HemisFair Arena
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San Antonio Spurs ( ABA / NBA 1973-1993 ) Houston Rockets ( NBA 1972-1973 ) San Antonio Force (AFL, 1992)
The HemisFair Arena was a multi-purpose hall in the city of San Antonio of the U.S. state of Texas. At basketball games, the hall offered 16,057 seats for spectators.
History
The HemisFair Arena was originally built for the World Fair HemisFair '68 in the vicinity of the observation tower Tower of the Americas. The multi-purpose hall was the first home of the basketball team San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio from 1973 until the move in 1993., The NBA team the Houston Rockets spent the 1972/73 season in the hall. The Arena Football League team the San Antonio Force competed in the HemisFair Arena in the single year of existence in 1992.
The first home game of the Spurs was fought on 10 October 1973. The game against the San Diego Conquistadors ended with a 106:121 - defeat of the home team. San Antonio lost the first four games before they celebrated on October 16 against the then trained by Wilt Chamberlain Virginia Squires 116:106 their first win in the HemisFair Arena. Initially, the arena could seat 10,146 spectators and the games, the Spurs it was regularly sold out. In 1977, we increased the capacity of the hall by raising the roof to 10.05 meters (33 feet) and the construction of a high rank to 16,507 places. For the city of San Antonio approved 4 million U.S. dollars. The arena was known as the loudest stadium for the NBA.
For concerts and events were, inter alia, the comedian Bob Hope, Jack Benny and revivalist Billy Graham, as well as the artists and bands Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Willie Nelson, James Brown, Metallica, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Whitney Houston, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Van Halen, AC / DC, Iron Maiden, Prince, George Strait, the Judds, Ricky Skaggs, the Oak Ridge Boys, Bo Diddley, Rush, Primus, the Time, the Jacksons, Queensrÿche, Metal Church, Skid Row, Iron Maiden, Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet band, Selena in the HemisFair Arena.
Two years after moving to the Spurs in the Alamodome the end of the HemisFair Arena had come. The last game of the San Antonio Spurs took place on 20 May 1993. The sixth game of the Western Conference semi-finals against the Phoenix Suns 100:102 ended with a defeat and leaving the Spurs. This took place 893 season and play- off games the Spurs in the HemisFair Arena in 20 years. The game was watched by 9,383,257 visitors. The last concert was in 1995, the rock band Van Halen. For the very last time the arena on 30 May 1995 was used for a closing ceremony of the local Thomas Jefferson High School. This was followed in June of the year of the demolition of the arena.