Bayfront Center was an indoor arena located in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

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 to ...

that hosted many concerts, sporting and other events. Depending on the configuration, it could hold up to 8,600 people. The arena was opened in 1965 and demolished in 2004. It adjoined the

Mahaffey Theater The Mahaffey Theater – Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts facility and concert hall located on the downtown waterfront in St. Petersburg, Florida. The facility first opened on May 6, 1965.The 2,031-seat facility fea ...

, which is still standing.

Musical acts

Over its 40-year history, a wide variety of top entertainers performed at the Bayfront Center including:

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

, Metallica, Lynyrd Skynyrd,

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

, Van Halen, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Aerosmith, the

Beach Boys A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shell ...

, James Brown, the Grateful Dead, Elton John, RUSH,

The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Polic ...

, Johnny Cash, the Beastie Boys,

Liberace Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin, he enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordi ...

, Bon Jovi, Jimmy Buffett,

Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...

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 ...

, KISS, and

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...

Sports

Basketball

The venue hosted the American Basketball Association's

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when the team played in St. Petersburg during the 1970–71 and 1971–72 seasons. The

South Florida Bulls men's basketball The South Florida Bulls men's basketball team represents the University of South Florida in NCAA Division I basketball competition, where they are currently a member of the American Athletic Conference. They have been coached by Brian Gregory si ...

team used the Bayfront Center for some home games between 1974-1980. The

Tampa Bay Thrillers The Tampa Bay Thrillers were a franchise in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) from 1984–1987. They won back-to-back championships in 1984–85 and 1985–86. At the end of the 1986–87 CBA regular season the team relocated to Rapi ...

of the Continental Basketball Association played two non-consecutive seasons (1984–85 and 1986–87) in the arena, winning the CBA title in 1985. Because of an apparent rent/lease dispute they moved to Tampa the following year and won another title. With a new owner at the helm they returned to the Bayfront Center for their third season. Attendance sagged to as few as 295 fans, so the franchise relocated to

Rapid City, South Dakota Rapid City ( lkt, link=no, Mni Lúzahaŋ Otȟúŋwahe; "Swift Water City") is the second most populous city in South Dakota and the county seat of Pennington County. Named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed, it is in western So ...

at the end of that regular season, and won that year's CBA title for an unusual three-peat. The arena served as the home arena of the Tampa Bay ThunderDawgs of the ABA for the 2000-2001 season.

Ice hockey

The Bayfront Center was home ice for the St. Petersburg Suns of the Eastern Hockey League from 1971 to 1973, and then for the

Suncoast Suns The Suncoast Suns was a minor league professional ice hockey team based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and played home games at the Bayfront Center. The Suns began in the Eastern Hockey League in 1971, and was a founding member of the Southern Hock ...

of the Southern Hockey League for the 1973–74 season.

Indoor soccer

The

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

of the North American Soccer League played nearly all of their indoor home games at the Bayfront Center throughout their NASL existence, winning titles in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

, 1979–80 and

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

. The Rowdies later joined

American Indoor Soccer Association American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

and again used the arena for the AISA 1986–87 season. The Tampa Bay Terror of the National Professional Soccer League also used the venue in the 1995–96 and 1996–97 seasons.

Other events

From the 1960s to the 1990s, the Bayfront Center was the location for Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey's annual spring TV taping. Until 1992, every spring Ringling Brothers taped a network TV special from the arena and also shot all the photos for their programs there. The Pinellas County Industrial and Aerospace Exhibition, featuring several of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

's Apollo program displays, was held at the venue from 1968 to 1971. The arena also hosted many

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 ...

events, among them the

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 ...

SuperBrawl I SuperBrawl was the inaugural SuperBrawl professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). The show took place on May 19, 1991 and was held at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. The ma ...

and VI, and Slamboree (1995). Other groups, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, held annual conventions featuring Bible discourses, which were free of charge.

Demise

The Bayfront Center was finally imploded in 2004 to make way for an eventual replacement facility for the nearby Salvador Dalí Museum.

References

{{Authority control 1965 establishments in Florida 2004 disestablishments in Florida American Basketball Association venues Continental Basketball Association venues Sports venues demolished in 2004 Defunct basketball venues in the United States Defunct indoor arenas in Florida Defunct indoor ice hockey venues in the United States Defunct indoor soccer venues in the United States Indoor ice hockey venues in Florida Miami Floridians Music venues in Florida Sports venues completed in 1965 Sports venues in St. Petersburg, Florida Tampa Bay Rowdies sports facilities North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor venues Defunct sports venues in Florida Demolished sports venues in Florida Former South Florida Bulls sports venues