The Anaheim Convention Center is a major convention center in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

and is the largest exhibition facility on the

West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous ...

. It is located across from the Disneyland Resort on Katella Avenue. The original components, designed by Adrian Wilson & Associates and built by Del E. Webb Corporation, opened in July 1967—including a basketball arena followed shortly by the convention hall. It holds many events, like

Star Wars Celebration The ''Star Wars'' Celebration is a fan gathering to celebrate the ''Star Wars'' franchise. It began in 1999, when Lucasfilm held the ''Star Wars'' Celebration in Denver, Colorado to celebrate the upcoming release of ''Star Wars: Episode I – ...

VidCon VidCon is an annual convention for fans, creators, executives, and online brands. The event primarily features prominent video stars from across the internet. In October 2020, VidCon Now relaunched as an ongoing, free digital offering. Vetera ...

BlizzCon BlizzCon is an annual gaming convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to promote its major franchises including ''Warcraft'', ''StarCraft'', '' Diablo'', '' Hearthstone'', ''Heroes of the Storm,'' and '' Overwatch''. The first BlizzCon was he ...

Anime Expo Anime Expo, abbreviated AX, is an American anime convention held in Los Angeles, California and organized by the non-profit Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation (SPJA). The convention is traditionally held annually on the first ...

D23 Expo D23: The Official Disney Fan Club is the official fan club for The Walt Disney Company. Founded in 2009, the organization is known mainly for its biennial exposition event, the D23 Expo. The name ''D23'' refers to ''D'' for ''Disney'' and ''23' ...

WonderCon WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and film convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area (1987–2011), then—under the name WonderCon Anaheim—in Anaheim, California (2012–2015, 2017–present), and WonderCon Los Ange ...

NAMM Show The NAMM Show is an annual event in the United States that is organized by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM), who describe it as "the industry’s largest stage, uniting the global music, sound and entertainment technology commun ...

, competitions, and more. In addition to hosting various types of conventions, the Anaheim Convention Center was used to host the

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

during the 1984 Summer Olympics.1984 Summer Olympics official report.
Volume 1. Part 1. pp. 153–55. The center has subsequently undergone six major expansions (1974, 1982, 1990, 1993, 1999–2000, 2016–2017). It is the largest exhibit facility on the West Coast.

Hostings

Originally, the arena was home to the Anaheim Amigos of the

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, leading to four A ...

during the first ABA season, 1967–68. The franchise relocated to the Los Angeles Sports Arena and became the Los Angeles Stars immediately thereafter; the team eventually moved to Salt Lake City and became the

Utah Stars The Utah Stars were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under head coach Bill Sharman the Stars were the first major professional basketball team to use a pre-game shootaround. History prior to moving t ...

, capturing the 1970–71 ABA Championship. The Stars' subsequent fan support in Utah set the foundation for the NBA's

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference, Northwest Division. Since the 1991–92 season, ...

. The San Diego Friars of WTT played some of their home matches in the arena between 1975 and 1977. In 1978, the Anaheim Oranges of WTT used the arena as their primary home venue. The arena was also home to the California Surf of the NASL for one indoor season ( 1979–80). According to frequent news reports, the largest exposition held at the Convention Center in recent years has been the Winter

. This music-equipment convention (trade only, not open to the general public) had over 2,000 exhibitors and a record-breaking 115,888 attendees during the 2020 show. The NAMM Show has been running at the Anaheim Center since 1977, except for a three-year break in 1998–2000 while the Convention Center underwent major renovations, and in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In 2008, news reports indicated that NAMM's long-term lease with the Anaheim Convention Center authority would end in 2010, and NAMM was applying pressure to the City of Anaheim to further expand and improve the convention center. The NAMM Show did ultimately occur in the convention center in 2011 and the subsequent years. The

was hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center in 1996 and again from 2003 through 2006 and was one of the convention center's biggest public events.

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, the company was founded on February 8, 1991, under the name Silicon & Synapse, ...

holds

at the venue. In 2005, BlizzCon used the northern two conference halls, (and the arena for a concert one evening). In 2007 and 2008, it used three conference halls. In 2009, it used four conference halls. While tickets to the 2007 event sold out in 3 days, tickets to the October 2008 event sold out "within minutes," and tickets to the August 2009 event sold out in "56 seconds". Tickets to the 2010 Blizzcon reportedly sold out within 30 seconds. Another large convention held at the center is the Medical Design and Manufacturing Show, held shortly after Winter NAMM. The venue served as the site for wrestling at the 1984 Summer Olympics. The venue hosted the

Big West Conference The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I. The conference was originally formed on July 1, 1969, as the Pacific ...

