Full name | Paul E. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell |
---|---|
Former names | Tsongas Arena (1998-Oct. 2009) |
Address | 300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way |
Location | Lowell, Massachusetts |
Coordinates | 42°39′01″N71°18′48″W / 42.650228°N 71.313248°W |
Owner | University of Massachusetts Lowell |
Operator | Spectra |
Capacity | 6,500 (hockey and basketball) 7,800 (concerts) 10,003 (wrestling) [1] |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1996 |
Opened | January 27, 1998 |
Construction cost | $24 million (original) $5 million (2010-11 renovations) |
Tenants | |
UMass Lowell River Hawks (NCAA) (1998–present) Lowell Lock Monsters/Devils (AHL) (1998–2010) Massachusetts Pirates (IFL) (2024–present) PWHL Boston (PWHL) (2024–present) |
The Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell (formerly the Tsongas Arena [2] ) is a multi-purpose facility owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell and located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The arena was opened on January 27, 1998, and dedicated to the memory of the late Paul Tsongas, prominent Lowell native and U.S. senator. The arena was built with $4 million in funding from both the city and the university, plus another $20 million contributed from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. [3]
The facility is home to the NCAA Division I University of Massachusetts Lowell River Hawks ice hockey team, which competes in the Hockey East Association and men's basketball team which play for the America East Conference. [4] It is also home to Boston of the Professional Women's Hockey League. [5] The facility was also home to the Lowell Lock Monsters and the Lowell Devils ice hockey team, which competed in the American Hockey League from 1998 to 2010. The Devils ended their stay in Lowell due to financial difficulties and the arena's new ownership and moved to Albany, New York, to compete as the Albany Devils.
The Tsongas Center, which seats approximately 6,500 for hockey and 7,800 for concerts and other events, is the site of major concerts and other public events, including job fairs, skating competitions and graduation ceremonies for area high schools, colleges and universities. It also hosts major university events, such as the annual Commencement ceremonies, Open House for prospective students and the Chancellor's Speaker Series. The series debuted in 2012 with bestselling author Stephen King. Also in 2012, the Tsongas Center was the site of a debate between then-incumbent U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and challenger Elizabeth Warren, which drew more than 5,000 people and was covered by more than 100 media outlets, including NBC News and MSNBC.
In 2004, alternative rock pioneers Pixies recorded their live concert DVD and high-definition television special "The Pixies: Come Home Live 2004 World Tour" at the Tsongas Arena. The same year, progressive rock band Yes released a DVD of their 35th anniversary tour performance at the venue titled Songs from Tsongas .
In 2009, the boxing scenes of the 2010 film The Fighter were filmed at the Tsongas Center, with Mark Wahlberg portraying Lowell-born champion boxer Micky Ward and Christian Bale portraying his brother Dicky Eklund.
In 2010, Canadian rapper Drake notably performed a show at the Tsongas Center. [6]
UMass Lowell and the city of Lowell entered into negotiations in 2009 with the intent to transfer ownership of the arena and the land adjacent to it to the university. In late October 2009, it was reported that the deal had been reached with UMass Lowell committing to major renovations to the facility. [7] In a ceremony during a game against Boston University on October 30, 2009, the deal transferring ownership to the university was signed. UMass Lowell formally took control of the arena on February 5, 2010, after completing a $1 transaction. [8]
UMass Lowell has spent more than $5 million to renovate the arena since its acquisition. LED "ribbon" boards were installed in the winter of 2010. A new high-definition video scoreboard and sound system were installed during the summer 2010. A new club seating area was built in conjunction with a new upscale bar. In the summer of 2011, new ice-making equipment was installed, followed by new luxury boxes and press box in 2012.
In March 2017, the arena played host to the second NWHL Isobel Cup finals between the Buffalo Beauts and Boston Pride.
The arena played host to NXT Battleground , a WWE premium live event for its NXT brand, on May 28, 2023. [9] The arena had previously played host to the Ring of Honor (ROH) pay-per-view Death Before Dishonor on July 23, 2022.
Lowell is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, it is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of the last census, and the third most populous in the Boston metropolitan statistical area. The city is also part of a smaller Massachusetts statistical area, called Greater Lowell, and of New England's Merrimack Valley region.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts. It is the oldest, largest, and flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system, and was founded in 1863 as the Massachusetts Agricultural College. It is also a member of the Five College Consortium, along with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley.
