Stabler Arena

Stabler Arena is Lehigh University's 6,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, located on its Goodman Campus in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. Opened in 1979, Stabler is an all-purpose arena, hosting athletic events, major concerts and children's events.

Athletics

Stabler Arena is home to the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks basketball teams, who play in college basketball's Patriot League. The conference has held portions of its men's tournament there three times. Starting in 2011, Stabler will also be home to the Indoor Football League's Lehigh Valley Steelhawks.

Stabler also has hosted ABC's Wide World of Sports and the U.S. Women's gymnastics finals.

Music

Stabler is a regular stop for many major musical acts. Because of the arena's reputation for exceptional acoustics and lively audiences, some musical acts have kicked off their U.S. concert tours at Stabler. These include: The Cranberries, KISS, Bette Midler & The Moody Blues. Nirvana has also played at the Stabler Arena on November 9th, 1993.

Music videos from Stabler

Stabler has been the site for four music videos. The video for Whitney Houston's 1987 hit "So Emotional" and two Bon Jovi songs, "Bed of Roses" and "In These Arms", include footage from the artists' respective Stabler concerts. The band Breaking Benjamin used footage of their February 11, 2007 Stabler Arena concert as their music video for "Breath".

Breaking Benjamin DVD from Stabler

Breaking Benjamin's first live DVD, released with their album, Phobia, features the band's entire February 11, 2007 Stabler Arena concert.

The concert was broadcast on HDNet for the first time on March 4, 2007.

Nirvana bootleg from Stabler

Nirvana performed at Stabler on November 9, 1993, less than five months before lead singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide at his Lake Washington residence. This show has since become one of the band's most widely circulated bootleg recordings, because of its proximity to Cobain's death, representing one of Nirvana's final U.S. shows.

Kiss bootleg from Stabler

On October 1, 1992, KISS kicked off their global tour at Stabler Arena, following smaller, warm-up venues in Europe and the U.S. It was the first show to use a giant, pyrotechnic mock up of the Statue of Liberty that became the tour's trademark.

KISS' 1992 Stabler show has since become one of the band's most widely-circulated video bootleg recordings, because of its status as a kick-off date for the last tour the group played before their later 1996 and subsequent tours, featuring a return to their trademark make-up and a reuniting of the band's original line up.

External links

• Stabler Arena Official Web Site.