ST. LOUIS ARENA
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Located at 5700 Oakland Avenue, just a stone’s throw from the city’s world famous Forest Park Zoo, St. Louis Arena was built in 1929 as a showcase for various farm and dairy shows that were popular at the time, as well as conventions, circuses, religious gatherings, concerts and sporting events. Unfortunately, almost as soon as the place opened, the stock market crashed, and The Arena nearly closed permanently. It bounced from owner to owner throughout its history, and went through numerous renovations and improvements over the years. The Arena held about 15,000 people when it first opened, and more than 19,000 by the time it closed. The building was also flanked by matching structures, one to the east called "Arena Annex" that was used for various exhibitions and storage, and one to the west, the "Arena Bowl", which for a time was one of the largest bowling alleys in St. Louis. AB closed sometime in the ‘60s, but the building survived until the mid-‘80s. Perhaps The Arena’s most distinctive feature was its huge wooden Lamella roof, which was one of the largest of its kind in the world at the time, and gave the building its trademark barn-like appearance. It was a pretty sturdy roof too, despite having a big hole blown out of it by a freak February, 1959 tornado that also heavily damaged much of the Arena Annex and parts of the city as well.
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Oddly enough, basketball didn’t become a regular staple on Oakland Avenue until the ‘70s, primarily because the NBA’s St. Louis Hawks played their home games at old Kiel Auditorium until they bolted for Atlanta in 1968. St. Louis U. played mostly at Kiel as well, but college basketball hit its stride in St. Louis in 1973 and 1978 when The Arena hosted the NCAA Final Four. The annual "Border War" game between Missouri and Illinois became a Christmas-time tradition, with the final one at the Old Barn being the best of all in 1993 as MU beat the Illini in a triple-OT thriller that nearly brought the house down. The Arena did get a brief sniff of pro basketball (although most of it didn’t smell too good), as the semi-legendary Spirits of St. Louis of the old American Basketball Association played there for two eventful, if not well-executed, seasons in the mid-70s. They were perhaps the wildest collection of misfits ever assembled on one team in any sport, and their story is chronicled in the hilarious ABA documentary book Loose Balls by Terry Pluto. You can also read about them and the rest of the league at a wonderful site called RememberTheABA.com. Incidentally, the Spirits were also the launching point in the sportscasting career of one young Bob Costas. Sadly, they folded when the ABA merged with the NBA, and St. Louis has been without pro basketball ever since, apart from the three or four "home" games the Kansas City Kings would stage each season at The Arena during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
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My first visit to St. Louis Arena was during the middle of the great heat wave in July, 1983 to see The Police in concert with my friend Tom. Great show, and I seem to remember the building felt like a sauna, even though it did have air conditioning. I returned three years later on my first official solo road trip and pretty much spent pretty much the entire weekend at the Old Barn in March, 1986, watching my beloved Comets beat the Steamers on Friday night, then taking in my first NHL regular season game outside of K.C. as the Blues beat the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. I had such a great time both nights that I decided to attend the matinee on Sunday between the Steamers and Wichita Wings, which gave me a chance to really roam the place and check out all the nooks and crannies, since the crowd wasn’t as large as the previous two nights.
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My friends and I made several pilgrimages to The Arena for Blues games and soccer games involving the Comets and the Steamers and Storm between 1986 and 1992. My final visit was in March, '92 for a game between the Tacoma Stars and St. Louis Storm (the Comets folded the year before), and even at its advanced age, The Arena’s old magic was still there, and the atmosphere was still electric. As cavernous as the building was, it still got plenty loud when the crowds got raucous, and the joint really got to jumpin' during hockey fights.
Probably my favorite Arena memory of all was "Kazoo Night" at a Blues game on March 3, 1990. Classic Rock station K-SHE 95 sponsored the giveaway of plastic kazoos to everyone who entered the building, and they were put to use almost immediately when one of the K-SHE jocks led the assembled multitude in the greatest rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" you'll ever hear. Screw Whitney Houston—this was the damndest thing I’ve ever seen and heard! The DJ got it going, and it started off rather tentatively, as most people (including me) thought it was a joke at first, but everyone gradually joined in, and by the "rockets red glare" part, it sounded great! I wish someone had recorded this, because you’d be surprised how good 18,000 people playing the National Anthem in unison on kazoo actually sound—certainly as good, if not better, than any singer or musical soloist could’ve done, and a damn sight better than wimps like Kenny G...
Sadly, St. Louis Arena was never given a proper send-off, nor did it have any kind of Grand Finale. The Blues were scheduled to begin the 1994-95 season at the Old Barn until their new arena, built on the site of old Kiel Auditorium and originally known as Kiel Center, was completed in December. However, the new joint was finished way ahead of schedule and was indeed ready for Opening Night in October after all, if there had actually been one in October. Turned out it didn’t matter anyway, as the NHL labor dispute delayed the start of that season to January, ’95, thus no one realized at the time when the Blues bowed out in the 1993-94 playoffs, that they had played their final game at The Arena, period, thus no fanfare, no closing ceremony, no nothing. Given the building’s star-crossed history, I guess that seems fitting in some bizarre way.
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There is a wonderful book that I believe is still in print called The St. Louis Arena Memories written by Patti Smith Jackson, and it features a treasure trove of photos from throughout the building’s entire history from construction to implosion. It was one of the nicest Christmas gifts I ever received from anyone (thank you again, Stacy!).
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1 comment:
Ah...The Arena. I have some wonderful memories of that place. I was there at the Monday Night Miracle and Doug Wickenheiser, God rest his soul. I was also there at the 1993 Mizzou-Illini game when the old Barn was actually breathing. You could feel it inhaling and exhaling after each and every point. Yes, the halls were narrow and dimly lit, but the ambience of that place was incredible. You felt like you were actually sitting on the ice. I saw Billy Joel do a concert there and the were no monitors on the stage, it was as clean as a stage could be. F'ing incredible. And as far as a sendoff goes, there were over a thousand people there when it was imploded, many were crying and actually leaving tributes to the place in the form of flowers and other trinkets. It was a sad day for St. Louis, but time marches on.
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