RiverCentre

For the San Antonio Rivercenter, see Rivercenter.

The RiverCentre (formerly known as the St. Paul Civic Center) is a large convention center located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It has twice been honored as "Best Convention Center" by Minnesota Meetings and Events Magazine. It hosts a large variety of events and has been the home of the annual Festival of Nations since 1934.

St. Paul Civic Center

St. Paul Civic Center was an indoor arena that was part of the RiverCentre. The arena opened on January 1, 1973, and had seating capacity of approximately 16,000 for hockey. The Civic Center was the home of both iterations of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA—the first from 1973–1976 and the second from 1976–1977. The arena was renamed the RiverCentre in the mid-1990s. The arena was torn down in 1998 to make way for the Xcel Energy Center which opened in 2000. The boys' state high school hockey and basketball tournaments were also held at the Civic Center as well as three NCAA Frozen Four national ice hockey championships. The arena was also the home of Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA).

The arena was unique in North America in that the hockey dasher boards were made of clear acrylic glass from the shelf all the way down to the ice. This was because the arena's seating configuration was round, and the closest seats between the blue lines were not flush against the boards. The clear boards made for better sightlines for most spectators seated between the blue lines, since the seating angles in the Civic Center were shallow. The clear boards were replaced with standard white dashers boards when the Minnesota Moose of the International Hockey League played there, as the team needed to be able to sell advertising on the boards. This wrecked the sightlines for what should have been the best seats, and this illustrated that Saint Paul needed a new arena with appropriately-designed seating.

In 1998 the NHL expansion team Minnesota Wild announced a lease to play in St. Paul until 2030. The St. Paul Civic Center started demolition shortly thereafter. The Xcel Energy Center opened in 2000, and it sits on the site of the Civic Center.

Popular culture

On June 28, 1984, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, actress Courteney Cox and 200 extras filmed the Brian De Palma-directed music video for "Dancing in the Dark" at the arena, one day before Springsteen's 1984 Born in the U.S.A. Tour formally opened at the arena.

External links

• Official website

Preceded by Olympic Center Lake Placid, New York	Host of the Frozen Four 1989	Succeeded by Joe Louis Arena Detroit, Michigan
Preceded by Joe Louis Arena Detroit, Michigan	Host of the Frozen Four 1991	Succeeded by Knickerbocker Arena Albany, New York
Preceded by Bradley Center Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Host of the Frozen Four 1994	Succeeded by Providence Civic Center Providence, Rhode Island