The Cumberland County Civic Center is a 6,733-seat multi-purpose arena, in Portland, Maine. Built in 1977, at a cost of $8 million, it is home to the Portland Pirates ice hockey team, various trade shows and the Maine Principals' Association high school basketball tournament. There are 6,733 permanent seats in the arena, and it seats up to 9,500 for concerts.
The inside consists of one deck rising 24 rows, 14 seats across at its widest, and 30 separated sections around. The arena floor features 34,500 square feet (3,210 m2) of space, making it useful for trade shows and conventions in addition to sports and concerts. There is also one restaurant in the lobby, known as the Penalty Box Grill.
The arena has had a unique history of having locals sponsor individual seats at the arena. Those who pay to sponsor seats at the Civic Center can have their name engraved on their seats or dedicate the seat to someone they know.
The arena's official name is the George I. Lewis Auditorium at Cumberland County Civic Center. The press box is named for sportscasting legend, the late Frank Fixaris.
ZZ Top was the very first act to play the Civic Center, when it opened on March 3, 1977.
KISS were scheduled to conclude the 4th leg of their Alive/Worldwide Tour on November 16, 1996, but the show was cancelled.
The venue also hosted the America East Conference (then the ECAC North) men's basketball tournament in 1980. Billy Graham's Maine Crusade took place at the "Four Cs" in 1981.
The current tenants are the AHL Portland Pirates. Prior AHL clubs have also called the "4 C's" home, including 3 time Calder Cup champions, the Maine Mariners.
In October 2010, a task force voted to fund renovations costing $27 to $29 million. The renovations will include addition of premium seating, as well as upgrades to the locker rooms and other improvements. If approved by the large Civic Center board, it will be funded by a county bond measure.
The bond was approved by county voters in November 2011, and the renovations should begin after the 2011-12 hockey season.
Famous quotes containing the words civic center, county, civic and/or center:
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“It is hereby earnestly proposed that the USA would be much better off if that big, sprawling, incoherent, shapeless, slobbering civic idiot in the family of American communities, the City of Los Angeles, could be declared incompetent and placed in charge of a guardian like any individual mental defective.”
—Westbrook Pegler (1894–1969)
“I think that New York is not the cultural center of America, but the business and administrative center of American culture.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)