Ralph Engelstad Arena
Encyclopedia
For the arena with the same name in Thief River Falls, Minnesota see Ralph Engelstad Arena (Minnesota)
.
For the pre-2001 arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota see Ralph Engelstad Arena (old)
.
Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA) is an indoor arena
located in the University Village
development on the campus of the University of North Dakota
(UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota
. The arena is used primarily for hockey
and was built by UND alumnus Ralph Engelstad
. Some people refer to the arena as simply The Ralph.
teams. The arena also hosts many non-athletic events including concerts and a yearly circus. Called the "Taj Mahal of hockey," $110 million arena was built with materials that would not usually be found in such a facility. For instance, the concourses of the REA are covered in granite
flooring, each spectator seat is made of cherry wood and leather
upholstery, escalator
s bring spectators between levels, and full-color LCD displays
dot the arena. The REA has been called one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world. Former NHL
hockey player Wayne Gretzky
has called the structure "one of the most beautiful buildings we have in North America
."
The REA complex has evolved to include more than just the main arena. A second Olympic-sized sheet of ice sits adjacent to the main arena. An addition to the main arena, The Betty Engelstad Sioux Center
(or simply The Betty) was completed in 2004 and is now the home of UND's basketball
and volleyball
teams.
Although located within the campus of the University of North Dakota the arena and land itself is owned by The Engelstad Family Foundation and rented conditionally to UND each year for $1. This setup was created to give the Engelstad family control and final say regarding the facility.
sports teams were renamed in deference to political pressures. In an effort to make the prospect of removal a prohibitively costly measure, the Fighting Sioux logo was strategically placed in thousands of instances in the arena, including a large granite logo in the main concourse. After the National Collegiate Athletic Association
barred several universities that use Native American imagery from hosting post-season tournaments or wearing such imagery in post-season play, UND sued the NCAA. A preliminary injunction was granted that would have allowed the Fighting Sioux to both host post-season events and wear their regular uniforms while the lawsuit was in progress. The legal papers filed in support of UND pointed out that the Florida State Seminoles have not been required to change their name, thus raising the possibility that the decision regarding the UND Fighting Sioux was arbitrary and capricious. In addition, the legal papers noted that UND has a Native American Studies program, has Native Americans on its faculty, and has a significant Native American student population.
The lawsuit with the NCAA was settled under the condition that UND has three years to gain tribal support from both Sioux nations in North Dakota, or retire the Sioux name and logo. While UND supports the settlement conditions, the Ralph Engelstad Arena has declined to commit to removal of the Sioux name and logos from the arena, even if they are retired.
REA's inaugural hockey game was on October 5, 2001 and featured the Fighting Sioux men's team against the WCHA
rival Minnesota Golden Gophers in the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game, in which Minnesota defeated the North Dakota, 7-5. The REA hosted the West Regional in the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament
, with North Dakota playing in its home building.
The REA has hosted a number of non-NCAA ice hockey events, notably the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
with over 195,000 tickets sold. The Minnesota Wild
have played several exhibition games at the arena as well. REA also hosted the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship
, along with family-friendly ice shows such as Stars on Ice and Disney's High School Musical
On Ice.
Non-ice events at the REA have included concerts, by artists such as Tim McGraw
, Brad Paisley
, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney
, Rascal Flatts
, Toby Keith
, Kelly Clarkson
, Reba McEntire
, Carrie Underwood
, Clay Aiken
, Incubus
and a tennis match between Andre Agassi
and Andy Roddick
.
The REA is the primary host of the North Dakota High School Activities Association
State Boys' and Girls' Hockey Tournament. This event typically takes place in the last weekend of February.
Ralph Engelstad Arena (Minnesota)
Ralph Engelstad Arena is an indoor arena located in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. It is used primarily for ice sports, such as hockey, and was built by Ralph Engelstad....
.
For the pre-2001 arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota see Ralph Engelstad Arena (old)
Ralph Engelstad Arena (old)
Ralph Engelstad Arena was a 6,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was home to the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey team. It also hosted community events and the 1983 Frozen Four tournament...
