The Bert L. and Iris S. Wolstein Center is a 13,610-seat 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 spectators ...

located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the campus of Cleveland State University (CSU). It is home to the Cleveland State Vikings

men A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chro ...

's and women's basketball teams and the

Cleveland Charge The Cleveland Charge are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Cleveland, Ohio, and are affiliated with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The team plays its home games at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland. The fra ...

of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA De ...

. It was also the former home of the

Cleveland Crunch The Cleveland Crunch are an American professional indoor soccer club located in Cleveland, Ohio competing in as a charter member of the Major League Indoor Soccer (MLIS). The rebranded Crunch returned to indoor play as a member of the MASL 2 i ...

and Cleveland Force of the NPSL and MISL. The building opened in 1991 as a replacement for

Woodling Gym Woodling Gymnasium is a gym on the campus of Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio. It opened in 1973. One of its facilities is a 3,000 seat multi-purpose arena that was home to the Cleveland State Vikings Cleveland State Vikings men's bask ...

and was known until 2005 as the CSU Convocation Center. It is named for

Bert Wolstein Bertram Leonard Wolstein (February 23, 1927 — May 17, 2004), known to his friends as Bart and publicly as Bert Wolstein, was an American real estate developer, sports team owner, and philanthropist based in Cleveland, Ohio. He founded Developers ...

, a Cleveland area real estate developer, former owner of the Force, and CSU alumnus, and his wife Iris. The main arena is known as Henry J. Goodman Arena - named for a businessman and former chairman of the CSU Board of Trustees. It seats 13,610 for basketball, and with additional floor seating can hold 15,000 for concerts and

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 ...

. In addition to the arena, the Wolstein Center also has a practice gym and grand ballroom. It is the largest basketball arena in the

Horizon League The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...

and the second-largest college basketball arena in Ohio by seating capacity. In recent years, Cleveland State has downsized capacity for basketball to 8,500 for most Vikings games. The basketball floor is placed closer to the eastern baseline, and the western third of the arena is curtained off. For many games only lower-level seating is available and upper-level seating sections are covered with tarps, further reducing available seating. The area behind the curtain is used for a variety of other purposes, including a "Kids Fun Zone" children's play area during games, and the curtain itself is adorned with various banners facing the court. The Wolstein Center has also hosted numerous concerts, featuring artists such as

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

, Elton John,

Martina McBride Martina Mariea McBride (née Schiff, born July 29, 1966) is an American country music singer-songwriter and record producer. She is known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material. McBride was born in Sharon, Kansas, and reloc ...

, TLC, Carrie Underwood,

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Bieber is recognized for his genre-melding musicianship and has played an influential role in modern-day popular music. He was discovered by American record executive Scooter ...

, Janet Jackson, 311, The Beastie Boys,

The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

, The Blue Man Group and

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots (stylized in all lowercase or as twenty øne piløts) are an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who ...

. The arena was site of the 1998

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and served as host for first and second-round games of the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and

2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2005 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 15, 2005, and ended with the champions ...

s as well as the 2019

NCAA Fencing Championships The NCAA Fencing Championships are awarded at the annual tournament held in March to determine the NCAA's national collegiate individual and team championships in fencing. Individual champions are determined by performance during the NCAA fencing ...

History

Construction on the Wolstein Center began in August 1989 in the aftermath of the team's run to the Sweet Sixteen in the

1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 1986 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 13, 1986, and ended with the champion ...

. Prior to its opening, the team played at

on campus or (for higher profile games) at the 10,000-seat

Public Auditorium Public Auditorium (also known as Public Hall) is a multi-purpose performing arts, entertainment, sports, and exposition facility located in the civic center district of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The 10,000-capacity main auditorium shares its stag ...

. The arena was completed on November 1, 1991 at a cost of $55 million. The 13,610 seats made the Wolstein Center the largest arena in downtown Cleveland until the opening of Gund Arena in 1994, and it was the largest

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

-owned arena in Ohio until 1998 when

Value City Arena Value City Arena is a multi-purpose arena, located on the campus of Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio, United States. The arena opened in 1998 and is currently the largest by seating capacity in the Big Ten Conference, with 19,049 seats, w ...

opened at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. The main arena is named the Goodman Arena after Henry J. Goodman, former chairman of the Cleveland State board of trustees, while the building is named after Bert and Iris Wolstein, who donated $6.5 million towards the building's construction, the largest philanthropic gift in CSU history. The building also contains a practice gym, a grand ballroom, six-room conference center, and eight concession stands. In the arena, there is a 100-seat party loge located above the seating in the west baseline.

