Civic Arena

The arena wasn't originally built with sports in mind. In 1947, just one year after its first season, the Civic Light Opera, tired of rained-out performances at the Pitt Stadium, were looking for a covered venue. It took 10 years before groundbreaking started and the arena opened four years later, in 1961.

The completed structure was ahead of its time. The large stainless-steel dome featured a retractable roof with no interior supports. The roof consists of eight sections, six of which are able to rotate. The roof could be opened in about 2 minutes but the addition of a heavy scoreboard in 1995 makes it currently impossible to completely open the roof.
The arena had an original seating capacity of 10,000 but this has been increased over the years to about 17,500 for ice hockey games and to 18,500 for concerts.

In its first year the arena was called the Civic Auditorium but since the building was commonly known as Civic Arena, it was officially named as such in 1962. In 1999 the naming rights of the arena were sold for 10 years to the Mellon Bank which was called Mellon Arena during that period. The arena is appropriately nicknamed 'The Igloo'.

The Civic Arena has seen many tenants come and go: basketball, ice hockey, world team tennis, indoor soccer and indoor lacrosse teams occupied the arena at one time or another.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, long the main tenants, moved in in 1967. The original tenant, the Civic Light Opera moved out of the arena in 1968 due to its poor acoustic conditions. Nonetheless the Arena has been used for many concerts with some of the most notable performers being the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. The arena is also used for other sorts of entertainment such as Disney on Ice, the Harlem Globetrotters and the World Wrestling Federation.

In 2010 the Pittsburgh Penguins moved to a new arena across the street, the Consol Center, which opened in September 2010. The Civic Arena meanwhile will be demolished. A final goodbye concert was held on June 26, 2010.