State Farm Arena

For the stadium of PSV Eindhoven, see Philips Stadion.

Philips Arena

Location	1 Philips Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Owner	Atlanta Spirit, LLC
Operator	Atlanta Spirit, LLC
Capacity	Basketball: 18,729 Hockey and Arena football: 18,545
Construction
Opened	1999
Construction cost	$213.5 million
Architect	HOK Sport
Tenants
Atlanta Hawks (NBA) (1999- present) Atlanta Thrashers (NHL) (1999-present) Atlanta Dream (WNBA) (2008-present) Georgia Force (AFL) (2002, 2005-2007)

Philips Arena is an indoor arena in Atlanta, Georgia. Completed in 1999 at a cost of $213.5 million, it is home to the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL and the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA. It is owned and operated by Atlanta Spirit, LLC, the group of investors that also owns the Hawks and Thrashers. The arena seats 18,729 for basketball and 18,545 for ice hockey. It includes 92 luxury suites and 1,866 club seats. For concerts and other entertainment events, the arena can seat 21,000.

The arena was laid out in a rather unusual manner, with the club seats and luxury boxes aligned solely along one side of the playing surface, and the general admission seating along the other three sides (the arrangement was later emulated at the Detroit Lions home field Ford Field). This unique layout is a vast contrast to many of its contemporaries, which have their revenue-generating luxury boxes and club seats located in the 'belly' of the arena, thus causing the upper deck to be 2-4 stories higher. The layout at Philips was done so as to be able to bring the bulk of the seats closer to the playing surface while still making available a sufficient number of revenue-raising club seats and lodges.

The arena is sponsored by and named for Philips Electronics and therefore contains a large number of television screens made by Philips. On the exterior, angled steel columns supporting the roof facing downtown spell out "ATLANTA" and the side facing the Georgia World Congress Center spells out "CNN." The arena adjoins the CNN Center. The Dome/GWCC/Philips Arena/CNN Center rail station below the arena provides access to MARTA public transportation.

History

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, many cities starting building new state-of-the-art sporting venues for their NHL and/or NBA franchises, or in hopes of attaining one. Many of these arenas had modern amenities for their high-end customers, such as luxury boxes, club seats, and large, posh club-level concourses; some even had practice facilities on-site. These attractions were rarely found in arenas constructed in the early 1970s when The Omni was built and led to its chief tenant, the Atlanta Hawks being put in a competitive disadvantage. The operating manager of the current arena in place Ted Turner wanted an expansion hockey team but was told by the NHL that a new arena would have to be built. That, along with the fact that The Omni was rapidly deteriorating led to a new venue being built. After the Atlanta Hawks were eliminated from the 1997 NBA playoffs by the Chicago Bulls, the Omni was demolished and Philips Arena was constructed in its place.

Philips Arena occupies the site of the Omni Coliseum, Atlanta's former sports arena. The Omni's "center-hung scoreboard" now hangs in the lobby of Philips Arena, where it still displays The Omni's logo along with that of Philips Arena, the Hawks, and the Thrashers (who never played in The Omni). The scoreboard still functions and displays information relevant to the game taking place in the arena.

World Championship Wrestling (WCW) hosted a number of professional wrestling events at Philips Arena before it was sold to WWE in spring 2001. The arena was also host to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Royal Rumble event in January 2002 and Backlash 2007 in April 2007, and has hosted several episodes of RAW and SmackDown!.

Philips Arena in basketball setup. Note all the fans who dressed up as empty seats.

Philips Arena in hockey setup, viewed from section 303

It hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 2003.

The venue had been named the site of the 2005 Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament; however, when the NHL announced in early 2004 that the 55th NHL All-Star Game, scheduled for February 2005 would be held in Atlanta, arena officials withdrew the Southeastern Conference Women's Basketball Tournament which was moved 140 miles northeast on Interstate 85 to the BI-LO Center in Greenville, South Carolina. Ironically, the arena would not even play host to that All-Star Game due to the 2004-05 NHL Lockout. As a result, Atlanta became the second (San Jose being the first) city to lose an All-Star Game planned in advance because of a labor dispute. Philips Arena would later be announced as home to the 56th NHL All-Star Game in 2008.

The DVD film for the tour Destiny Fulfilled ... And Lovin' It by Destiny's Child was filmed there. On September 12 2006, latin mega-star Shakira, performed one sold-out concert, part of her 2006-2007 World "Oral Fixation Tour". Celine Dion will perform her Taking Chances Tour at the arena on January 17 2009.

The facility played host to the 2004 US Figure Skating Championships.

On March 14th 2008, an F2 Tornado stuck near Philips Arena. The arena only received minor exterior damage.

External links

• Official site

33°45′26.01″N 84°23′46.76″W