Thomas & Mack Center

For the arena currently known as "The Shark Tank", see HP Pavilion at San Jose.

Thomas & Mack Center
Location	Thomas and Mack Dr, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119
Coordinates	36°6′18″N 115°8′39″W
Opened	September 16, 1983
Owner	University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Operator	University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Construction cost	$30 million ($66.1 million in 2012 dollars)
Architect	Ellerbe Becket
Capacity	Basketball: 18,776 Arena football: 16,606
Tenants
UNLV Runnin' Rebels (1983–present) National Finals Rodeo (1984–present) PBR World Finals (1999–present) Mountain West Conference Men's Basketball Tournament (2000–2003), (2007–present) Las Vegas Thunder (IHL) (1993–1998) Las Vegas Flash (RHI) (1994) Las Vegas Dustdevils (CISL) (1995) Las Vegas Sting (AFL) (1995) Las Vegas Gladiators (AFL) (2003–2006) ArenaBowl (2005–2006) NBA All-Star Game (2007) WWE No Way Out (2001, 2008) WWE Vengeance (2005)

The Thomas & Mack Center is an arena, located on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in Paradise, Nevada, USA. For ring events, the capacity is 19,522, for basketball, the capacity is 18,776.

History

The facility was first opened in the summer of 1983 and underwent a major interior and exterior renovation in 1999. 2008 saw the installation of all new visual equipment, which included a 4-sided new center-hung LED widescreen scoreboard, which includes four LED advertising/scoring boards above it and a LED advertising ring below it to replace the one installed in 1995, a partial LED ring beam display covering 80% of the balcony's rim, a new 50' LED scorer's table display, a new shot clock system for the backboards, six wall-mounted locker room game clocks, two new custom scoreboards with fixed digital scoring and complete player stats and a new outdoor marquee LED video billboard.

The facility is named after two prominent Nevada bankers, E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack, who donated the original funds for the feasibility and land studies.

In 2001, a smaller arena, Cox Pavilion, was added to the complex; the two arenas are directly connected. Cox Pavilion is used for smaller events; its main tenants are the UNLV women's basketball and volleyball programs.

Its primary tenant is the UNLV men's basketball team. It also hosts the National Finals Rodeo annually. Since 1999, it also hosts the PBR World Finals. The facility also hosted the Las Vegas Thunder of the now defunct International Hockey League. It also hosts the Los Angeles Lakers pre-season games annually in October.

Arena Football

It was the former home of the Arena Football League's Las Vegas Sting and Las Vegas Gladiators. In 2005 and 2006, the arena hosted the Arena Football League's ArenaBowl.

ArenaBowl XIX and ArenaBowl XX were the first two ArenaBowls to be held at a neutral site arena. In the past, the games had been played at the sight of the highest seed in the playoffs.

In ArenaBowl XIX in 2005, the Colorado Crush, owned by John Elway defeated the Georgia Force on a field goal on the final play of the game. The game was ranked as one of the AFL's 20 best games ever in league history. The following year, 2006, the Chicago Rush, owned by Mike Ditka defeated the Orlando Predators 69-61 for the Rush's first championship in franchise history.

Basketball

And it hosted the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, marking the first time that this game was held in a city without an NBA franchise. For the first time in NBA history, an on-campus college sports arena served as venue of an NBA All-Star Game.

The Thomas and Mack Center had also been an alternate home for the Utah Jazz in the mid-1980s, and was where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's record for points in a career in 1984. The 1994-95 Big West Conference, 1997-99 Western Athletic Conference and 2000-03 Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournaments were held there as well. The Mountain West Conference basketball tournament returned in 2007 and will stay until 2013.

Thomas & Mack Center hosted game 4 of the 1992 Western Conference NBA playoffs. Los Angeles Lakers Vs. Portland Trail Blazers. Final score, Portland 102 - Los Angeles 76. The game was moved to Las Vegas on May 3, 1992 due to the Los Angeles riots after a jury acquitted four (4) Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the brutal beating of African-American motorist Rodney King.

In late 2007, CBS filmed part of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode, "Bull", at the Thomas & Mack Center, which was hosting the PBR World Finals.

The FIBA Americas Championship 2007 was held at Thomas & Mack Center from August 22 to September 2.

Other

The facility also hosts numerous other events, such as concerts, music festivals, conventions, boxing cards, MMA cards such as UFC 43 and Pride Fighting Championships 32 & 33 and professional wrestling shows, including WWF No Way Out 2001, WWE Vengeance 2005 and on January 28, 2007 High School Musical performed. WWE No Way Out 2008. It has then hosted 2 consecutive weeks of Monday Night RAW on June 27, 2011 and July 4, 2011 (the latter which has the show celebrating the United States Independence Day). It will be hosting WWE TLC(Tables, Ladders And Chairs) on July 15,2012.

Phish performed and recorded their Halloween show, on October 31, 1998, which was later released as a live album, entitled Live Phish Volume 16.

The arena has also hosted lectures by Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev as part of various UNLV-affiliated lecture series.

The arena was the host to one of the six U.S performances of the industrial metal band Rammstein on their first North American tour in over ten years on May 21, 2011.

Some sports journalists have criticized the facility. Dan Rafael, the main boxing writer for ESPN, commented in a January 27, 2012 chat, "They should put a wrecking ball through it. It is like a cave. Very old and not attractive, comfortable or modern in any way. Pain in the butt to get to and from, weak sight lines for fans, etc...."

Gallery

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  Inside the arena before UNLV basketball game
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  An aerial view showing the connected Cox Pavillion
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  Thomas & Mack Center August 2007
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  Thomas & Mack Center & Cox Pavilion
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  Thomas & Mack Center 2005

External links

Media related to Thomas & Mack Center at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Arena Tickets

Events and tenants
Preceded by Las Vegas Convention Center	Home of the UNLV Runnin' Rebels 1983 – present	Succeeded by current
Preceded by Izod Center	Home of the Las Vegas Gladiators 2007	Succeeded by Orleans Arena
Preceded by Toyota Center	Host of the NBA All-Star Game 2007	Succeeded by New Orleans Arena