Venue News: A-10 Championship Slated for Barclays Center; Civic Arena Demolition Begins

The Atlantic 10 Tournament is leaving the Jersey Shore for the Big Apple in 2013. The Conference announced that it has formed a five-year partnership with the Barclays Center to bring the A-10 men’s basketball tournament to Brooklyn and the new arena. It will mark the first time the A-10 Tournament, which sends its champion to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, will be held in metropolitan New York City and the first time it will be played in a state-of-the-art new facility. The last time the Atlantic 10 Tournament was in an NBA building was in 2002 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia; since 2007, it has been played at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ. The move also places the championship into the largest media market in the nation and home to CBS Sports, the Atlantic 10’s television partner for the men’s basketball championship. CBS Sports carries several regular season A-10 games and the league’s championship title game is aired on CBS as part of the network’s Selection Sunday package…

…The time has come for the Igloo to melt. Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, one of the most unique facilities ever built, is being demolished after an appeals court refused to preserve iconic the structure. Demolition began earlier this week, with a backhoe taking down the concrete interior of the arena. The arena will be taken down piece by piece. Last week, a two-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by Preserve Pittsburgh to issue an emergency injunction blocking demolition of facility. The 28-acre site is slated for development, with the Pittsburgh Penguins owning the rights. Civic Arena opened in 1961 and was the most advanced arena at the time, with a retractable roof and a cutting-edge design that served both opera patrons and hockey fans…

…The men’s soccer contest between the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Memphis scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 19, will be played at Regions Park, the first-ever soccer match to be played in the facility. The game will act as a dry run for the 2011 NCAA Men’s Soccer College Cup national championship. This year’s College Cup is set to take place at the Hoover, AL, venue on Dec. 9-11. Regions Park is the current home of the Birmingham Barons, the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. In addition to minor league baseball, the venue has also served as the site of high school football games, professional volleyball, and the Southeastern Conference Baseball Tournament. The stadium underwent an extensive renovation in 2007 and will have a seating capacity of 13,000 for this year’s College Cup…

… During a Los Angeles City Council committee meeting, Anschutz Entertainment Group officials laid out preliminary proposals on how to ease traffic congestion and improve public transit near the proposed Farmers Field. They described a parking strategy that would direct game-day drivers to parking zones based on the direction they’re traveling from and explained plans for an AEG-funded expansion of a light rail station on Pico Boulevard. However, they did not say what they would do to encourage football fans to use public transportation to get to the stadium, even though a bill passed by state legislators earlier this month requires AEG to reduce car traffic. As a part of the bill, which limits the timing for legal challenges to the project, the stadium is to be carbon-neutral. The transportation plan is still a work in progress and will be released as part of AEG’s environmental impact report in January.

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