American Airlines Arena

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American Airlines Arena
AAA The Triple A
Location	601 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, Florida 33132
Coordinates	25°46′53″N 80°11′17″W / 25.78139°N 80.18806°W / 25.78139; -80.18806Coordinates: 25°46′53″N 80°11′17″W / 25.78139°N 80.18806°W / 25.78139; -80.18806
Broke ground	February 6, 1998
Opened	December 31, 1999
Owner	Miami-Dade County Government
Operator	Basketball Properties Ltd.
Surface	Multi-surface
Construction cost	$213 million ($297 million in 2012 dollars[1])
Architect	Arquitectonica 360 Architecture (formerly Heinlein Schrock Stearns)
Project Manager	Parsons Brinckerhoff
Structural engineer	Thornton Tomasetti
Services engineer	Flack+Kurtz[2]
General Contractor	Morse-Diesel/Odebrect/Facchina[3]
Main contractors	John J. Kirlin, LLC[4] Simpson Constructors[5] Crown Corr Inc.[6]
Capacity	Basketball: 19,600; 16,500 (Without upper levels) Concerts: 5,000-20,021
Tenants
Miami Heat (NBA) (2000–present) Miami Sol (WNBA) (2000–2002) (Premios Lo Nuestro) (2005-2008, 2010-present)

The AmericanAirlines Arena is a sports and entertainment arena located in Downtown Miami, Florida along Biscayne Bay. It was constructed beginning in 1998 as a replacement for the Miami Arena and was designed by the architecture firms Arquitectonica and 360 Architecture. The Arena is home to the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association. In the early 2000s, the Women's National Basketball Association team Miami Sol played at the arena from the team's birth in 2000 until the team's folding in 2002. The AmericanAirlines Arena is directly served by the Miami Metrorail at Government Center Station via free transfers to Metromover's Freedom Tower Station and Park West Station. The Arena is also within walking distance from the Historic Overtown/Lyric Theatre Metrorail Station.

American Airlines maintains the American Airlines Arena Travel Center at the venue.^[7] AmericanAirlines Arena should not be confused with the American Airlines Center, which is located in Dallas. The official spelling of the building is distinct as "American" and "Airlines" is considered as one word. An example of this wording is FedExForum or FedExField, the only difference is that "AmericanAirlines" and "Arena" are not joined together.

The AmericanAirlines Arena has 2,105 club seats, 80 luxury suites, and 76 private boxes. The Waterfront Theater is Florida's largest theater which is housed within the arena, that can seat between 3,000 and 5,800. The theater can be configured for concerts, family events, musical theatre and other stage shows.

History

The AmericanAirlines Arena opened on December 31, 1999 and its construction cost was $213,000,000. Architectural design team members included George Heinlein, Cristian Petschen, Reinaldo Borges, and Lance Simon. The AmericanAirlines Arena was inaugurated with a concert by Gloria Estefan, two days later, on January 2, 2000. The Miami Heat played its first game in the new arena by defeating the Orlando Magic 111–103.

As part of its sponsorship arrangement, American Airlines had a giant aircraft painted on top of the arena's roof, with an American Airlines logo in the center. The design is visible from airplanes taking off and landing at Miami International Airport, where American has a hub. The arena also has luxury skyboxes called "Flagship Lounges," a trademark originally used for American's premium-class lounges at certain airports.

Local sportscasters often refer to the arena as the "triple-A". Some sports reporters on the local news stations such as WSVN have referred to the arena as "A³" (A cubed). The arena is known for its unusual scoreboard, designed by Artist Christopher Janney. Drawing on the underwater anemone forms, the scoreboard also changes colors depending on the atmosphere. For concerts in an arena configuration, end stage capacity is 12,202 for 180-degree shows, 15,402 for 270-degree shows, 18,309 for 360-degree shows. For center stage concerts the arena can seat 19,146.

The Miami Heat has not had to pay to use the $213 million-venue, which sits on $38 million of county land; the county has paid $64 million in operating subsidies. "It was never a good deal," says former Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson, who opposed the new arena in 1996. "There are certain politicians who just get stars in their eyes and don't really think about what the real cost is going to be."

Notable events hosted

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• The AmericanAirlines Arena as well as the American Airlines Center, hosted the NBA Finals in 2006 and 2011, in which the Miami Heat played the Dallas Mavericks. Because of this, the series were nicknamed by some as the American Airlines series.
• The arena was the setting for the highly publicized MTV Video Music Awards, both in 2004 and 2005. Both events brought millions of dollars into the Miami-Dade County economy.
• The arena hosted WCW Uncensored 2000, WWE's Royal Rumble event on January 29, 2006, Survivor Series on November 18, 2007, and Survivor Series on November 21, 2010. It's also hosted WWE Raw on January 1, 2007, and WWE SmackDown/ECW on April 1, 2008. WWE returned to the arena on July 14, 2009 for Smackdown/ECW,and WWE SmackDown/ECW on December 18, 2009. It also held the June 7, 2010 Raw, and the May 2, 2011 Raw which celebrated The Rock birthday. WWE returned to the arena on March 31, 2012 for the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2012 Induction Ceremony and on April 2, 2012 for a RAW supershow, the day after Wrestlemania XXVIII which took place at Sun Life Stadium.
• The AmericanAirlines Arena also hosted the first UFC event in the state of Florida, UFC 42: Sudden Impact, on April 25, 2003.
• In November 2002, Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour performed at AmericanAirlines Arena for an NBC special which aired in April 2003, winning an Emmy.
• On March 28, 2004, Britney Spears performed to a sold out show as part of The Onyx Hotel Tour. The show was broadcast live over the world.
• The 2004 VMAs and 2005 VMAs were held there. Celebrities entered by yacht rather than by limousine.
• On December 4 and 5, 2007- the argentinian rock band Soda Stereo performed at the AmericanAirlines Arena as part of his last tour of farewell Me veras volver . Being this tour a record of sold in Argentina and America. It was Six (6) sold out shows in the famous River Plate Stadium.
• The arena was host to For Darfur benefit concert, which was the Miami stop for Kanye West Glow in the Dark Tour, on May 6, 2008.
• Celine Dion performed her Taking Chances Tour at the arena on January 23, 2009 and set an attendance record making it the largest crowd in the arena's history.
• Britney Spears performed as part of her The Circus Starring Britney Spears Tour at the arena on March 7, 2009. She set an attendance record with a sold-out crowd of 18,644, beating out Celine Dion who previously gathered a 17,725 crowd. It is noted as the largest concert attendance in the arena's history as of 2009. She also performed at the arena as part of her Femme Fatale Tour.
• Ivete Sangalo: The Brazilian pop star sold out "AAA" on August 28, 2010 in your world tour.
• Phish has performed New Year's Eve 2 times at AAA including runs in 2003 and 2009, a total of 8 concerts.
• The cast of Mexican hit TV series Two Faces Of Love beat out Britney Spears selling out a crowd of 18,693 making this the largest concert attendance in the arena's history as of 2010.

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: AmericanAirlines Arena

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  Arena during the NBA Playoffs

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  Front view of the AAA in July 2010

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  View from Biscayne Bay

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  View from the north at night

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  Arena at night

References

External links

Miami portal

• AmericanAirlines Arena's official page
• Arena picture
• Satellite view from Google Maps
• Fan Info. For AmericanAirlines Arena
• VisitingFan.com: Reviews of American Airlines Arena