The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses, a satellite campus in Springfield and also 25 campuses throughout California and Washington with the University of Massachusetts Global.
The University of Massachusetts Lowell is a public research university in Lowell, Massachusetts, with a satellite campus in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is the northernmost member of the University of Massachusetts public university system and has been accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) since 1975. With 1,110 faculty members and over 18,000 students, it is the largest university in the Merrimack Valley and the second-largest public institution in the state. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, a subsidiary of the Canada's Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Ontario. It opened in 1995 as a replacement for the original Boston Garden and has been known as FleetCenter, and TD Banknorth Garden. The arena is located directly above the MBTA's North Station. It is the most visited sports and entertainment arena in New England, as nearly 3.5 million people visit the arena each year.
The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" and outlived its original namesake by 30 years. It was above North Station, a train station which was originally a hub for the Boston and Maine Railroad and is now a hub for MBTA Commuter Rail and Amtrak trains.
WUML is a non-commercial college radio station licensed to Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. The station is owned by the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The transmitter is atop Fox Hall on Pawtucket Street in Lowell.
The Lowell Devils were a minor league ice hockey team in the American Hockey League playing in Lowell, Massachusetts, at the Tsongas Center. As their name implied, they were the top minor league affiliate of the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League. The team was founded in 1998 as the Lowell Lock Monsters and was purchased by the Devils in 2006.
Matthews Arena is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the world's oldest multi-purpose athletic building still in use, as well as the oldest arena in use for ice hockey.
The Kohl Center is a multi-purpose arena located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, United States. The arena opened in 1998 and is the home of the university's men's basketball and ice hockey teams, and the women's basketball team.
Total Mortgage Arena is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut. It is the home venue of the Bridgeport Islanders of the American Hockey League (AHL) and PWHL New York of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).
The MassMutual Center is a multi-purpose arena and convention center complex located in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, in the city's Metro Center. The arena opened in 1972 and the convention center opened in 2005. It serves as a venue for meetings, conventions, exhibitions, sporting and entertainment events.
The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Full member institutions are all located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with some affiliate members also located in Connecticut and New Hampshire.
Greater Lowell is the region comprising the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, and its suburbs. These lie in northern Middlesex County, Massachusetts; in the Merrimack Valley; and in southern New Hampshire.
Nicola Dickson "Niki" Tsongas is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 2007 to 2019. She held the seat formerly held by her husband, the late Paul Tsongas, for the district numbered as Massachusetts's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2013 and as Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district from 2013 to 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. In August 2017 Tsongas announced that she would not seek another term in the November 2018 election.
Eileen Donoghue is an American politician who is the former city manager of Lowell, Massachusetts (2018–2022), a former member of the Massachusetts Senate, where she has represented the First Middlesex District from 2011 to 2018, as well as a former city councilor (1996–2008) and mayor (1998–2002) of Lowell. She ran in the Massachusetts' 5th Congressional District special election in 2007 to fill the United States House of Representatives seat vacated by Marty Meehan, narrowly losing the Democratic primary to Niki Tsongas. In the Massachusetts Senate, Donoghue has been a staunch advocate for small businesses, economic development in gateway cities, and public higher education. She has spearheaded efforts to reduce student loan debt and create pathways to stable jobs.
The UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team that represents the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It competes at the NCAA Division I level in the Hockey East Association. The team competed at the Division II level until 1983. That year the University of Lowell was raised to D1 in hockey only and joined the newly formed Hockey East Association. Thirty years later with a name change to both the school and the team, the University of Massachusetts Lowell claimed their first Hockey East regular season title and HEA Tournament championship in 2013. The River Hawks made their first Frozen Four in 2013 as well. UMass Lowell would repeat as Hockey East champions in 2014 and then again in 2017.
The UMass Lowell River Hawks are the NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics teams representing the University of Massachusetts Lowell in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. Members of the America East Conference for all sports. UMass Lowell sponsors teams in seven men's and seven women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Prior to transitioning to Division I in 2013, the River Hawks competed in the Northeast-10 Conference in Division II.
The 2014–15 UMass Lowell River Hawks men's ice hockey team represented the University of Massachusetts Lowell during the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season. The team was coached by Norm Bazin, in his fourth season at UMass Lowell. The River Hawks played their home games at the Tsongas Center on campus in Lowell, Massachusetts, competing in Hockey East.