The
Neal S. Blaisdell Center in
downtown HonoluluDowntown Honolulu is the current historic, economic, governmental, and central part of Honolulu—bounded by Nuuanu Stream to the west, Ward Avenue to the east, Vineyard Boulevard to the north, and Honolulu Harbor to the south—situated within the larger Honolulu District...
, Honolulu CDP is a community center for the
City & County of HonoluluThe City and County of Honolulu is a consolidated city–county located in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The municipality and county includes both the urban district of Honolulu and the rest of the island of Oahu, as well as several minor outlying islands, including all of the Northwestern Hawaiian...
. Constructed in 1964 on the historic Ward Estate and originally called the
Hawaii International Center, the center was renamed after
Mayor of HonoluluThe Mayor of Honolulu is the chief executive officer of the City and County of Honolulu and considered the third most powerful official in the U.S. state of Hawaii, behind the Governor of Hawaii and the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii...
Neal S. Blaisdell. The multi-purpose complex is composed of an internationally renowned arena, concert hall, conference rooms, galleria and exhibition hall. It was remodeled and expanded in 1994.
Arena
The
Neal S. Blaisdell Arena is a circular performance facility used for concerts and major sporting events. The arena can accommodate 7,700 seats for sports events, and up to 8,800 seats for stage events with seats set up on the arena floor.
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
sold out concerts at the arena in the 1960s and 1970s, the world famous "
Aloha from HawaiiAloha from Hawaii is a music concert that was headlined by Elvis Presley, and was broadcast live via satellite on January 14, 1973. It is the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history, viewed by an estimated 1.5 billion people worldwide. The concert took place at the...
" concert was held here on 14 January 1973. In recognition of this a bronze statue of Elvis has been erected outside the front of the center. The statue was sponsored by the
TV LandTV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
channel.
Other events at the arena include
World Wrestling EntertainmentWorld Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWE),
Disney on IceDisney On Ice is a touring ice show produced by Feld Entertainment under agreement with The Walt Disney Company. Aimed primarily at children, the shows feature figure skaters dressed as Disney cartoon characters in performances that each derive their music and plot from elements collected from...
,
American IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
Live!,
Sesame Street LiveSesame Street Live is the live touring show based on the children's television show Sesame Street.Produced by Minneapolis-based VEE Corporation, the show opened on September 17, 1980, with a production of Sesame Street Live "Missing Bird Mystery" playing at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota...
, college
basketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and
volleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
, and international
gymnasticsGymnastics is a sport involving performance of exercises requiring physical strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, and balance. Internationally, all of the gymnastic sports are governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique with each country having its own national governing body...
, as well as a fundraising concert for victims of Hurricane Iniki, with Crosby, Stills & Nash,
Jackson BrowneJackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
&
Bonnie RaittBonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, and a 1965
Billy GrahamWilliam Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
crusade.
The Arena also hosts the start of the exhibition season for the
Los Angeles LakersThe Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association...
of the
National Basketball AssociationThe National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
and the men's and women's basketball and volleyball games for
Hawaii Pacific UniversityHawaii Pacific University, also known as HPU, is a private, Nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Honolulu, Hawaii and Kaneohe, Hawaii. HPU founded in 1965 as Hawaii Pacific College by Paul C.T. Loo, Eureka Forbes, Elizabeth W...
, the state's largest private university. It served as the home court for
University of Hawaii at MānoaThe University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
basketball until UH built the
Stan Sheriff CenterThe Stan Sheriff Center is a 10,300-seat multi-purpose arena in Honolulu CDP, City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii, on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa...
on campus in 1994. The arena was the home venue for several short-lived attempts to establish Hawaii professional sports teams, including the
Hawaii HurricanesThe Hawaii Hurricanes were a proposed basketball team intended to be based in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. They were scheduled to begin play in the new American Basketball Association in 2007, but the team was confiscated by the league before the season due to suspicions of bad business practices on the...
of the American Basketball Association and three indoor football teams: the
Honolulu HurricanesThis article is about the defunct Professional Indoor Football League team, for the American basketball Association team, see Hawaii Hurricanes...
, the
Hawaii HammerheadsThe Hawaii Hammerheads was an indoor football team in the Indoor Professional Football League during the 1999 season. The Hammerheads were owned by George Heatherington and played their home games at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. The team's official colors were: Aqua, Silver...
, and the
af2AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
's
Hawaiian IslandersThe Hawaiian Islanders were a minor league team of the Arena Football League, the af2. Based in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Hawaiian Islanders home field was at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center Arena. It competed in the AF2 National Conference West...
. The Islanders persisted for three full seasons, the longest of all the pro teams based at the arena. In 1982, the arena served as home court for Chaminade University in a Christmas Eve upset of a
Ralph SampsonRalph Lee Sampson, Jr. is a retired American college and professional basketball player.A 7-foot-4 phenom, three-time College Player of the Year, and No...
