The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. Built on the former site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium, the venue is composed of the Long Beach Convention Center, Long Beach Arena, and the Long Beach Performing Arts Center. It is served by the 1st Street station of Los Angeles Metro Rail.
The first Long Beach Municipal Auditorium was completed in 1905.[1] The second Municipal Auditorium was completed in 1932. It extended 500 feet into the water at the center of the Rainbow Pier. It was demolished in 1975. Listed below are historic photos from the Municipal Auditorium.[2]
Aerial view of the second Municipal Auditorium, c. 1930
Interior view looking to stage and concert hall beyond, c. 1930
Venues
Long Beach Convention Center
Exhibit Hall A/B/C - Meeting Rooms include 101–104, 201-204 and Seaside Rooms
Promenade Ballroom (part of the 100 series meeting rooms) - 13,200 square feet
Top of the Lot – an open air parking structure, composed at the upper deck of the Terrace Parking Lot
Grand Ballroom – 20,456 square feet
Terrace Plaza
The Cove
Long Beach Arena
Long Beach Arena – opened in 1962, connected to the original Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. The auditorium was demolished in 1975 to make way for the convention center.
Pacific Ballroom – an event space within the Long Beach Arena. A flying steel truss system converts the arena floor into an intimate space for receptions and concerts. For concerts, the venue can seat 2,990–4,890. It was originally known as the "Pacific Ballroom".
During the COVID-19 pandemic in California, the convention center was used as a mass vaccination site.[3] Later in the pandemic, the convention center was used as an emergency shelter for migrant children.[4]
Long Beach Arena
Long Beach Arena
The Wyland Whaling Wall 33, "Planet Ocean", on the exterior of the arena
Long Beach Arena was the first building to be completed in the complex. Capacities are as follows: 12,500 for hockey, 14,000 for basketball and 10,500 - 14,500 for concerts, depending on the seating arrangement.
The arena has hosted various entertainment and professional and college sporting events, most notably the volleyball events of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.[5]
For trade shows, the arena features 46,000 square feet (4300 m2) of space, with an additional 19,000 square feet (1800 m2) of space in the lobby and 29,000 square feet (2700 m2) in the concourse. Hanging from the arena's 77 foot (23 m) high ceiling is a center-hung scoreboard with four White Way "Mega Color" Animation Screens. There is an 11 by 15 foot SACO Smartvision LED Wall located on the south end of the arena.
Shortly after its opening in 1962, in October, the arena became the home court for the Long Beach Chiefs (who had moved from Honolulu, where known as the Hawaii Chiefs) of the short-lived American Basketball League, though the ABL would fold on December 31 of that year. The arena was also the site of the first NHL game involving a 1967 expansion team, as the Los Angeles Kings and the Philadelphia Flyers, both expansion teams, played on October 14, 1967, the Kings won 4–2. The Kings played in Long Beach for the first half of their expansion season while The Forum was being completed.
Long Beach Arena
In the 1970s, the arena hosted several games of the Los Angeles Sharks, of the WHA and regular appearances of the Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller derby team. The Grateful Dead played the arena on December 15, 1972; the first of 13 concerts there through 1988.
Elvis Presley performed two shows here on November 14 and 15, 1972. He returned for two more shows on April 25, 1976 (afternoon and evening).
The arena was home to the former Long Beach Ice Dogs team, which played professional ice hockey in the IHL, WCHL and ECHL. The Ice Dogs ceased operations of the team in 2007.
Interior of the arena
The Eagles performed during a benefit concert for California Senator Alan Cranston on July 31, 1980, on what has been described as "Long Night at Wrong Beach".[7] Tempers boiled over as Glenn Frey and Don Felder spent the entire show telling each other about the beating each planned to administer backstage. "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," Frey recalls Felder telling him near the end of the band's set.[8] Felder recalls Frey making a similar threat to him during "Best of My Love".[7] "We're out there singing ‘Best of My Love', but inside both of us are thinking, 'As soon as this is over, I'm gonna kill him,'" recalled Frey.[9] The animosity purportedly developed as a result of Felder's response of "You're welcome – I guess" to Senator Cranston as he was thanking the band for doing the benefit for his reelection. A live recording of the Joe Walsh song "All Night Long" from this show was included on their live album, entitled Eagles Live. This marked their final live performance as The Eagles for nearly 14 years, until April 25, 1994.
