Former names | The Bank of Kentucky Center (2008–2015) |
---|---|
Location | 500 Nunn Drive Highland Heights, Kentucky 41099 |
Coordinates | 39°01′56″N84°27′32″W / 39.032273°N 84.458864°W Coordinates: 39°01′56″N84°27′32″W / 39.032273°N 84.458864°W |
Owner | Northern Kentucky University |
Operator | ASM Global |
Capacity | 9,400 (Basketball) 7–8,000 (Concerts) |
Construction | |
Broke ground | May 20, 2006 |
Opened | May 10, 2008 |
Construction cost | $64 million ($76.9 million in 2020 dollars [1] ) |
Architect | 360 Architecture GBBN Architects |
Structural engineer | THP Limited Inc. [2] |
General contractor | Turner Construction [3] |
Tenants | |
Northern Kentucky Norse (NCAA) 2008–present Northern Kentucky River Monsters (UIFL/CIFL) 2011, 2014 Black-n-Bluegrass RollerGirls (WFTDA) 2012–2013 Cincinnati Bearcats (NCAA) 2017–2018 |
BB&T Arena, formerly The Bank of Kentucky Center, is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky, on the campus of Northern Kentucky University. The arena was topped off on June 21, 2007, and the first event held there was NKU's graduation ceremony on May 10, 2008. A grand opening ceremony was held on September 22, 2008.
The NKU men's and women's basketball teams are the main tenants, [4] but many outside events are booked at the center. Among the first were country music star Carrie Underwood, comedian Jeff Dunham, and the cast of the reality television show So You Think You Can Dance as well as Cirque du Soleil, and the Walking With Dinosaurs live production. It hosted the Elite Eight of the NCAA Men's Division II Basketball Tournament in 2012. [5] It was again set to host the Division II 2013 Elite Eight, [5] but the NCAA moved the event to Freedom Hall in Louisville as NKU joined Division I (the NCAA would later go further by only holding the Elite Eight and Final Four matchups in Louisville; the Division II championship game was moved to Atlanta, Georgia's State Farm Arena with the Division III championship game as part of the celebration of 75 years of the men's Division I tournament, the Final Four of which was held in the Georgia Dome). [6] On May 10, 2011, The Bank of Kentucky Center hosted WWE live. Other artists/performers that have visited the arena include Alan Jackson with Jana Kramer, Barry Manilow, Bill Engvall, Jeff Foxworthy, and Larry The Cable Guy, Blake Shelton, Bob Dylan, Dane Cook, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan, Martina McBride, Trace Adkins, Jay-Z, REO Speedwagon, and Styx among others.
The first basketball event at the arena saw the NKU men's and women's basketball teams play Louisville on November 8, 2008. [7]
The arena hosted the KHSAA Girls' Sweet Sixteen in high school basketball from 2016 through 2018, after which the event moved to Rupp Arena in Lexington. [8] [9]
The Bank of Kentucky agreed to cover 10% of the cost of the arena, up to $6 million, in exchange for naming rights. It will also get a luxury suite, access to premium tickets and free use of the facility rent free for one special event each year. [10]
In 2015, the name of the arena was changed to the BB&T Arena after BB&T Corp. bought out The Bank of Kentucky. In 2020, BB&T merged with SunTrust, with the merged company renaming itself Truist. However, the arena still bears the BB&T name because Truist did not start rebranding its Kentucky locations with the new corporate name until late 2021.
Beginning in spring of 2011, BB&T Arena was home to the Northern Kentucky River Monsters of the Ultimate Indoor Football League. After the season, the River Monsters agreed to part ways with the UIFL. The UIFL still had rights to place a team in the arena, so there will be an expansion team placed there, the Kentucky Monsters.
BB&T Arena has also played host to the Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls since 2012. [11] The home dates for the league in 2012 were: May 19, June 16, July 21, August 18, September 22, and October 20.
The Cincinnati Bearcats from the University of Cincinnati played their home games at BB&T Arena during the 2017–18 season while Fifth Third Arena underwent renovations. [12]
Heritage Bank Center is an indoor arena located in downtown Cincinnati, next to the Great American Ball Park. It was completed in September 1975 and named Riverfront Coliseum because of its placement next to Riverfront Stadium. In 1997, the facility became known as The Crown, and in 1999, it changed its name again to Firstar Center after Firstar Bank assumed naming rights. In 2002, following Firstar's merger with U.S. Bank, the arena took on the name U.S. Bank Arena and kept that name until 2019.
Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center is an arena located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Since its opening in 1976, it has been the centerpiece of Central Bank Center, a convention and shopping facility owned by an arm of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, which is located next to the Lexington Hyatt and Hilton hotels. Rupp Arena also serves as home court to the University of Kentucky men's basketball program, and is named after legendary former Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp with an official capacity of 20,500. In 2014 and 2015, in Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball team was second in the nation in college basketball home attendance. Rupp Arena also regularly hosts concerts, conventions and shows.
Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky. It is primarily an undergraduate institution with over 14,000 students; over 12,000 are undergraduate students and nearly 2,000 are graduate students. Northern Kentucky University is the third largest university, behind the University of Cincinnati and Miami University, of Greater Cincinnati's four large universities and the youngest of Kentucky's eight, although it joined the state system before the University of Louisville. Notable among the university's programs are the Salmon P. Chase College of Law and the College of Informatics, founded in 2006.
The Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum is a 14,407-seat multi-purpose arena, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Construction on the arena began on April 23, 1987 and it opened on August 28, 1989. It was named after Lawrence Joel, an Army medic from Winston-Salem who was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967 for action in Vietnam on November 8, 1965. The memorial was designed by James Ford in New York, and includes the poem "The Fallen" engraved on an interior wall. It is home to the Wake Forest University Demon Deacons men's basketball and women's basketball teams, and is adjacent to the Carolina Classic Fairgrounds. The arena replaced the old Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum, which was torn down for the LJVM Coliseum's construction.
Fifth Third Arena is an arena in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. The arena opened in 1989 and is located on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. It primarily serves as the home venue for the Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's volleyball teams and hosts other events. It is located in the Myrl H. Shoemaker Center, which was also the name of the arena until 2005, when it was named for Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank.
Mechanics Bank Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Bakersfield, California. Located downtown at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and N Street, it was built in 1998, and was originally known as Centennial Garden, a name submitted by local resident Brian Landis Bay Area-based Mechanics Bank has held the naming rights since September 2019, following their merger with Rabobank NA, which had held the naming rights since 2005.
E. A. Diddle Arena is a 7,326-seat multi-purpose arena in Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States. The arena, built in 1963, is home to the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers men's basketball team and Lady Toppers basketball and volleyball teams. It is also known as Academic-Athletic Building #1. It also holds Military Science and Physical Education & Recreation classes and offices.
Chartway Arena at the Ted Constant Convocation Center is a 219,330-square-foot (20,376 m2), multi-purpose arena in Norfolk, Virginia, United States, on the campus of Old Dominion University. It is operated by Spectra Venue Management. Chartway Arena is part of the University Village project, a 75-acre (30 ha) development that will also feature a shopping center, restaurants, theaters, offices, research labs and residences with connections to the campus. "The Ted" has 7,319 seats, 862 upper club/priority seats, 16 luxury suites, and a scoreboard. The arena currently seats 8,639 for basketball games and 9,520 for concerts. In addition to being used for home basketball games and high-profile wrestling matches for ODU, the Constant Center hosts family-oriented events as well as concerts and lectures.
Binghamton University Events Center is the premier Division I Athletics and multipurpose facility at Binghamton University. The arena opened in 2004 and is adjacent to the Bearcat Sports Complex. It is home to the Binghamton Bearcats Division I Intercollegiate Athletic Program and can seat 5,142 patrons for home games, and over 8,000 for other large-scale events. It has hosted the 2005, 2006, and 2008 America East Conference men's basketball tournaments; the 2007 American East women's tournament as well as the first round and quarterfinal of the 2018 WBI tournament. The Events Center was host to the 2009 America East Conference Championship game when the Bearcats defeated UMBC to make March Madness. The facility has also hosted commencements and concerts such as Bob Dylan, Green Day, Incubus, Ludacris, Foo Fighters, Drake and Harry Connick Jr. The arena contains 53000 square feet of space.
Alumni Coliseum is a multi-use sports arena located on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky.
The Cincinnati Bearcats men's basketball program represents the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio. The school's team competes in NCAA Division I as part of the American Athletic Conference though they will move to the Big 12 conference within the next few years. The Bearcats are currently coached by Wes Miller.
The 2012 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament was a single-elimination tournament involving 68 schools playing to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. The 74th edition of the tournament began on March 13, 2012, and concluded with the championship game on April 2 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The 2013 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament was played from March 23 through April 9, 2013. Tennessee continued its streak of making every NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at 32 consecutive appearances. Kansas made the Regional Semifinals for the second year in a row as a double-digit seed, UConn made it into the Final Four for the sixth consecutive year, the longest such streak, and Louisville became the first team seeded lower than fourth in a region to advance to the championship game. For the first time in tournament history, the same four teams were #1 seeds as in the previous year.
The Northern Kentucky Norse are the athletic teams of Northern Kentucky University, located in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. NKU is an NCAA Division I school competing in the Horizon League, which it joined on July 1, 2015 after leaving the Atlantic Sun Conference. The university's teams for both men and women are nicknamed "Norse."
The Northern Kentucky Norse men's basketball team represents Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. The school's athletic program began a transition to NCAA Division I in the 2012–13 school year. For the first three seasons of the transition, it was a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference. In the final season of the transition in 2015–16, the Norse joined the Horizon League. The Norse were coached by John Brannen until April 14, 2019 when he left to take a job with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Before him the Norse program's coach was Dave Bezold, who had an overall record of 138 wins and 72 losses. On April 23, 2019 Darrin Horn was hired as head coach by Northern Kentucky.
The 2012 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 2011–12 basketball season.
The 2013 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament involved 64 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball as a culmination of the 2012–13 basketball season.
The 2016–17 Northern Kentucky Norse men's basketball team represented Northern Kentucky University (NKU) during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Norse, led by second-year head coach John Brannen, played their home games at BB&T Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky as members of the Horizon League. They finished the season 24–11, 13–6 in Horizon League play to finish in a tie for third place. As the No. 4 seed in the Horizon League Tournament, they defeated Wright State, Youngstown State, and Milwaukee to win the Horizon League Tournament. They received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament in the school's first year of eligibility after its transition to a Division I school. They lost in the First Round to Kentucky.
The 2017–18 Northern Kentucky Norse men's basketball team represented Northern Kentucky University (NKU) during the 2017–18 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Norse, led by third-year head coach John Brannen, played their home games at BB&T Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky as members of the Horizon League. They finished the season 22–10, 15–3 in Horizon League play to win the Horizon League regular season championship. They were upset in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Tournament by No. 8 seed Cleveland State. As a regular season league champion who failed to win their league tournament, they received an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament where they lost in the first round to Louisville.
The 1997 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament was the 41st annual single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division II college basketball in the United States.
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