.
Ralph Engelstad Arena (REA) is an indoor arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
located in the University Village
University Village, Grand Forks, North Dakota
University Village is a neighborhood in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is a part of the University of North Dakota campus and is located directly north of UND's central campus area. The property comprises located on the banks of the meandering English Coulee directly off U.S. Highway 2...
development on the campus of the University of North Dakota
University of North Dakota
The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...
(UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...
. The arena is used primarily for hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
and was built by UND alumnus Ralph Engelstad
Ralph Engelstad
Ralph Engelstad was the multi-millionaire owner of the Imperial Palace casino-hotels in Las Vegas and in Biloxi, Mississippi and the Klondike Hotel & Casino...
. Some people refer to the arena as simply The Ralph.
Facility
Ralph Engelstad Arena, which seats 11,640, opened on October 5, 2001 and is located on the UND campus. The REA is used by the UND men's and women's ice hockeyNorth Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey
The North Dakota Fighting Sioux men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Grand Forks campus of the University of North Dakota. They are members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I ice hockey...
teams. The arena also hosts many non-athletic events including concerts and a yearly circus. Called the "Taj Mahal of hockey," $110 million arena was built with materials that would not usually be found in such a facility. For instance, the concourses of the REA are covered in granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
flooring, each spectator seat is made of cherry wood and leather
Leather
Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...
upholstery, escalator
Escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...
s bring spectators between levels, and full-color LCD displays
Liquid crystal display
A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....
dot the arena. The REA has been called one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world. Former NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
hockey player Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky, CC is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. Nicknamed "The Great One", he is generally regarded as the best player in the history of the National Hockey League , and has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters,...
has called the structure "one of the most beautiful buildings we have in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
."
The REA complex has evolved to include more than just the main arena. A second Olympic-sized sheet of ice sits adjacent to the main arena. An addition to the main arena, The Betty Engelstad Sioux Center
Betty Engelstad Sioux Center
The Betty Engelstad Sioux Center is an indoor arena located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It is adjacent to the larger $100 million Ralph Engelstad Arena in the University Village development. The facility sits on the campus of the University of North Dakota and is used for the University's...
(or simply The Betty) was completed in 2004 and is now the home of UND's basketball
North Dakota Fighting Sioux basketball
The North Dakota Fighting Sioux basketball teams are parth of the athletic program at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. They are members of the NCAA Division I Great West Conference since the 2008-2009 season. Previously they played in Division II's North Central...
and volleyball
North Dakota Fighting Sioux volleyball
The North Dakota Fighting Sioux volleyball team is a part of the athletic program at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. They are members of the NCAA Division I Great West Conference. The team has won 2 consecutive Great West Conference regular and post-season titles ....
teams.
Although located within the campus of the University of North Dakota the arena and land itself is owned by The Engelstad Family Foundation and rented conditionally to UND each year for $1. This setup was created to give the Engelstad family control and final say regarding the facility.
Controversy
Midway during construction, Ralph Engelstad threatened to withdraw his funding if UND's Fighting SiouxNorth Dakota Fighting Sioux
The North Dakota Fighting Sioux are the athletic teams of the University of North Dakota , which is located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota, in the United States. The logo is a Native American figure. The logo was designed by Bennett Brien, a local artist and UND graduate of Ojibwa...
sports teams were renamed in deference to political pressures. In an effort to make the prospect of removal a prohibitively costly measure, the Fighting Sioux logo was strategically placed in thousands of instances in the arena, including a large granite logo in the main concourse. After the National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
barred several universities that use Native American imagery from hosting post-season tournaments or wearing such imagery in post-season play, UND sued the NCAA. A preliminary injunction was granted that would have allowed the Fighting Sioux to both host post-season events and wear their regular uniforms while the lawsuit was in progress. The legal papers filed in support of UND pointed out that the Florida State Seminoles have not been required to change their name, thus raising the possibility that the decision regarding the UND Fighting Sioux was arbitrary and capricious. In addition, the legal papers noted that UND has a Native American Studies program, has Native Americans on its faculty, and has a significant Native American student population.
