Reliant Arena

The Reliant Arena, formerly the "Astroarena", is a 350,000 square feet (33,000 m²) sports center in Reliant Park, in Houston, Texas. It is one of the state's major arenas and convention centers. Reliant is also the new home of the Houston Comets after the team moved from Toyota Center before the start of the 2008 season.

Building format

Reliant Arena consists of multiple rooms and divisions on two separate floors.

The main partition on the first floor is the "Arena Proper", a 24,000 gross square foot arena that seats up to 8,500 people. While dwarfed by the stadiums within the complex (the Reliant Astrodome seats 60,000 and Reliant Stadium seats 70,000) as well as other arenas in the city (the Toyota Center seats 20,000, Robertson Stadium seats 30,000, and Minute Maid Park seats 42,000), it serves as an ideal location for events that cannot possibly fill such large arenas.

In addition to the Arena Proper, there are four exhibit halls within Reliant Arena. The largest hall is Exhibit Hall D, boasting convert|100000|sqft|m2|-4 of space. The second is Exhibit Hall A, which has convert|75000|sqft|m2|-2 of space. Exhibit Halls B and C each have convert|50000|sqft|m2|-3 of floor space as well.

The upper level maintains smaller meeting rooms and office space as well as the "Stockman's Club".

History

Construction of Reliant Arena originated in the early 1970s and completed in 1974 adjacent to the Astrohall. Although the Astrohall (renamed Reliant Hall temporarily) was its next door neighbor, it was demolished in May 2002 to make way for a parking lot when Reliant Stadium was being completed.

The Arena has since been utilized for several other events, including the National Catholic Youth Conference in 2003 and the peripheral events of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

The Arena has also been a favorite stop for professional wrestling promotions such as World Wrestling Entertainment and World Championship Wrestling. Over the past decade, it has hosted multiple episodes of "WCW Thunder" and "WWE SmackDown!", shows hosted by each company. Additionally, it hosted WCW's Fall Brawl pay per view in 1993. It was announced on July 2 that the Reliant Arena would host the final Smackdown! before WrestleMania 25.

In 2005, the Arena was used as a shelter for residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina after it was deemed that the Reliant Astrodome would be insufficient for comfortably housing over 30,000 residents. It served as auxiliary housing for victims of Hurricane Katrina along with other parts of Reliant Park, and was the site of the field clinic set up to care for those displaced by the hurricane. This led to the cancellation of a My Chemical Romance concert, which led to a small riot.

The Arena is a potential home for a relocated af2 team, the Texas Copperheads. The Copperheads played the 2006 season in nearby Katy.

On July 16, 2007 the arena played host to the first indoor stop on the 2007 Vans Warped Tour.

On December 12 2007 team owner Hilton Koch announced that the Comets would be moving from the Toyota Center to Reliant Arena for the 2008 WNBA season.cite web|url=http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/sports/5374378.html|title=Comets moving to Reliant|date=2007-12-12|accessdate=2008-07-13|publisher=Houston Chronicle]

In July 2008, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling held it's Victory Road 2008 pay-per-view event at the arena.

References

External links

* [http://www.reliantpark.com/facilities/arena.asp Arena details and floorplans]
* [http://www.houston-guide.com/facilities/convention/floorplans/reliant1.pdf/ More Reliant Arena details and floorplans]