Pechanga Arena
Pechanga Arena is an indoor arena in San Diego, California. Opened in 1966, it is an example of New Formalism architecture and has been designated by the City of San Diego as a historic resource. The arena has been home to numerous athletic teams in various sports. It is the home of the San Diego Gulls of the American Hockey League and the San Diego Seals of the National Lacrosse League.
The arena was the home of the National Basketball Association 's San Diego Rockets from 1967 to 1971 and San Diego Clippers from 1978 to 1984. It hosted the 1971 NBA All-Star Game and the 1973 Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton boxing fight. In 2013, U-T San Diego named the arena third on its list of the fifty most notable locations in San Diego sports history.
In June 2023, Stan Kroenke's development group, the Kroenke Group, announced that it would be the chief investor for the redevelopment of the site; a project known as Midway Rising. The proposal includes the demolition of Pechanga Arena, in order to build a new 16,000-seat arena, housing units, a multi-acre urban park, and a mixed-use entertainment, arts, and cultural district.
History
The arena was built in 1966 for $6.4 million by Bob Breitbard, a local football player who played for the San Diego State Aztecs. To build the arena, the city knocked down a housing project that had been there since 1943. The arena seated 13,000 for hockey and 13,700 for basketball. At 77 feet tall, the arena was built six years before the current 30 foot maximum height restriction was put into place by the State Coastal Commission in the Midway-Pacific Highway Community Plan.The arena opened on November 17, 1966, when more than 11,000 pro hockey fans watched the San Diego Gulls win their season opener, 4-1, against the Seattle Totems.
In 2013, U-T San Diego named the arena third on its list of the fifty most notable locations in San Diego sports history.
Naming history
The arena has had multiple names:- San Diego International Sports Arena
- San Diego Sports Arena
- iPayOne Center
- Valley View Casino Center
- Pechanga Arena
On October 12, 2010, it was announced that the arena's name had been changed to the "Valley View Casino Center", under a $1.5 million, 5-year agreement between the arena operator AEG, the San Pasqual Band of Diegueno Mission Indians and the city of San Diego.
Valley View Casino's naming rights expired November 30, 2018, leaving the arena without an official name until the city council announced on December 4, 2018, that the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, owners of Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, had acquired for $400,000 per year the naming rights to the arena, officially renaming it "Pechanga Arena". The agreement expired in May 2020.
Events
Sports
The arena seats 12,000 for indoor football, 12,920 for ice hockey, indoor soccer and box lacrosse, 14,500 for basketball and tennis, 5,450 for amphitheater concerts and stage shows, 8,900-14,800 for arena concerts, 13,000 for ice shows and the circus, and 16,100 for boxing and mixed martial arts.The arena opened on November 17, 1966, with the San Diego Gulls winning their season opener, 4-1, against the Seattle Totems. The Gulls were the arena's first tenant. The San Diego State Aztecs men's basketball team join the Gulls on a part-time basis soon afterwards; they played home games at the arena off-and-on to supplement their on-campus, much smaller venue, Peterson Gymnasium. The Aztecs played at the arena until 1997, when they opened their new on-campus venue, Viejas Arena.
On October 14, 1967, an NBA expansion team, the San Diego Rockets, became the arena's first professional basketball tenant when they played their season opener and first game in franchise history against the St. Louis Hawks, narrowly losing 98–99.
On January 12, 1971, the Rockets hosted the 1971 NBA All-Star Game at the arena.
At the conclusion of the 1970-71 NBA Season, the Rockets were sold and relocated to Houston. As a result, San Francisco Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli, who was looking for more support for his franchise, decided to make a play for the San Diego market. Mieuli changed his team's name to the Golden State Warriors for the upcoming season in order to target the state of California as a whole for a fanbase, instead of a single metropolitan area. The Warriors planned to split the season's home games between the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego. The Warriors ultimately hosted just six regular season home games at the San Diego Sports Arena, one each month of the 1971-72 season. The remainder of the Warriors' home games that season were played at Oakland Arena, where the Warriors settled full-time the following season.
As the Warriors returned to the Bay Area full-time after their brief experiment in San Diego, the NBA's primary competitor league, the American Basketball Association awarded its first—and as it turned out, only—expansion team to San Diego. Dr. Leonard Bloom paid a $1 million expansion fee to the league to start the team. The San Diego Conquistadors began play in the 1972-73 ABA season; however, they were unable to use the Sports Arena for their first two seasons of existence due to a feud between Bloom and Peter Graham, manager of the city-owned 14,400-seat Sports Arena. The Conquistadors, played at Peterson Gymnasium on the campus of San Diego State University from 1972 until 1974 as a result of the feud.