Iron Maiden performed four consecutive shows during their World Slavery Tour on March 14–17, 1985. The show on the 15th was recorded and released as a double live-album, entitled Live After Death.
The arena was also one of the sites of the 1986 and 1990NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship Rounds of 64 and 32. The teams that played at the arena in 1986 included Maryland, Pepperdine & UNLV. Maryland's Len Bias played his final collegiate game at the arena on March 16, 1986, in a loss to UNLV in the Round of 32. In 1990, the Loyola Marymount Lions, an 11 seed, defeated New Mexico State and then trounced the 3 seed and defending champion Michigan Wolverines by 34 points on their way to an Elite 8 appearance, just days after the on-court death of their star player Hank Gathers in the West Coast Conference tournament. Teammate Bo Kimble (a right-handed player) famously shot his first free throw in each game left-handed as a tribute to Gathers. The arena was also the site of the Big West Conference men's basketball tournament from 1989 to 1993. It was the home court for Long Beach State's men's basketball team for several seasons in the 1970s and 1980s.
On July 1 and 2, 2017, the arena hosted New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Special in USA shows, which marked the company's first independently promoted shows in the United States.[12]
In October 2018, PFL 9, a mixed martial arts event was held at the arena.[13]
The arena hosted the General Conference of the United Pentecostal Church International from October 1 to October 4, 2024.[15] By September 23, over 13,000 people had registered for the event.[16]
Along the exterior wall of the drum-shaped Arena is "Planet Ocean", one of environmental artist Wyland'sWhaling Walls, which was dedicated on July 9, 1992, and covers 116,000 square feet (11,000 m2). The mural depicts migratory gray whales and other aquatic life that can be found in the waters off Long Beach.
In celebration of Earth Day in 2009, Wyland touched up the existing Whaling Wall and added a large mural of the earth on the roof of the arena.[19]
Meeting rooms
There are two ballrooms: the 20,456 square foot (1900 m2) Grand Ballroom (seating up to 2,100) and the 13,200 square foot (1300 m2) Promenade Ballroom (seating up to 1,400) plus 34 meeting rooms totaling 82,823 square feet (7695 m2).
The convention center and theatre part served as host of the fencing competitions during the 1984 Summer Olympics.[5]
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles, six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s in North America and are one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold more than 200million records worldwide, including 100million sold in the US alone. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and were ranked number 75 on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Founding members Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner had all been recruited by Linda Ronstadt as band members, some touring with her, and all playing on her self-titled third solo studio album (1972), before venturing out on their own as the Eagles on David Geffen's new Asylum Records label.
The Shrine Auditorium is a landmark large-event venue in Los Angeles, California. It is also the headquarters of the Al Malaikah Temple, a division of the Shriners. It was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1975, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
L.A. Live is an entertainment complex in the South Park District of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It is adjacent to the Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Eagles Live is the first live album by the American rock band Eagles, a two-LP set released on November 7, 1980. Although the Eagles were already in the process of breaking up, the band owed Elektra/Asylum Records one more album and fulfilled that contractual obligation with a release of performances from the Hotel California and The Long Run tours.
The Grand Olympic Auditorium is a former sports venue in southern Downtown Los Angeles, California. The venue was built in 1924 at 1801 South Grand Avenue, now just south of the Santa Monica Freeway. The grand opening of the Olympic Auditorium was on August 5, 1925, and was a major media event, attended by such celebrities as Jack Dempsey and Rudolph Valentino. One of the last major boxing and wrestling arenas still in existence, the venue now serves as a worship space for the Korean-American evangelical church, "Glory Church of Jesus Christ".
