Nashville Municipal Auditorium
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| NMA | |||||
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| Location | 417 Fourth Avenue North Nashville, Tennessee, United States |
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| Coordinates | 36°10′03.29″N 86°46′56.08″W / 36.1675806°N 86.7822444°WCoordinates: 36°10′03.29″N 86°46′56.08″W / 36.1675806°N 86.7822444°W | ||||
| Broke ground | 1959 | ||||
| Built | 1959-1962 | ||||
| Opened | October 7, 1962 | ||||
| Renovated | 1993 | ||||
| Owner | Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee | ||||
| Operator | Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tennessee | ||||
| Surface | concrete | ||||
| Capacity | 9,432 | ||||
| Field dimensions | Hockey - 85x185 ft Basketball - 120x60 ft |
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The Nashville Municipal Auditorium (NMA) (informally known locally as Municipal Auditorium) is an indoor sports and concert venue in Nashville, Tennessee. Constructed in 1962, the auditorium was the first public assembly facility in the Mid-South with air-conditioning.
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[edit] Touring family shows
Having served the greater Nashville area with many diverse events for the past 46 years, today the Auditorium is the popular venue for major touring family shows, such as Sesame Street Live, The Wiggles, The Doodlebops, Barney, Bob the Builder, and Playhouse Disney Live.
[edit] Concerts
The venue continues to serve niche concert markets, such as urban (Bow Wow, Young Buck, Young Jeezy), alternative rock (Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Plain White T's, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, My Chemical Romance), oldies (1964 The Tribute, Rock & Roll Party with the Crystals, Tokens) and Hispanic concerts (Juan Gabriel, Los Tigres Del Norte).
The NMA is the only Nashville entertainment venue to ever host Michael Jackson. He performed there with the Jackson 5 on December 29, 1970, January 1, 1972, August 6, 1972,and August 8, 1973.
[edit] Religious events
The auditorium is also a favorite venue for religious events, having hosted Mt. Zion Baptist Church New Day Conference, Teenmania's Acquire the Fire, Dare 2 Share Ministries, and the Tennessee Baptist Convention Youth Evangelism Conference. Its first-ever event was a city-wide Church of Christ gospel meeting.
[edit] Sporting events
The NMA hosted the 1994 United States Gymnastic Championships as well as the 1996 Tour of World Figure Skating Championships. The Auditorium has hosted minor league hockey, with the teams known as the Dixie Flyers, South Stars, Knights, Nighthawks, and Nashville Ice Flyers. It has also hosted minor league basketball - Stars and Jammers, and women's professional basketball - Noise. It was a home court for the Belmont University basketball teams while Striplin Gym was being rebuilt into Curb Event Center. Additionally, the NMA has hosted several Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournaments, and the Auditorium hosted the OVC again in 2008.
Many Professional wrestling events were hosted in the arena including the NWA's Wrestle War 89 which featured a world title change and match of the year candidate in Ric Flair vesus Ricky Steamboat. It also was the home for the World Wrestling Federation's second In Your House PPV in 1995, and TNA Slammiversary in June 2007. It was a favorite venue over the years for World Championship Wrestling, which hosted its supercard show Starrcade there from 1994 to 1996 and its final Clash of the Champions show there in 1997.
The Nashville Broncs, an American Basketball Association expansion team, began its inaugural season at the NMA in November 2008.
The Professional Bull Riders association hosted a Built Ford Tough Series event at this venue from its inception in 1994 until 2001 (during this era the BFTS was known as the Bud Light Cup). In 2002, the event was moved to the Gaylord Entertainment Center (later the Sommet Center). Municipal Auditorium still hosts a PBR Challenger Tour event every year.
[edit] References
Please see page 2-F of the Sunday Tennessean dated Oct.7, 1962 for verification on the air-conditioning.
Please see the following website for Jackson 5 tour dates: Documentation of Jackson 5 tour dates available at http://www.jackson5abc.com/dossiers/concerts/
Please see page 2-F of the Sunday Tennessean dated Oct.7, 1962 for verification on first event hosted at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
[edit] External links
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