Miami Arena was an

indoor 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 spectator ...

located in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

. The venue served as the home of the NBA's

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

, and the NHL's

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference, and initially played their home g ...

. From 1988 until 1999, it also was the indoor arena for the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

History

Completed in 1988 at a cost of $52.5 million, its opening took business away from the Hollywood Sportatorium and eventually led to that venue's demolition. The arena was the home of the

from 1988 to 1999, the

from 1993 to 1998, the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, i ...

basketball teams from 1988 to 2003, the

Miami Hooters Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

from 1993 to 1995, the Miami Matadors of the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

in 1998 and the

Miami Manatees The Miami Manatees were a minor league ice hockey team in the World Hockey Association 2. The Manatees originally played their home games at Miami Arena; however, owner David Waronker had an out clause in the teams lease that stated that if the t ...

of the WHA2 in 2003. The first game played by the Heat in their first home was a loss to 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 ...

, 111–91, on November 5, 1988; the first victory came a month and a half later against the

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 (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

, 101–80. The arena also hosted the 1990

NBA All-Star Game The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February by the National Basketball Association (NBA) and showcases 24 of the league's star players. It is the featured event of NBA All-Star Weekend, ...

, the 1991 WWF Royal Rumble, the 1994 NCAA men's basketball East Regional final, the NHL's 1996 Stanley Cup Finals between the Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche and the NBA's 1997 NBA Playoffs Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. By 1998, the Miami Arena, like most indoor sports arenas built in the late 1980s, was beginning to show its age, despite being only 10 years old. Its

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile tha ...

was one of the lowest of any NBA or NHL arena. In addition, sports teams in general began wanting newer, more updated facilities, specifically luxury suites and new concessions. In 1998, the Panthers moved into the National Car Rental Center (now FLA Live Arena) in

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...

, near Florida's largest outlet mall, Sawgrass Mills. On January 2, 2000, the Heat moved to the new

American Airlines Arena FTX Arena (known as American Airlines Arena from 1999 to 2021) is a multi-purpose arena located in Miami, Florida, along Biscayne Bay. It was constructed beginning in 1998 as a replacement for the Miami Arena and designed by the architecture f ...

located three blocks east of Miami Arena on the shore of Biscayne Bay. After the year 2000, the arena became mostly inactive, as most of the concerts that were held at Miami Arena moved to the newer venues. However, the

of the

WHA2 The World Hockey Association 2 was a minor professional ice hockey league created at the instigation of the organizers of the proposed recreated World Hockey Association to serve as its development league. The WHA2 teams — some of which had ...

played at the Miami Arena in 2003, and the Miami Morays indoor football from 2005 to 2006. The arena was easily accessible via mass transit, with a Metrorail stop at Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre station just across the street (once known as Overtown/Arena station). Miami-Dade city buses also service the arena area downtown. Miami Arena was sometimes called the "Pink Elephant", because it was a

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, sch ...

with pink colored walls. In 2004, the arena was sold in a

public auction In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

to Glenn Straub, an investor from

Palm Beach County Palm Beach County is a county located in the southeastern part of Florida and lies directly north of Broward County and Miami-Dade County. The county had a population of 1,492,191 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous county ...

, for half of the price the city of Miami paid for its original construction. On August 3, 2008, Straub announced in a television interview that the interior of the arena had been cleared out and that the building would be demolished by the end of the month. On September 21, 2008, the roof of the Miami Arena was imploded. While the exterior walls remained standing after the implosion, demolition continued until the falling of the west wall on October 21, 2008. A parking lot now exists where the arena used to stand.

Seating capacity

Basketball * 1988–1993 – 15,008 * 1993–2008 – 15,200 Ice hockey/arena football * 14,703 Concerts * Full house: 16,627 * 3/4 house: 9,878 * 1/2 house: 7,485 * In the round: 16,694 * the space in arena is 1,560 Other *

Banquet A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

s – 500 * Luxury suites – 26

Events

References

External links

^ "Miami Arena"
Ballparks.com. Retrieved on 2009-07-21. {{Authority control Sports venues completed in 1988 Sports venues demolished in 2008 Defunct arena football venues Basketball venues in Florida Florida Panthers arenas Music venues in Florida Indoor ice hockey venues in Florida Miami Heat venues Miami Hurricanes basketball venues Sports venues in Miami Defunct National Hockey League venues Former National Basketball Association venues Defunct college basketball venues in the United States Demolished music venues in the United States Defunct indoor arenas in Florida Demolished sports venues in Florida 1988 establishments in Florida 2008 disestablishments in Florida Florida Hammerheads Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion