The Stormont Vail Events Center, formerly known as Kansas Expocentre, is a 10,000-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 ...

built in 1987 in

Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ; Kansa: ; iow, Dópikˀe, script=Latn or ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeast Kansas, in the Central U ...

. Previously, the

Topeka Sizzlers The Topeka Sizzlers, originally the Kansas City Sizzlers, were a professional basketball team based in Kansas City, Missouri from 1985 to 1986 until they relocated to Topeka, Kansas where they played from 1986 to 1990. The Sizzlers were members o ...

of the Continental Basketball Association,

Kansas Koyotes The Kansas Koyotes, founded by Ralph Adams, were a professional indoor football and were a charter member of the Champions Professional Indoor Football League. Based in Topeka, Kansas, the Koyotes played their home games at Landon Arena. The ...

indoor football team, Topeka Tarantulas,

Topeka ScareCrows The Topeka Scarecrows were a professional ice hockey team located in Topeka, Kansas, playing their home games at Landon Arena. The team was a member of the Central Hockey League from their founding in 1998 until 2001 when there franchise was term ...

, Topeka Pilots

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

and Topeka Tropics of

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team fr ...

teams played there. Many other shows, including concerts, perform here. The Kansas Expocentre was renamed on June 13, 2019, to the Stormont Vail Events Center after signing a ten-year partnership agreement with Topeka-based Stormont Vail Health. It has hosted the Kansas State High School Activities Association Class 5A boys and girls state basketball tournaments since its opening, and the KSHSAA Class 5A and 6A volleyball state championships since 1992. The arena also hosts the

USA Wrestling USA Wrestling (formerly known as the United States Wrestling Federation and as the United States Wrestling Association) is the organization that currently governs freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman wrestling in the United States. USA Wrestling is ...

Kansas Kids state championship tournament every March. Landon Arena is the main part of the events center. Other areas include the Exhibition Hall, a building for trade shows, and Domer Arena, a livestock/horse show arena.

Features

Landon Arena contains 7,450 fixed seats, with over 2,550 floor seats. The arena is climate controlled and features computerized lighting, closed circuit TV security, a state-of-the-art sound system, drive-in entrance, plenty of power, and built-in ice capabilities.

History

The site in the center of Topeka has a long history of use for activities related to agriculture, farming, exhibitions, education and entertainment as the Shawnee County Fairgrounds. The grand opening of the Kansas Expocentre was on April 17, 1987, with a sold-out concert featuring

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted m ...

, T. Graham Brown, and Ronnie Milsap. Landon Arena, named for Kansas' elder statesman, governor Alfred M. Landon (1887–1987) was built 1987. To tie the old buildings to the new facilities, an indoor passageway was constructed between the conference center and exhibit hall. It hosted the first Expocentre event with nearly 9,000 people attending a

basketball game.

Significant events

Landon Arena has been the venue for many concerts, family shows, trade shows, consumer shows, horse shows, dog shows and a variety of exhibitions. *Concert performers have included George Strait, Garth Brooks,

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance (commonly abbreviated to MCR or My Chem) is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, lead guitarist Ray Toro, rhythm guitarist Frank Iero, and bassist ...

, Aerosmith,

Heart The heart is a muscular organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as carbon dioxide to t ...

, Rush, Primus, Cher, Rise Against,

Alice Cooper Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948) is an American rock singer whose career spans over five decades. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusions, including pyrotechnics, guillot ...

, Carrie Underwood,

Little Big Town Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group from Homewood, Alabama. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its founding: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman (née Roads), Phillip Sweet, and Jimi Westbr ...

Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance ...

Buckcherry Buckcherry is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, '' Buckcherry'' (1999) and '' Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckcherry's first album ''Buckcherry'' was DreamWorks first ...

, Papa Roach, Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie,

Eric Church Kenneth Eric Church (born May 3, 1977) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He has released nine studio albums through Capitol Nashville since 2005. His debut album, 2006's '' Sinners Like Me'', produced three singles on the ''Billboar ...

, and

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

. *It has also hosted some wrestling shows such as

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 ...

WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...

ECW ECW may refer to: Professional wrestling * Extreme Championship Wrestling (originally Eastern Championship Wrestling), a professional wrestling promotion that operated from 1992 to 2001 * The Alliance (professional wrestling) (originally the WCW/E ...

WWE Friday Night SmackDown ''WWE SmackDown'', also known as ''Friday Night SmackDown'' or simply ''SmackDown'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that as of currently airs live every Friday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Fox Deportes sim ...

, and

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Impact Wrestling (stylized as ''IMPACT! Wrestling''), is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment. Founded by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett in 2002, the promo ...

house shows. *Ice shows include Disney on Ice and High School Musical: The Concert Tour. *Other Disney shows include

Disney Live The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character w ...

Playhouse Disney Playhouse Disney was a brand of programming blocks and international cable and satellite television channels that were owned by the Disney Channels Worldwide unit (now Disney Branded Television) of The Walt Disney Company's Disney–ABC Televi ...

Live, and My Little Pony Live. *The arena also hosts the ''Arab Shrine Circus'' each year.

References

External links

Landon Arena official site
{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1987 Buildings and structures in Topeka, Kansas Indoor ice hockey venues in the United States Music venues in Kansas Sports venues in Kansas Tourist attractions in Topeka, Kansas 1987 establishments in Kansas Continental Basketball Association venues Indoor arenas in Kansas