Venue: Numerica Veterans Arena
Town: Spokane, US
Capacity: 12,638

Numerica Veterans Arena, formerly known as Spokane Arena and Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, is a multi-purpose arena in the northwestern United States, located in downtown Spokane, Washington. Opened in 1995, it is home to the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League (WHL) and Lilac City Legends of the United States Basketball League (USBL). With an undersized and aging Spokane Coliseum (1954) needing replacement, the Spokane City Council and Board of Spokane County Commissioners formed the Spokane Public Facilities District (SPFD) to acquire, construct, own, and operate sports and entertainment facilities with contiguous parking facilities. In 1990, the SPFD board members unanimously agreed to the following recommendations from an economic feasibility/market study. The recommendations were: Have a seating capacity of 12,000 to 14,000, with expansion capabilities, On city-owned land located adjacent to the old coliseum with on-site parking for 2,000 automobiles. Voters rejected the Spokane Arena four times in six years before agreeing to build it in 1991. In the fall of that year, two ballot measures were put out to voters and passed: One, to publicly finance the construction of the arena through a property tax bond issue worth $38 million, Two, a measure to validate the SPFD; validation was vital because it allowed the district to implement a 2% hotel tax to fund construction further. In the fall of 1991, another funding measure was put out to voters and was passed. It involved a 0.1% rise in the sales tax. The passage of all three measures completed the $44.8 million financing needed to build the arena. Ground was broken on March 5, 1993, and it opened 2½ years later, in September 1995. The arena has a state-of-the-art audio and video system. It consists of a 15-by-20-foot (4.6 by 6.1 m) Viacom Sports 12 mm LED display that can be used as two separate units. The video board has exceptional color reproduction and the best off-angle viewing available for any LE