Donald William Felder is an American musician who was the lead guitarist of the rock band Eagles from 1974 to 2001. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 with the Eagles. Felder was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2016.
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.
The CHI Health Center Omaha is an arena and convention center in the central United States, located in the North Downtown neighborhood of Omaha, Nebraska. Operated by the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority (MECA), the 1.1-million-square-foot (100,000 m2) facility has an 18,975-seat arena, a 194,000 sq ft (18,000 m2) exhibition hall, and 62,000 sq ft (5,800 m2) of meeting space.
Simmons Bank Arena is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas, directly across the Arkansas River from downtown Little Rock. Opened in October 1999, it is the main entertainment venue serving Central Arkansas.
Ocean Center is a convention center located in Daytona Beach, Florida. It opened in 1985 and is the fifth–largest convention center in Florida.
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center at 1855 Main Street in Santa Monica, California, owned by the City of Santa Monica. It was built in 1958 and designed by Welton Becket and as a concert venue, it has a seating capacity of 3,000. It is a city-designated landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mobile Civic Center is a multi-purpose facility located in Mobile, Alabama. Owned by the City of Mobile and operated by ASM Global, the facility consists of three venues: a theater, an expo hall, and an arena. It is suitable for large indoor events including sporting events and trade shows. The theater seats for 1,938, while the expo hall can seat 3,000. The largest venue of the Mobile Civic Center is the arena, which can seat 10,112.
The Sacramento Convention Center Complex is a complex of entertainment venues and a convention center located in downtown Sacramento, California. The complex consists of the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center, the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, and the Jean Runyon Little Theater.
The Miami Beach Convention Center is a convention center located in Miami Beach, Florida. Originally opened in 1958, the venue was renovated from 2015 to 2018 for $620 million. The re-imagined and enhanced MBCC includes a 60,000-square-foot Grand Ballroom, four junior ballrooms, 500,000 square feet of flexible exhibition space, 84 meeting rooms, and pre-function space, as well as outdoor spaces and terraces.
The Indiana Convention Center is a major convention center located in Downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. The original structure was completed in 1972 and has undergone five expansions. In total, there are 71 meeting rooms, 11 exhibit halls, and three multi-purpose ballrooms. The connected facilities of Lucas Oil Stadium offer an additional 183,000 square feet (20,000 m2) of exhibit space and 12 meeting rooms.
"Take It to the Limit" is a song by the Eagles from their fourth album One of These Nights from which it was issued as the last third single on November 15, 1975. It reached No. 4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was also Eagles' greatest success to that point in the United Kingdom, going to No. 12 on the charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 25 song for 1976.
The Eureka Municipal Auditorium is a 1,600-seat indoor multipurpose arena located in Eureka, California. It is used primarily for basketball, and contains 10,000 square feet (930 m2) of arena floor space, allowing it to be used for such events as conventions and trade shows in addition to sporting events.
"Already Gone" is a song recorded by the American rock band the Eagles for their 1974 album On the Border. It was written by Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund and produced by Bill Szymczyk.
Intuit Dome is an indoor arena in Inglewood, California. The arena is located south of the other major Inglewood sports venues, SoFi Stadium and the Kia Forum. It is the home venue of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Clippers previously played games at Crypto.com Arena, a venue the team shared with the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL), from the 1999–2000 season through 2023–24.
Live from the Forum MMXVIII is the third live album and a concert film from the Eagles. It records the concerts at the Forum in Inglewood, California that took place over three nights in September 2018. It is the first release to feature new band members Deacon Frey and Vince Gill alongside Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. Deacon, son of the late former band member Glenn Frey, and Gill joined the band following the death of the elder Frey in 2016. It was released on October 16, 2020, in a variety of formats, including CD, DVD and Blu-ray.
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