The Mohegan Sun Arena 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 spectator ...

Uncasville, Connecticut Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...

, located inside the

Mohegan Sun Mohegan Sun is an American casino, owned and operated by the Mohegan Tribe on of their reservation, along the banks of the Thames River in Uncasville, Connecticut. It has of gambling space. It is in the foothills of southeastern Connecticut ...

casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the

Perini Building Company The Perini Building Company is a division of Tutor Perini Corporation. Projects * CityCenter * Trump Las Vegas * Boston Worcester Turnpike *Thomas and Mack Center * Hard Rock Hotel and Casino *Harrah's Las Vegas *Pala Casino Resort and Spa * T ...

, and opened in October 2001.

History

The multi-purpose facility has hosted a wide variety of events; including the

American Kennel Club The American Kennel Club (AKC) is a registry of purebred dog pedigrees in the United States. In addition to maintaining its pedigree registry, this kennel club also promotes and sanctions events for purebred dogs, including the Westminster Ke ...

, WWE, concerts from major classical, country, jazz, metal, rap, rock, and pop acts, as well as sporting events such as

PBR PBR may refer to: Science and technology * Passive bistatic radar * Partition boot record * Pebble bed reactor, a type of nuclear reactor * Peripheral benzodiazepine receptor, another name for translocator protein * Phosphorus bromide * Photo ...

events, Bellator,

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

games, PBA tournaments, early UFC bouts, and the

World's Strongest Man The World's Strongest Man is an international Strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decem ...

Super Series Competition. The largest event on record to have been held at the arena was the inaugural

Barrett-Jackson Barrett-Jackson is an American collector car auction company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was founded by Scottsdale business partners Tom Barrett and Russ Jackson. They initially launched a car show, Fiesta de los Autos Elegantes, in 1 ...

collector car auction in the Northeast in 2016, for which 90,000 tickets were sold to the multi-day event. Major network and cable television broadcasting companies, including CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX,

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and CNN have all produced events through this arena.

Arena football

The arena originally served as home of the

Mohegan Wolves The Mohegan are an Algonquian Native American tribe historically based in present-day Connecticut. Today the majority of the people are associated with the Mohegan Indian Tribe, a federally recognized tribe living on a reservation in the east ...

arena football team until it was sold and moved to Manchester, New Hampshire in 2004. On July 19, 2001,

Uncasville Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...

was awarded an AF2 expansion team. On December 12, 2001,

and Dr. Eric Margenau, President/Chief Executive Officer of United Sports Ventures, announced that the new expansion AF2 franchise would be named the Mohegan Wolves. Margenau introduced Gary Porter, as the head coach for the team that would first take the field April 5, 2002 at the Mohegan Sun Arena against the

Albany Conquest The Albany Firebirds were a professional arena football team of the AF2 based in Albany, New York. Albany was granted an expansion team in 2002 and began play as the Albany Conquest. The Firebirds played their home games at the Times Union Cente ...

. Gary Porter, previously led the expansion

Peoria Pirates The Peoria Pirates were a professional arena football team that last played in AF2, the minor league to the Arena Football League (AFL). They played their home games at Carver Arena, part of the Peoria Civic Center in Illinois, and were coached ...

to a 7–9 record in 2001. The team name was selected through a "Name the Team" contest sponsored by

WCTY WCTY (97.7 FM) is a radio station with studios in Norwich, Connecticut. Its transmitter is located on Cook Drive in Montville, Connecticut. WCTY broadcasts a country music format, and is owned by Bonnie Rowbotham, through licensee Hall Communic ...

, Mohegan Sun and X-Tra Mart. A

Jewett City Jewett City is a borough in New London County, Connecticut, in the town of Griswold. The population was 3,487 at the 2010 census. The borough was named for Eliezer Jewett, who founded a settlement there in 1771. Geography According to the U ...

resident, came up with the winning name. The winner won four season tickets for the 2002 Mohegan Wolves season, dinner for four on the night of the team's first home game, and a team merchandise package.

Basketball

On January 28, 2003, the arena was announced as the official home court for the

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established as the Orlando Miracle in ...

. Prior to the fall of 2002, the NBA operating model precluded any WNBA team without an NBA "brother" counterpart. By the time the

moved in,

Val Ackerman Valerie B. Ackerman (born November 7, 1959) is an American sports executive, former lawyer, and former basketball player. She is the current commissioner of the Big East Conference. She is best known for being the first president of the Women's Na ...

was the WNBA president and Mark L. Brown was the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

of the Mohegan Tribe. Though sports betting was legalized in Connecticut on October 1, 2021, the casino has suspended WNBA betting from its sportsbook operation. On September 8, 2005, as a companion to the arena, the Mohegan Sun casino opened a Connecticut Sun merchandise store called "Winter Essentials." It was the first store in the United States that sold professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

goods on casino ground. However, the store was closed when the casino underwent renovations in 2008. Connecticut Sun merchandise would be available in the Arena during games between 2009 and 2019. The Connecticut Sun were not able to play at the arena in the 2020 season, as the entire season was relocated to IMG Academy in

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries A settlement established by Maroons or escaped sl ...

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 identi ...

. After the conclusion of the 2020 WNBA season, the arena began holding its first events since the pandemic declaration in November 2020, when it hosted a series of college basketball games where fans were not permitted.

