Wells Fargo Arena is a 16,980-seat multi-purpose arena in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. Part of the Iowa Events Center, the arena opened in 2005, at a cost of $117 million.
It is home to the Iowa Energy D-League team, the Iowa Barnstormers AFL squad and formerly the Iowa Chops AHL franchise.
It was the host for the first & second rounds of the 2008 NCAA Women's Tournament and was the host of a regional semi-final and final for the 2012 tournament.
The PBR has hosted a Built Ford Tough Series event at Wells Fargo Arena annually since 2008.
Named for title sponsor Wells Fargo Financial Services, Wells Fargo Arena is the Des Moines area's venue for sporting events and concerts. The state high school wrestling and basketball tournaments have been held there since 2006.
Wells Fargo Arena seats 15,181 for hockey games, 16,110 for basketball games, and as many as 16,980 for concerts. It also features the Principal River's Edge Restaurant, which provides views of the Des Moines River and the Iowa State Capitol. The restaurant opened on October 6, 2005, coinciding with the Stars' inaugural home game.
Wells Fargo Arena opened, with a public dedication ceremony, on July 12, 2005.
The first event held at the arena was Tony Hawk's Boom-Boom Huck Jam, on July 14, while its first concert, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, with The Black Crowes, was held on July 18.
Global Spectrum operates Wells Fargo Arena. It also operates Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center (formerly Wachovia Center), which took on the Wells Fargo name in the wake of Wells Fargo buying Wachovia.
Wells Fargo has held many WWE events such as SmackDown!, RAW, and ECW.
It hosted the inaugural game of the reincarnation of the Arena Football League on April 2, 2010, between the Barnstormers and Chicago Rush, televised nationally by NFL Network.
Famous quotes containing the words wells and/or arena:
“All through the nineties I met people. Crowds of people. Met and met and met, until it seemed that people were born and hastily grew up, just to be met.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)
“... often the empowering strategies we use in the arena of love and friendship are immediately dropped when we come into the arena of politicized difference—when in fact some of those strategies are useful and necessary.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)