History
Construction on the Charlotte Coliseum began in 1986 and was opened on August 11, 1988 with a dedication by the Rev. Billy Graham. At the time the venue was seen as state-of-the-art, complete with luxury boxes and a large eight-sided video scoreboard. George Shinn had used the under-construction arena as his hole card to get the NBA to place a team in the city. With almost 24,000 seats, it was not only the largest venue in the league, but the largest basketball-specific arena ever to serve as a full-time home for an NBA team. Some thought the Coliseum was too big, but Shinn believed the area's longstanding support for college basketball made the Coliseum a more-than-viable home for an NBA team.
The day after the dedication, the United States Olympic basketball team was scheduled to play an exhibition game at the Coliseum. While preparing for the event, the multi-million dollar scoreboard was being repositioned when it struck the ceiling and crashed to the floor, destroying both it and the basketball court it landed on (an alternate floor was brought from Independence Arena in time for the game that night).
The Hornets would go on to lead the NBA in attendance over the course of their first seven seasons playing in "The Hive." At one point, they sold out 364 consecutive games—the equivalent of almost nine consecutive seasons. However, poorly-received decisions made by Shinn, as well as anger over personal scandals involving him, caused fan support to dwindle, and by then the once-sparkling Coliseum was seen by many as outdated and no longer suitable to be the home of a major professional sports team. When the Hornets relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana in 2002, the Hornets' attendance had dropped to last in the 29-team league. Ironically, one of the Coliseum's last functions before being shuttered was as a shelter for people fleeing New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005.
The arena was also used for a variety of collegiate basketball events. The Coliseum hosted the 1994 Men's Final Four and the 1996 Women's Final Four (both jointly hosted by Davidson College and UNC Charlotte), in addition to many NCAA Tournament regionals, sub-regionals, eight ACC men's basketball tournaments and the 1989 Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball tournament.
It also hosted the 1991 NBA All-Star Game. It was also the site of WWE Unforgiven 1999 and Judgment Day 2003.
The Coliseum was home to filming of the movie Eddie in 1996.
In addition to the many sporting events hosted at the Coliseum, it was a perfect setting for large concerts. The first concert was not long after the grand opening and welcomed none other than Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra. The final performance in the arena was by another blue eyed entertainer, Rick The Big Bopper Sammons.
This was actually the second building to use the name "Charlotte Coliseum"; Bojangles' Coliseum, located on Independence Boulevard, originally opened as the Coliseum, and it shared the same features as the "new" Coliseum, including its famous domed roof.
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