Lacrosse

On April 21, 2002, the Mohegan Sun Arena hosted the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

All-Star Game. The North Division ( Calgary Roughnecks, Montreal Express,

Ottawa Rebel The Ottawa Rebel was a team in the National Lacrosse League based in Ottawa, Ontario from 2001 until 2003. They initially played at the Corel Centre (now called the Canadian Tire Centre), but part-way through the 2002 season moved to the smaller ...

, Rochester Knighthawks,

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville reside ...

, Vancouver Ravens) defeated the South ( Albany Attack, Buffalo Bandits, Columbus Landsharks, New Jersey Storm, New York Saints,

Philadelphia Wings Philadelphia Wings may refer to any of three distinct professional lacrosse teams: * Philadelphia Wings (1974–1975), a member of the original National Lacrosse League * Philadelphia Wings (1987–2014), a founding member of the National Lacrosse ...

, Washington Power) by a score of 14–10. Steve Toll, of the Toronto Rock, was named the MVP of the event.
On August 5, 2014, the National Lacrosse League announced that the

would move to the Mohegan Sun Arena and be re-branded as the New England Black Wolves for the 2015 season. In their home opener, the Black Wolves defeated the Buffalo Bandits 12–8 in front of 5,768.

The team relocated in 2021 and now play as the

Albany FireWolves The Albany FireWolves are a professional box lacrosse team based in Albany, New York. They are members of the East Division of the National Lacrosse League that began play in the 2021-22 season at the MVP Arena. The team is owned by a group heade ...

Mixed martial arts

On January 11, 2002, Mohegan Sun Arena hosted its first MMA event, UFC 35, headlined by Jens Pulver vs

B.J. Penn Jay Dee "B.J." Penn III (born December 13, 1978) is an American former professional mixed martial artist and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. Penn competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and in K-1. Penn was the first American Go ...

. The UFC also held UFC 45 at the arena, an event headlined by Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg.

Bellator MMA Bellator MMA (formerly Bellator Fighting Championships) is an American mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2008 and based in Santa Monica, California, owned and operated as a subsidiary of television and media conglomerate Paramount Global. ...

has consistently put on events at Mohegan Sun Arena, since 2009 that are shown below. 2009: Bellator 2, Bellator 11 2010: Bellator 15 2011: Bellator 39, Bellator 48 2012:

Bellator 63 2012 in Bellator MMA was the sixth installment of the Bellator Fighting Championships, which began on March 9, 2012. The sixth season of Bellator was originally scheduled to begin on March 2, 2012. However, the debut was pushed back a week so i ...

2013: Bellator 98 2014: Bellator 110,

Bellator 123 2014 in Bellator MMA was the tenth season for Bellator MMA, a mixed martial arts promotion. It began on February 28, 2014 and aired on Spike TV. The season included tournaments for the Heavyweight, Welterweight, Featherweight, Light Heavyweight, ...

2015: Bellator 134,

Bellator 140 2015 in Bellator MMA was the seventh year in the history of Bellator MMA, a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States. Bellator held 16 events in 2015. Background In June 2014, Founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney parted with the company. ...

, Bellator 144 2016: Bellator 153, Bellator 163 2017: Bellator 178, Bellator 185 2018: Bellator 194, Bellator 207 2019: Bellator 215, Bellator 216 2021: Bellator 262: Velasquez vs. Kielholtz

Professional wrestling

Professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

promotion WWE began broadcasting its weekly shows, '' Raw'', '' SmackDown'', and ''

Main Event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

'', and their associated pay-per-views (PPV) hosted the pay-per-views TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.

Seating

As of 2006, the seating can be configured into 5 common sports configurations. Basketball, boxing, bowling, rodeo, table tennis, lacrosse. It also can be reconfigured to fit many types of concerts: regular, fullhouse, centerstage, and halfhouse. The arena has won awards for being one of America's most modern concert venues. The arena was awarded the 2008 and 2010 Country Music Award for "Casino of the Year". It was also ranked the 4th best venue by ''Billboard Magazine''.

Notable events

WNBA All-Star Game The Women's National Basketball Association All-Star Game, commonly referred to as the WNBA All-Star Game, is an annual exhibition basketball game played in the United States between the best players of the Western and Eastern Conference of ...

–

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

,
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2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

2002 All-Star Game. * American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament (2014–2020) *

Big East women's basketball tournament The Big East women's basketball tournament is a conference championship tournament in women's basketball. It was first held in 1983, at the end of the 1982–83 college basketball season that was the first in which the Big East Conference sponsor ...

(2021 and beyond) *

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

2020 enshrinement ceremony – May 15, 2021

NBA games

Strength Athletics Grand Prix

Since 2005, the arena has hosted one of the premier international strongman Grand Prix events.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080731120733/http://www.mohegansun.com/entertainment/arena-360view-popup.html *http://www.wnba.com/sun/news/winteressentials.html Mohegan Sun Winter Essentials Store {{Authority control Basketball venues in Connecticut Connecticut Sun venues Music venues completed in 2001 Sports venues completed in 2001 Montville, Connecticut Indoor lacrosse venues in the United States Lacrosse venues in Connecticut Arena football venues Indoor arenas in Connecticut New England Black Wolves Mohegan Sports venues in New London County, Connecticut