Thomas & Mack Center

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The Thomas & Mack Center is an arena on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility was first opened in the summer of 1983. Its primary tenants are the UNLV men's basketball team and the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League; it also hosts the National Finals Rodeo annually. The facility also hosted the Las Vegas Thunder of the now defunct International Hockey League. The facility also hosts numerous other events, such as concerts, conventions, boxing cards, and professional wrestling shows such as WWE No Way Out 2001 and WWE Vengeance 2005. The Legendary rock band Phish performed here exactly 10 times, including their legendary Halloween 1998 show, in which they covered the Velvet Underground's Loaded in its entirety. Mikhail Gorbachev once spoke in the arena in March of 2004 about his views on current world invents. For ring events, the capacity is 19,522; for basketball, the capacity is 18,776.

The facility is named after two prominent Nevada bankers, E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack, who donated the original funds for the feasibility and land studies.

In 2001, a smaller arena, Cox Pavilion, was added to the complex; the two arenas are directly connected. Cox Pavilion is used for smaller events; its main tenants are the UNLV women's basketball and volleyball programs.

In 2005, the arena hosted the Arena Football League's ArenaBowl (and also hosted the 2006 game). It was the first of a three-year hosting tenure. It will also host the 2007 National Basketball Association All-Star Game, marking the first time that this game will be held in a city without an NBA franchise. For the first time in NBA history, an on-campus college sports arena will serve as host venue for an NBA All-Star game.

The Thomas and Mack Center had also been an alternate home for the Utah Jazz in the mid-1980's, and was where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's record for points in a career in 1984. The 1994-95 Big West Conference, 1997-99 Western Athletic Conference and 2000-03 Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournaments were held there as well.

[edit] External links

Thomas & Mack Center web site

Current Basketball Arenas in the Mountain West Conference
Arena-Auditorium (Wyoming) • Clune Arena (Air Force) • Cox Arena (San Diego State) • Cox Pavilion (UNLV women) • Daniel-Meyer Coliseum (TCU) • Huntsman Center (Utah) • Marriott Center (BYU) • Moby Arena (Colorado State) •The Pit (New Mexico) • Thomas & Mack Center (UNLV men)

American Conference		National Conference
Current arenas in the Arena Football League
Allstate Arena \| EnergySolutions Arena \| Gaylord Entertainment Center \| HP Pavilion \| Pepsi Center \| Staples Center \| Thomas & Mack Center \| US Airways Center \| Van Andel Arena		American Airlines Center \| Frank Erwin Center \| Kemper Arena \| Nassau Coliseum \| Nationwide Arena \| Philips Arena \| St. Pete Times Forum \| The Arena in Orlando \| Wachovia Center¹ \| Wachovia Spectrum²
¹The Philadelphia Soul play Sunday home games only at the Wachovia Center. ²The Philadelphia Soul play Saturday home games only at the Wachovia Spectrum.