Air Canada Centre
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The Air Canada Centre, often referred to simply as The ACC, is a multi-purpose arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is the home of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL, and the Toronto Rock of the NLL. It was also home to the Toronto Phantoms of the AFL during their brief existence.
The ACC is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., and is 665,000 square feet (62,000 m²) in size.
An early nickname for the venue was "The Hangar" due to the corporate sponsor of the arena, Air Canada. However this name was never quite adopted by the general public. The Air Canada Centre is most commonly referred to as simply "The ACC" and has been referenced as such on the official Air Canada Centre website.
Andy Frost is the public address announcer at the ACC during Maple Leafs home games.
[edit] History
Air Canada Centre was originally intended to be a basketball facility for the Toronto Raptors. The Maple Leafs, at the time, were looking at building their own new arena at a different location. When the Raptors were sold to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertaiment, the new ownership had the building redesigned as a multifunction arena. Besides not having to find other Real Estate, the Maple Leafs would also be able to move out of the outdated Maple Leaf Gardens building. The redesign was completed and Air Canada Centre's groundbreaking was performed in February of 1997.
The site was once occupied by the Canada Post Delivery Building. The current building retained the striking facades of the east and south walls of that structure, but the rest of the building was removed to make room for the arena.
The 15 storey tower stands at 55 metres.
The first Maple Leafs home game took place on February 20, 1999 versus the Montreal Canadiens with the first Raptors game taking place the following day versus the Vancouver Grizzlies. The facility hosted the 2000 NHL All-Star Game and the championship game of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
The highest attended event at the arena was on June 23rd 2003, when folk-rock legend and Toronto native son Neil Young performed in front of 23,000 fans. This concert was "over-sold".
The venue held WWE SummerSlam in 2004 and has held numerous other wrestling events. WWE Unforgiven will be held at the Air Canada Centre on September 17th, 2006.
The Air Canada Centre will host the 2009 NBA All-Star Game of the National Basketball Association, marking the first time in NBA history the All-Star Game is hosted outside of the United States.
[edit] Picture Gallery
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