The James Brown Arena (formerly known as the Augusta-Richmond County Civic Center) is part of the multi-purpose complex, The Augusta Entertainment Complex in Augusta, Georgia, and currently managed by Global Spectrum.
It features an 8,500 seat arena, renamed the James Brown Arena, in honor of musician James Brown on August 22, 2006. The complex also features a 2,690 seat theater, the William B. Bell Auditorium, and a 14,500-square-foot (1,350 m2) exhibit hall that opens into a 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) arena floor.
The James Brown Arena is home to the Augusta River Hawks of the Southern Professional Hockey League which started in 2010.
It is also the former home of the ECHL's Augusta Lynx from 1998–2008, the af2's Augusta Stallions from 2000–2002, and the American Indoor Football Association's Augusta Colts from 2006-2008.
The Arena hosted UFC 11.
The arena has also hosted many concerts and pro wrestling events, including ECW's December to Dismember in 2006. Many bands have played the arena including Van Halen, Rush, Heart, Bob Seger, REO Speedwagon, KISS, Bon Jovi, Molly Hatchet, John Cougar, Kansas, Charlie Daniels Band, Alabama, Blackfoot, Mother's Finest, Ratt, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Cheap Trick, Marshall Tucker Band, and Loverboy.
The center-hung Fair Play scoreboard dates to the arena's opening in 1980, and in recent years has been joined by additional scoreboards and a Trans-Lux LED video display which can be found at each end of the arena.
Famous quotes containing the words james, brown and/or arena:
“Of course you’re always at liberty to judge the critic. Judge people as critics, however, and you’ll condemn them all!”
—Henry James (1843–1916)
“The old brown hen and the old blue sky,
Between the two we live and die
The broken cartwheel on the hill.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“[I]t forged ahead to become a full-fledged metropolis, with 143 faro games, 30 saloons, 4 banks, 27 produce stores, 3 express offices—and an arena for bull-and-bear fights, which, described by Horace Greeley in the New York Tribune, is said to have given Wall Street its best-known phrases.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)