In late 1974, the Q's were finally allowed to use the Sports Arena, but their first season at the arena would turn out to be their only full season there. In 1975, the ABA, facing mounting financial difficulties, was rumored to be discussing a merger with the NBA and the San Diego franchise was not to be included. The Conquistadors, freshly renamed the Sails, would cease operations just 11 games into the 1975–76 ABA season on November 12, 1975, when the ABA announced that it was folding the San Diego Sails franchise. The Sails were scheduled to host the Indiana Pacers on that day but the game was not played.
In 1972, the Republican Party considered the arena for its National Convention. With little warning, however, the GOP decided to hold the convention in Miami Beach. To compensate for this blow to local prestige, then-mayor Pete Wilson gave San Diego the by-name of "America's Finest City", which is still the city's official moniker.
The arena was the host of the 1973 Muhammad Ali vs. Ken Norton boxing fight, which, by split decision, San Diego resident Norton won.
The 1975 NCAA men's basketball Final Four was held at the arena from March 15, 1975, until the national championship game on March 31, where UCLA was victorious in John Wooden's final game.
In 1978, less than three years after the Sails folded and the ABA's four surviving teams merged with the NBA, the NBA returned to San Diego with the relocation of the Buffalo Braves, which became the San Diego Clippers. In 1981, the Clippers were bought by Los Angeles-based developer Donald Sterling. Sterling, despite failing to gain approval from the NBA to relocate the team to Los Angeles in 1982 and again in 1984, did so anyway following the 1983–84 NBA season, which led to a lawsuit from the league. The team ultimately remained in Los Angeles, however, following a counter-lawsuit brought on by Sterling. The franchise has kept the Clippers name despite its reference being to the ships of San Diego Bay. San Diego has not hosted an NBA regular game since the Clippers' departure.
In both 1979 and 1981 at the San Diego Indoor Track Meet, Irish distance runner Eamonn Coghlan broke the world record for the indoor mile with times of 3:52.6 and 3:50.6 respectively. A photo of him crossing the finish line appeared around the world including on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Coghlan's time for the 1981 race would remain as the world record until 1983, when he improved upon his own record with a time of 3:49.78 at New Jersey's Meadowlands Arena indoor arena. Coghlan held the indoor mile world record for 17 years and 11 months before Moroccan distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj broke the world record in 1997 with a time of 3:48.45.
The arena has also been home of the San Diego Mariners of the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1977, the San Diego Friars of World Team Tennis from 1975 to 1978, the San Diego Sockers indoor soccer team, which won 10 titles in the arena, and other minor professional sports franchises. The San Diego Sockers made their return to the arena in 2012 for their fourth season in the PASL-Pro from Del Mar Arena. The San Diego Aviators of WTT relocated from New York City prior to the 2014 season and began playing their home matches in the arena. On December 29, 2014, the Aviators announced that the team would move its home matches to Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in nearby Carlsbad for the 2015 season.
The arena has hosted a series of UFC events. The arena hosted UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyushenko on August 1, 2010. The arena hosted UFC Fight Night: Mir vs. Duffee on July 15, 2015. The arena hosted UFC on ESPN: Vera vs. Cruz on August 13, 2022.
In 2015, the Anaheim Ducks relocated their American Hockey League affiliate to San Diego to become the current iteration of the San Diego Gulls, using the arena for their home games.
On August 7, 2016, the arena played host to the Arena Football League's Los Angeles Kiss as they faced the Cleveland Gladiators in the first round of the AFL playoffs. The game was moved to San Diego due to the Kiss' home arena, the Honda Center in Anaheim hosting the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus that weekend. The Kiss would lose to the Gladiators 56–52 in front of a crowd of 4,692. It was the first AFL game ever to be played at the arena and the first arena football game played there since 2005, when the AF2's San Diego Riptide played their home games at the arena from 2002 to 2005.
On August 29, 2017, the National Lacrosse League announced that billionaire owner Joseph Tsai of Alibaba had been awarded an NLL franchise to begin playing in November 2018 for the 2018–2019 season. The team is known as the San Diego Seals.
In November 2018, the Indoor Football League announced an expansion team for the 2019 season called the San Diego Strike Force. The IFL became the top level of professional indoor football in November 2019 when the Arena Football League announced it was folding.