Neal S. Blaisdell Center

Neal S. Blaisdell Center
Address	777 Ward Ave Honolulu, Hawaii 96814-2166
Location	Downtown Honolulu, Oahu
Owner	City and County of Honolulu
Opened	September 12, 1964 (1964-09-12)
Renovated	1994
Construction cost	$14 million
Former names	Honolulu International Center (1964-84)
Classroom-style seating	72 (Oahu Room) 64 (Maui Room) 48 (Kauai Room)
Banquet/ballroom	1,000 (Hawaii Suite) 700 (Pikake Room) 350 (Carla Coray Galleria)
Theatre seating	8,800 (Blaisdell Arena) 2,157 (Blaisdell Concert Hall)
Enclosed space
• Exhibit hall floor	65,000 square feet (6,000 m2)
• Breakout/meeting	3,200 square feet (300 m2)
• Ballroom	23,700 square feet (2,200 m2)
Website	Venue Website

The Neal S. Blaisdell Center in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii is a community center for the City & County of Honolulu. Constructed in 1964 on the historic Ward Estate and originally called the Honolulu International Center, the center was renamed after Mayor of Honolulu Neal S. Blaisdell, who oversaw its construction. The multi-purpose complex is composed of an internationally renowned arena, concert hall, conference rooms, galleria and exhibition hall. It was remodeled and expanded in 1994.

Facilities and events

Arena

Blaisdell Arena

The Neal S. Blaisdell Arena is a circular performance facility used for concerts and major sporting events. The arena can accommodate 7,700 seats for sports events, and up to 8,800 seats for stage events with seats set up on the arena floor.

Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii" concert was held here on 14 January 1973. In recognition of the concert, a bronze statue of Elvis has been erected outside the front of the center. The statue was sponsored by the cable channel TV Land.

Other events at the arena include World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), Disney on Ice, American Idol Live!, Sesame Street Live, college basketball and volleyball, and international gymnastics, as well as a fundraising concert for victims of Hurricane Iniki, with Crosby, Stills & Nash, Jackson Browne & Bonnie Raitt, and a 1965 Billy Graham crusade.

During a circus performance in 1994, Tyke, an African Elephant, killed her trainer and charged out of the arena in rage. The animal rampaged outside the arena for 30 minutes before police fired 86 rounds at the elephant, who eventually collapsed and died as a result of the shootings.

The Arena also hosts the start of the exhibition season for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association and the men's and women's basketball and volleyball games for Hawaii Pacific University, the state's largest private university. It served as the home court for University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa basketball until UH built the Stan Sheriff Center on campus in 1994. The arena was the home venue for several short-lived attempts to establish Hawaii professional sports teams, including the Hawaii Hurricanes of the American Basketball Association, the Hawaii Leis of World Team Tennis and three indoor football teams: the Honolulu Hurricanes, the Hawaii Hammerheads, and the af2's Hawaiian Islanders. The Leis and Islanders each persisted for three full seasons, the longest of all the pro teams based at the arena. In 1982, the arena served as home court for Chaminade University in a Christmas Eve upset of a Ralph Sampson-led number one ranked University of Virginia, 77-72.

In November 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted the Cheeseburger Island Style PBR Hawaii All-Star Challenge, a special event that took place between the 2006 PBR World Finals and the start of the 2007 PBR season.

Many graduation and commencement ceremonies are held by schools in the arena in late May and June.

Concert Hall

Blaisdell Concert Hall

With a capacity of 2,158 seats, the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall is the home of the Honolulu Symphony and the Hawaiʻi Opera Theatre. Broadway productions such as The Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, Rent, Miss Saigon, Chicago, Cats, and other national touring shows have performed at the concert hall. In the fall and early winter of 2007 the concert hall was host to the Broadway musical The Lion King, a booking which displaced the Honolulu Symphony from its usual home and led to a major cash flow crisis for the orchestra.

Exhibition Hall

Blaisdell Exhibition Hall

Located between the Concert Hall and the Arena, the Exhibition Hall provides 65,000 square feet (6,000 m²) of exhibition space on the main floor that is expandable to 85,000 square feet (7,900 m²) when combined with adjoining spaces. Five meeting rooms are also available in the hall. The Exhibition Hall accommodates numerous local trade and consumer shows and fundraising events throughout the year, and is one of the main exhibition venues in Honolulu in addition to the Hawaii Convention Center.

Miscellaneous

Many religious ceremonies have been performed in the Neal S. Blaisdell Center. The largest of which were the enthronement of Joseph Anthony Ferrario as the third Bishop of Honolulu and the ordination and installation of Clarence Richard Silva as the fifth Bishop of Honolulu, overseeing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu. Kamehameha Schools has held their annual Song Contest at the Blaisdell since 1964. On December 23, 1982, what is considered by many as the greatest upset in sports history happened at the Blaisdell Arena as the then number 1-ranked University of Virginia Cavaliers, led by future Hall of Famer Ralph Sampson, was beaten 77-72 by Chaminade University, a small NAIA school (today NCAA Division II) with a student body of 800.

See also

• List of concert halls
• Tyke the elephant