History
Completed on November 1, 1991 at a cost of $55 million, it was the largest university-owned arena in Ohio until Value City Arena at Ohio State University was completed. The arena seats 13,610 for basketball, and (with additional floor seating) can hold 15,000 for concerts and professional wrestling. Cleveland State used revenues from its 1986 NCAA men's basketball tournament run to help build what is now the Wolstein Center.
The main arena is named the Goodman Arena after Henry J. Goodman, former chairman of the Cleveland State board of trustees.
Originally named the CSU Convocation Center, the building assumed its present name on January 1, 2005.
It is home to the Cleveland State University men's and women's basketball teams and the former home of the Cleveland Crunch and the Cleveland Force of the NPSL and MISL.
It has also hosted numerous concerts, recently featuring artists such as Martina McBride, Avril Lavigne, Carrie Underwood, and Justin Bieber. The Wolstein Center has hosted conferences and has served as a site for NCAA men's basketball tournament games.
It hosted the 1992 Mid-Continent Conference men's basketball tournament and the 2002 Horizon League men's basketball tournament.
The PBR's Bud Light Cup tour hosted a bull riding event at this venue in 2000 and 2001.
NBC News held a Democratic Party presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on February 26, 2008 at the Wolstein Center. The debate was broadcast live on MSNBC, and was moderated by Brian Williams with Tim Russert.
The Wolstein Center also hosted WWE's WWE Raw on January 26, 2009, and Friday Night Smackdown on December 28, 2010. World Championship Wrestling also held numerous events (including episodes of WCW Monday Nitro) at the center until WCW's folding in 2001.
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“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)