-led number one ranked
University of VirginiaThe Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball program represents the University of Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the NCAA's Division I. The team is coached by Tony Bennett.-Statistics:-Retired numbers:-Retired jerseys:...
, 77-72.
In November 2006, the Professional Bull Riders hosted the Cheeseburger Island Style PBR Hawaii All-Star Challenge, a special event that took place between the 2006 PBR World Finals and the start of the 2007 PBR season.
Many graduation and commencement ceremonies are held by schools in the arena in late May and June.
Concert Hall
With a capacity of 2,158 seats, the
Neil S. Blaisdell Concert Hall is the home of the
Honolulu SymphonyThe Honolulu Symphony, also known as the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, was founded in 1900. The Honolulu Symphony is the oldest symphony orchestra in the USA west of the Rocky Mountains. Originally housed in a clubhouse on the slopes of Punchbowl, the Honolulu Symphony now plays from the Neal S...
and the
Hawaii Opera TheatreThe Hawaii Opera Theatre is an opera company located in Honolulu, Hawaii, which became active in 1961. The company typically performs three operas during February and March in Blaisdell Concert Hall...
.
BroadwayBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions such as
The Phantom of the OperaThe Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
,
Les MisérablesLes Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
,
RentRent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
,
Miss SaigonMiss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...
,
ChicagoChicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
,
CatsCats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, and other national touring shows have performed at the concert hall. In the fall and early winter of 2007 the concert hall was host to the Broadway musical
The Lion KingThe Lion King is a musical based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice along with the musical score created by Hans Zimmer with choral arrangements by Lebo M. Directed by Julie Taymor, the musical features actors in animal costumes as well...
, a booking which displaced the Honolulu Symphony from its usual home and led to a major cash flow crisis for the orchestra.
Exhibition Hall
Located between the Concert Hall and the Arena, the Exhibition Hall provides 65000 square feet (6,038.7 m²) of exhibition space on the main floor that is expandable to 85000 square feet (7,896.8 m²) when combined with adjoining spaces. Five meeting rooms are also available in the hall. The Exhibition Hall accommodates numerous local trade and consumer shows and fundraising events throughout the year, and is one of the main exhibition venues in Honolulu in addition to the
Hawaii Convention CenterThe Hawai‘i Convention Center is a convention and exhibition center in Hawaii, located in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. The building cost $200 million and has of floor space. It was completed in 1997 and opened in 1998...
.
Miscellaneous
Many religious ceremonies have been performed in the Neil S. Blaisdell Center. The largest of which were the enthronement of
Joseph Anthony FerrarioJoseph Anthony Ferrario was the third bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu and served from 1982 to 1993.-Early life and priestly ministry:...
as the third
Bishop of HonoluluThe Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu is the residential bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu in the United States, which encompasses the entire state of Hawaii and the unincorporated Hawaiian Islands. The Honolulu diocese is a suffragan see in the metropolitan province of the...
and the ordination and installation of
Clarence Richard SilvaClarence Richard Silva, popularly known as Larry Silva , is a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the fifth Bishop of Honolulu, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on May 17, 2005, to oversee the Diocese of Honolulu. Previous to his appointment to the epicopacy, he served as a diocesan priest...
as the fifth Bishop of Honolulu, overseeing the
Roman Catholic Diocese of HonoluluThe Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, officially in Latin Dioecesis Honoluluensis, is an ecclesiastical territory or particular church of the Catholic Church in the United States...
.
Kamehameha SchoolsKamehameha Schools , formerly called Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate , is a private co-educational college-preparatory institution that specializes in Native Hawaiian language and cultural education. It is located in Hawaii and operates three campuses: Kapālama , Pukalani , and Keaau...
has held their annual
Song ContestThe Kamehameha Schools Song Contest is an annual choral music competition between the grades 9-12 graduating classes of the Kamehameha Schools Kapālama Campus. The contest is televised live throughout the state of Hawaii on KGMB. It is also webcast live on the school's website and has previously...
at the Blaisdell since 1964.
On December 23, 1982, what is considered by many as the greatest upset in sports history happened at the Blaisdell Arena as the then number one ranked
University of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
CavaliersThe Virginia Cavaliers men's basketball program represents the University of Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the NCAA's Division I. The team is coached by Tony Bennett.-Statistics:-Retired numbers:-Retired jerseys:...
, led by
Ralph SampsonRalph Lee Sampson, Jr. is a retired American college and professional basketball player.A 7-foot-4 phenom, three-time College Player of the Year, and No...
was beaten 77-72 by Chaminade University, a small
NAIAThe National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
school (today NCAA Division II) with a student body of 800.
External links