History
The arena was completed in 1975 and named the METRA, an acronym that stood for Montana Entertainment Trade and Recreation Arena. Later the entire grounds surrounding the arena was named MetraPark, and the arena became MetraPark Arena. The naming rights were sold to Billings-based Rimrock Auto Group in 2007 and the arena now goes by the name Rimrock Auto Arena at MetraPark. It is owned by the city of Billings, Montana and Yellowstone County. On June 20, 2010, a tornado dubbed the Fathers Day Tornado hit the arena, causing major damage In 2010-2011 the arena was redesigned and rebuilt. The new Rimrock Auto Arena at Metra Park has many new amenities such as improved acoustics, improved seating, more restrooms and concession areas, and easier access from the parking areas. The new arena is an energy efficient building with contemporary aesthetics. On April 10, 2011, with the outer arena still under construction, Elton John played the first concert in the new Rimrock Auto Arena since the tornado.
Read more about this topic: Rimrock Auto Arena At Metra Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To care for the quarrels of the past, to identify oneself passionately with a cause that became, politically speaking, a losing cause with the birth of the modern world, is to experience a kind of straining against reality, a rebellious nonconformity that, again, is rare in America, where children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)