Lubbock Municipal Coliseum (formerly City Bank Coliseum) was an 8,344-seat multi-purpose

arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...

. Although the arena was located on the campus of

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...

, it was owned and operated by the City of Lubbock until 2018. The Coliseum (and adjoining Auditorium) were demolished in 2019 following the land's transfer of ownership back to

. The

Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences is a new performing arts venue in Lubbock, Texas. Groundbreaking took place on April 20, 2017 with more than 500 people in attendance, including Lubbock Mayor, Dan Pope, board chairman of the ...

, located downtown at the intersection of Marsha Sharp Freeway and Ave L, opened in 2020 to replace the Auditorium.

History

On April 27, 1943, the Texas Legislature authorized Texas Tech (then known as Texas Technological College) to give a 5-acre tract of land to the City of Lubbock for the purpose of building a municipal auditorium. In 1945, the city approved the issuance of $1.75 million in bonds to construct the Auditorium-Coliseum. Construction on the complex began in 1954 and the two facilities opened to the public in 1956. When the United Spirit Arena opened in 1999, the coliseum had to compete with Texas Tech for events. Following the suspension of the Cotton Kings in 2007 and Renegades in 2007, the coliseum lacked a permanent tenant.

Arena usage

Sports

Arena football

The Coliseum was briefly the home to the

Lubbock Gunslingers The Lubbock Gunslingers were a professional indoor American football, indoor football team. They played their home games in Lubbock, Texas, at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum. The Gunslingers played in 2004 as a charter member of the Intense Football ...

and

Lubbock Renegades The Lubbock Renegades were an expansion member of the AF2. The team played its home games at the City Bank Coliseum, which was the former home of the IFL/ NIFL team, the Lubbock Lone Stars/Gunslingers. The team was owned by Doug McGregor, Ric ...

College basketball

The Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball team began playing at the Coliseum during the 1956–57 season. The Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball team began playing select games during the 1976–77 and 1977–78 seasons. The Lady Raiders began playing only at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum beginning with the 1978–79 season. After the venue now known as

United Supermarkets Arena United Supermarkets Arena (previously the United Spirit Arena) is a multipurpose arena on the campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. The 15,300-seat arena opened in 1999 and is home to the Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball, Texas Te ...

opened in 1999, both teams relocated to the university-owned and operated arena. The Coliseum also hosted the Midwest Regional semi-final and final games of the

1966 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament The 1966 NCAA University Division basketball tournament involved 22 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national men's basketball champion of the NCAA University Division, now Division I. It began on March 7 a ...

won by the

Texas Western The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

Miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

(now

UTEP The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stude ...

) who went on to upset the

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

Wildcats The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...

in the national championship game in

College Park, Maryland College Park is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and is approximately four miles (6.4 km) from the northeast border of Washington, D.C. The population was 34,740 at the 2020 United States Census. It is best known a ...

Ice hockey

The arena was the home to the

Lubbock Cotton Kings The Lubbock Cotton Kings were a professional ice hockey team formerly based in Lubbock, Texas as members of the Western Professional Hockey League and the Central Hockey League. The team played home games at City Bank Coliseum. History The Lubboc ...

of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

from 1999 to 2007. However, after being unable to come to an agreement with the city of Lubbock for the use of the arena, the team suspended operations prior to the 2007–08 season.

Professional basketball

During the 1971–72

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 ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

season, the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum served as a sometimes home court for the then-named

Texas Chaparrals These redirects lead to their targets in accordance with the naming conventions for common names and can help with writing and searches. Do not replace these redirected links with piped links. See also * Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common ...

, a one-year experiment by the

Dallas Chaparrals The Dallas Chaparrals were a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The team moved to San Antonio, Texas for the 1973–74 season and were renamed the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs joined the National Basketball Association ...

to expand their appeal to a statewide audience. The Chaparrals eventually became the

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...

of the American Basketball Association and later of the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Wrestling

Lubbock Municipal Coliseum was the Lubbock home of

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

since the 1980s.

WCW World Championship Wrestling, Inc. (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion founded by Ted Turner in 1988, after Turner Broadcasting System, through a subsidiary named Universal Wrestling Corporation, purchased the assets of Nationa ...

also visited the Coliseum for most of the 1990s until United Supermarkets Arena (originally United Spirit Arena) opened.

Concerts

The Lubbock Municipal Coliseum was a popular stop for touring artists. In the 1980s, tickets at the time were between $12 and $13. Major concert tours have since moved to United Supermarkets Arena.

Other

The Coliseum was used for the

Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (also known as the Ringling Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros., the Barnum & Bailey Circus, Barnum & Bailey, or simply Ringling) is an American traveling circus company billed as The Greatest Show on Ear ...

Disney on Ice Disney on Ice, originally Walt Disney's World on Ice, is a series of touring ice shows produced by Feld Entertainment's Ice Follies And Holiday on Ice, Inc. under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows fea ...

and Stars on Ice.

Final event

The final event to take place at the Coliseum was the 77th annua
ABC Pro Rodeo
April 4–6, 2019. The 2019 rodeo was the 63rd year which it was held at the Coliseum. Fittingly, the first event held at the Coliseum in 1956 was the 14th ABC Pro Rodeo.

Lubbock Municipal Auditorium

Adjacent to the coliseum was the 2,803-seat Lubbock Municipal Auditorium. The auditorium hosted its final event on September 27, 2018 when

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following the ...

performed with his band, The Sensational Space Shifters. The auditorium was demolished in April and May 2019 along with the attached Lubbock Municipal Coliseum following the land's transfer of ownership back to

References

External links

Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lubbock Municipal Coliseum American Basketball Association venues Arena football venues Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Indoor arenas in Texas Indoor ice hockey venues in the United States Basketball venues in Lubbock, Texas Texas Chaparrals venues Texas Tech Lady Raiders basketball venues Texas Tech Red Raiders basketball venues Sports venues demolished in 2019