Dunkin Donuts Arena: IXS

                                                                                         

The Dunkin' Donuts Center is an indoor arena located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.It was built in 1972. The Arena actually built as a place for the emerging Providence College men's basketball program and the high demand for tickets to their games in Alumni Hall, as well as for the then-Providence Reds, who played in the nearly fifty-year old Rhode Island Auditorium. Initially, it was known as the Providence Civic Center. Later on, a naming rights deal was reached with Dunkin' Donuts in June 2001. The Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League and the Providence College Friars men's basketball team are the current tenants of this wonderful arena.

The Dunkin Donuts Center has become a very important sports place in the USA.It has been the site of many collegiate tournaments, including the inaugural 1980 Big East Conference men's basketball tournament; several ECAC basketball tournaments; NCAA basketball tournament first- and second-round games in 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1989, and 1996; the 1978 and 1985 basketball regionals; the inaugural 1985 Hockey East Tournament (won by the home team); and the 1995 and 2000 NCAA Frozen Four ice hockey championships.
The University of Rhode Island has also played home basketball games at Dunkin' Donuts Center. On some special occasions, the PC women's basketball team has played "home" games in the arena, most notably for games against URI or UConn, where demand for tickets would be enough to warrant an arena larger than the 2,620-seat Alumni Hall.

The Dunkin’ Donuts Center attracts a vast audience of patrons from all over Southeastern New England. The Arena partners with a wide variety of companies and organizations seeking to interact with audiences.

The New England Steamrollers of the Arena Football League called the arena home in 1988. The Providence Reds hockey team played there for five years starting in 1972. The venue has long been a regular stop on WWE tours. It was the site of WWF King of the Ring tournaments five times and hosted the 1994 Royal Rumble. In 1999 the Dunkin' Donuts Center was home to the WWE Backlash Pay-Per-View event. In 2005 this venue hosted WWE Armageddon on December 18, 2005 presented by SmackDown! and Xbox 360. A number of other professional sporting events (such as the Harlem Globetrotters), as well as rock, pop, and opera concerts have occurred there as well.

The Rhode Island Convention Center Authority purchased the building from the City of Providence for dollar28.5 million in December of 2005,. A major reconstruction is underway which will also include an expansion of the arena seating capacity. The Authority will spend dollar62 million on the renovation of the "Dunk" to transform the facility into a state-of-the-art arena. Two major elements of the construction include an expanded lobby and an enclosed pedestrian bridge between the Convention Center and the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.


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Heidi Grumm hosts http://events.ixs.net and expresses her passion for events through writing and discussion. She works for Less Corporation at http://www.wicked-on-broadway.com/ Copyright Heidi Grumm


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