Rabobank Arena
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Rabobank Arena is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Bakersfield, California, USA. Located downtown at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and N Street, it was built in 1998, and was formerly known as Bakersfield Centennial Garden, that was named by a local resident, Brian Landis. [1] It is home to the Bakersfield Condors ECHL ice hockey team, the Bakersfield Blitz arena football team, and the Bakersfield Jam NBA Development League team. The city owned arena sold naming rights to the local branch of the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank in 2005, which also sponsors cycling and field hockey teams. Under the terms of the lease, Rabobank has exclusively naming rights for seven years with an option to extend it to ten years at a rate of $1 million per year. The arena will revert back to the name Centennial Garden unless a new sponsor is found or Rabobank signs a new deal at the end of the agreement.
It is also home to the men's and women's basketball teams of California State University, Bakersfield, which currently play in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The men's team plays all its home games here, whereas the women's team plays some at the smaller, on-campus Icardo Center. CSU Bakersfield is planning a move to the NCAA Division I (most likely in the Big West Conference), and will likely move all men's and women's basketball games to the Rabobank Arena. As a concert venue, the arena seats 6,400 for half-house shows and up to 10,225 for center stage and end-stage shows. The arena floor measures 17,000 square feet of total space.
The concourse of Rabobank arena serves as the exhibit home of the Bob Elias Kern County Hall of Fame. The Bob Elias Hall of Fame honors athletes and people involved with athletics from Bakersfield and Kern County. They include nationally prominent athletes, local coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to athletics.
Attached to Rabobank Arena is a 17,840 square foot exhibit hall, which combines with a 3,000-seat theater, which measures 28,512 square feet and features a 7,830-square-foot stagehouse to create a second arena. This was originally known as the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium (opened in 1962) and was later re-named the Bakersfield Convention Center in the 1980's following remodeling and the construction of the adjacent Holiday Inn Select Hotel in the 1990's. The convention center's stage (one of the largest stages in the world) was the Condors' previous home (when they were known as the Fog) until Centennial Garden was built in 1998 and, combined or separately, is also used for concerts (seating up to 5,800), sporting events, trade shows and, in the theater and stagehouse only, Broadway and family shows. There is also a 12,885-square foot lobby and 14 meeting rooms measuring 11,659 square feet of total space.
[edit] Reference
- ^ Garden name change could be delayed. KGET-TV Bakersfield (2005). Retrieved on August 6, 2006.
[edit] External links
| Current arenas in the ECHL |
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| American Conference | National Conference | |
|---|---|---|
| Arena at Gwinnett Center | Cambria County War Memorial Arena | Carolina Coliseum | St. Lawrence Homes Home Ice | Ford Arena | Germain Arena | James Brown Arena | North Charleston Coliseum | Nutter Center | Pensacola Civic Center | Sovereign Bank Arena | Sovereign Center | Toledo Sports Arena | U.S. Bank Arena | WesBanco Arena | E Center | Long Beach Sports Arena | Orleans Arena | Qwest Arena | Rabobank Arena | Save Mart Center | Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre| Stockton Arena | Sullivan Arena | US Airways Center | |
| Current arenas in the af2 |
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| American Conference | National Conference | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Allen County War Memorial Coliseum | Chevrolet Centre | Everett Events Center | Freedom Hall | The MARK of the Quad Cities | Qwest Arena | Rabobank Arena | Resch Center | Selland Arena | Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena | Stockton Arena | Times Union Center | Toyota Center | U.S. Bank Arena | Wachovia Arena | Verizon Wireless Arena | Alltel Arena | Amarillo Civic Center | American Bank Center | Berry Center | Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center | CenturyTel Center | CityBank Coliseum | Dodge Arena | Ford Center | Germain Arena | Gray Civic Center | Laredo Entertainment Center | Tulsa Convention Center | Von Braun Center | ||
| Current arenas in the NBA Development League |
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| Eastern Division | Western Division | |
|---|---|---|
| Alltel Arena | Austin Convention Center | Bismarck Civic Center | Dodge Arena (2007) | Expo Square Pavilion | Fort Worth Convention Center | Sioux Falls Arena | Wells Fargo Arena (2007) | Anaheim Convention Center | Broomfield Event Center | McKay Events Center (2007) | Qwest Arena | Rabobank Arena | Staples Center | Tingley Coliseum | |