Cleveland Charge

On June 9, 2021, the Cleveland Cavaliers'

affiliate Canton Charge announced they would relocate from Canton to play their home games at the Wolstein Center beginning in the 2021–22 season. The team was officially renamed the

in July.

Other events

Basketball

Both the 1992 Mid-Continent Conference men's basketball tournament and the 2002 Horizon League men's basketball tournament were held at the Wolstein Center, as well as being the site for first and second-round games of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, in

and 2005. In the 2005 tournament, the 12th-seeded

Milwaukee Panthers The Milwaukee Panthers are the athletic teams of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. A total of 13 Panthers athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I. The Panthers have won the James J. McCafferty Trophy as the Horizon League's all-sports ...

and 7th-seeded

West Virginia Mountaineers The West Virginia Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent West Virginia University, an American university located in Morgantown, West Virginia. The school is a member of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. The Mou ...

won both of their respective games played at the Wolstein Center to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Cleveland hosted the 2022 NBA All-Star Game at

Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse is a multi-purpose arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The building is the home of the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL). It also ...

. As part of the All-Star Weekend events, the All-Star Celebrity Game was held at the Wolstein Center on February 18, 2022.

Professional wrestling

Current promotions The Wolstein Center also hosted multiple professional wrestling events from numerous companies, including

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 vari ...

's ''

Monday Night 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 ...

'' on January 26, 2009, and '' Friday Night SmackDown'' on December 28, 2010. Impact Wrestling's weekly '' Impact'' program taped two weeks worth of shows on August 29, 2013.

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

(AEW) did a live broadcast of their flagship program ''

AEW Dynamite AEW or aew may refer to: * Airborne early warning, airborne radar system for detecting aircraft * Aerosvit Airlines, an airline based in Kyiv, Ukraine (ICAO airline designator: AEW) * AEW Capital Management, a property investment management company ...

'' at the arena on January 29, 2020 in its Cleveland debut, and returned for their

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event – which encompassed ''Dynamite'' and it's companion show '' Rampage'' – on January 26, 2022. Another ''Dynamite''/''Rampage'' broadcast and taping took place on August 24, 2022. Past promotions

World Championship Wrestling 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 Nati ...

(WCW) also held numerous events (including episodes of their flagship show ''

WCW Monday Nitro ''WCW Monday Nitro'', also known as ''WCW Nitro'' or simply ''Nitro'', is an American professional wrestling television program that was produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and broadcast weekly every Monday night on TNT in the Unite ...

'') at the center until WCW's folding in 2001.

Misceallaneous

The 1998

were held in the arena, won by the Iowa Hawkeyes. The PBR's Bud Light Cup tour hosted a bull riding event at this venue in 2000 and 2001.

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

held a Democratic Party presidential debate between

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

on February 26, 2008 at the Wolstein Center. The debate was broadcast live on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

, and was moderated by Brian Williams with

Tim Russert Timothy John Russert (May 7, 1950 – June 13, 2008) was an American television journalist and lawyer who appeared for more than 16 years as the longest-serving moderator of NBC's ''Meet the Press''. He was a senior vice president at NBC News, Wa ...

. The arena hosted the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions in 2016. The arena hosted Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live in 2019 and 2020.

COVID-19 vaccination center

On March 5, 2021 Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced the Wolstein Center would host Ohio's first mass COVID-19 vaccination center, which ran from March 17 - June 7, 2021.

Management

Since 2015, the Wolstein Center has been managed in partnership with

. The Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse staff works as a consultant to assist in promoting and booking events at both venues, while in return, select Vikings men's basketball games are played at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse each season.

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control 1991 establishments in Ohio Basketball venues in Ohio Cleveland State Vikings College basketball venues in the United States College wrestling venues in the United States Gymnastics venues in the United States Indoor arenas in Ohio Indoor soccer venues in Ohio Music venues in Cleveland NBA G League venues Sports venues completed in 1991 Sports venues in Cleveland Wrestling venues in Ohio