's men's and women's college basketball tournaments from 2001 to 2010 and the

76 Classic The DirecTV Classic was an eight-team college basketball tournament held during Thanksgiving week at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The tournament began in 2007, and was owned and operated by ESPN Regional Television. Game ...

college basketball tournament from 2007 to 2012. The

Wooden Legacy The Paycom Wooden Legacy is an annual early-season men's college basketball competition that began in 2013. It is named in honor of basketball coach John Wooden, whose UCLA Bruins teams won 10 national championships over the 12 seasons from 1964 ...

college basketball tournament has been hosted at the convention center since 2021 (the 2020 edition of the tournament was scheduled to be hosted at the venue prior to being cancelled due to the

). It was briefly home to the Anaheim Arsenal basketball team in the NBA Development League from 2006 to 2009 before it relocated to Springfield, Massachusetts, for the 2009–10 season. During the

1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the 1992 Los Angeles uprising and the Los Angeles Race Riots, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in S ...

, the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

were forced to move Game 4 of their NBA playoff series versus the

to the Convention Center.

has been held at the Anaheim Convention Center since its third annual event in 2012. The new venue offered a much larger capacity than the previously used

Hyatt Regency Century Plaza The Fairmont Century Plaza is a landmark 19-story luxury hotel in Los Angeles. Located in Century City, the hotel forms a sweeping crescent design fronting the Avenue of the Stars, adjacent to the twin Century Plaza Towers and the 2000 Avenue of ...

hotel in Los Angeles.

is hosted annually at the convention center since 2012, with the exception of 2016 when it was held at the

Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center ...

. The 2012 VEX Robotics World Championship was also held in the convention center. Almost 600 teams were present at the competition which utilized two of the convention center's exhibit halls, as well as the convention centers Arena. In 2013 the VEX Robotics World Championship returned to the Anaheim Convention Center, occupying 3 exhibit halls as well as the arena. There were over 700 teams present, representing 24 nations. Each competed to be crowned the World Championship within their respective divisions. Disney's inaugural

, a biennial convention for Disney fans, was held at the Anaheim Convention Center in 2009. The convention center has hosted all subsequent D23 Expos.

Lucasfilm Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC is an American film and television production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The studio is best known for creating and producing the ''Star Wars'' and ' ...

's ''Star Wars'' Celebration fan gathering was held at the convention center in 2015. Minecon was held at the venue in September 2016. It hosted the

2017 World Weightlifting Championships The 2017 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Anaheim, California, United States from 28 November to 5 December 2017. Doping bans Nine countries were banned from competing at the World Championships due to their history of doping at p ...

. The Collegiate Challenge gymnastics meet was held in the arena in 2019. The convention center hosted the 2017

FBLA-PBL The Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA, is an American career and technical student organization headquartered in Reston, Virginia. Established in 1940, FBLA is a non-profit organization of high school ("FBLA"), Middle Level ("FBLA ...

National Leadership Conference. The convention center hosted the 2019 Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference. The convention center and arena is currently hosting the California State

Future Farmers of America National FFA Organization is an American 501(c)(3) youth organization, specifically a career and technical student organization, based on middle and high school classes that promote and support agricultural education. It was founded in 1925 at ...

leadership conference, which started in 2018, the largest youth convention in the State of California. As of 2019, 9,000 students from across the state of California have attended the event, with more expecting to show up in the future. Anaheim convention center covid site

The convention center was a filming location for '' Star Trek: Picard'' and will make an appearance in the show as a part of

Starfleet Starfleet is a fictional organization in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets ("the Federation") as the principal means for conduc ...

Headquarters. The convention center served as a mass COVID-19 vaccination site for Orange County workers and residents from February to June 2021.

References

External links

*
Anaheim.net: City of Anaheim history, including the Convention Center

1966 photo of the Convention Center under construction
{{Authority control Convention centers in California American Basketball Association venues Anaheim Arsenal Basketball venues in California Buildings and structures in Anaheim, California Buildings and structures completed in 1967 California Surf sports facilities Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Defunct NBA G League venues Event venues established in 1967 Googie architecture in California Gymnastics venues in California Indoor soccer venues in California Los Angeles Clippers venues North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor venues Olympic wrestling venues Sports venues in Anaheim, California Sports venues completed in 1967 Tennis venues in California Tourist attractions in Anaheim, California Volleyball venues in California Wrestling venues in California Venues of the 1984 Summer Olympics 1967 establishments in California Indoor arenas in California Del E. Webb buildings Esports venues in California

Hostings

See also

References

External links