The lawsuit with the NCAA was settled under the condition that UND has three years to gain tribal support from both Sioux nations in North Dakota, or retire the Sioux name and logo. While UND supports the settlement conditions, the Ralph Engelstad Arena has declined to commit to removal of the Sioux name and logos from the arena, even if they are retired.
Notable events
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is a college athletic conference which operates over a wide area of the Midwestern and Western United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as an ice hockey-only conference....
rival Minnesota Golden Gophers in the US Hockey Hall of Fame Game, in which Minnesota defeated the North Dakota, 7-5. The REA hosted the West Regional in the 2006 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament
2006 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey Tournament
-Midwest Regional:-West Regional:-Northeast Regional:-Frozen Four:* Overtime-Record by conference:-External links:*...
, with North Dakota playing in its home building.
The REA has hosted a number of non-NCAA ice hockey events, notably the 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships
The 2005 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships was held between December 25, 2004, and January 4, 2005, at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and at the Ralph Engelstad Arena in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, United States...
with over 195,000 tickets sold. The Minnesota Wild
Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League ....
have played several exhibition games at the arena as well. REA also hosted the 2008 World Men's Curling Championship
2008 World Men's Curling Championship
-Draw 2:April 5, 19:00-Draw 3:April 6, 09:00-Draw 4:April 6, 14:00-Draw 5:April 6, 19:00-Draw 6:April 7, 09:00-Draw 7:April 7, 14:00-Draw 8:April 7, 19:00-Draw 9:April 8, 09:00...
, along with family-friendly ice shows such as Stars on Ice and Disney's High School Musical
High School Musical
High School Musical is a 2006 American television film, first in the High School Musical film franchise. Upon its release on January 20, 2006, it became the most successful film that Disney Channel Original Movie ever produced, with a television sequel High School Musical 2 released in 2007 and...
On Ice.
Non-ice events at the REA have included concerts, by artists such as Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
, Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....
, Sugarland, Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney
Kenneth "Kenny" Arnold Chesney is an American country music singer and songwriter. Chesney has recorded 15 albums, 14 of which have been certified gold or higher by the RIAA. He has also produced more than 30 Top Ten singles on the U.S...
, Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American country music band that originated in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. Since its inception, Rascal Flatts has been composed of three members: Gary LeVox , Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney...
, Toby Keith
Toby Keith
Toby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...
, Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson is an American pop rock singer-songwriter and actress. Clarkson came into prominence after becoming the winner of the inaugural season of the television series American Idol in 2002 and would later become the runner-up in the television special World Idol in 2003.In 2003,...
, Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire
Reba Nell McEntire is an American country music artist and actress. She began her career in the music industry as a high school student singing in the Kiowa High School band , on local radio shows with her siblings, and at rodeos. As a solo act, she was invited to perform at a rodeo in Oklahoma...
, Carrie Underwood
Carrie Underwood
Carrie Marie Underwood is an American country singer-songwriter and actress who rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol, in 2005...
, Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken
Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken is an American singer, songwriter, actor, producer and author who began his rise to fame on the second season of the television program American Idol in 2003. RCA Records offered him a recording contract, and his multi-platinum debut album Measure of a Man was released...
, Incubus
Incubus (band)
Incubus is an American rock band from Calabasas, California. The band was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer Jose Pasillas while enrolled in high school and later expanded to include bassist Alex "Dirk Lance" Katunich, and Gavin "DJ Lyfe" Koppell;...
and a tennis match between Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi
Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...
and Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen "Andy" Roddick is an American professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. He is currently the second highest-ranked American player, behind Mardy Fish....
.
The REA is the primary host of the North Dakota High School Activities Association
North Dakota High School Activities Association
The North Dakota High School Activities Association is the governing body for North Dakota high school athletics and fine arts. In many athletics, the state's teams are divided into Class A and Class B . One exception to this is football, which is divided into four divisions: AAA, AA, A, and 9-man...
State Boys' and Girls' Hockey Tournament. This event typically takes place in the last weekend of February.