29, 1995). "Bryce Jordan Center on Track for Nov. 28 Opening". The Daily Collegian. http://www.collegian.psu.edu:8080/archive/1995/08/08-29-95tdc/08-29-95dsports-2.asp. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
- ^ David Jones (2007-07-23). "New message ribbons at Beav, Jordan Center". The Patriot News. http://blog.pennlive.com/patriotnewssports/2008/07/new_message_ribbons_at_beav_jo.html.
- ^ O'Neil, Dana (February 18, 2011). "Some things never change at Penn State". College Basketball Nation Blog. ESPN.com. http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/23576/some-things-never-change-at-penn-state. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ - "BJC to see first THON". The Daily Collegian. 2007-02-22. http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2007/02/02-16-07tdc/02-16-07dnews-12.asp. Retrieved 2007-02-17.
- ^ http://www.backstreets.com/setlists2004.html
[edit] External links
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