Charlotte Bobcats Arena, also known locally as The Uptown Arena or, for short, "Bobcats" is an entertainment and sports venue in the Uptown area of Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the home court of the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA. The Charlotte Bobcats Arena made its grand opening in October of 2005 with a concert by The Rolling Stones and hosted its first Bobcats game on November 5, 2005.
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The arena also serves as home to the Charlotte Checkers, a minor-league hockey team that plays in the ECHL. When the Checkers play there, capacity is reduced to 14,100 and the arena is referred to as St. Lawrence Homes Home Ice at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. Though the arena was constructed with the Bobcats in mind, the Charlotte Bobcats Arena hosts many types of sports and entertainment events. It has hosted many NCAA basketball games. The NASCAR Nextel All-Star Pit Crew Challenge, part of the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Challenge, is held on the Wednesday night of the race week at the arena, creating an indoor atmosphere so the pit competition will occur, no matter what the weather condition is.
The Charlotte Bobcats Arena also plays host to many musical acts, family productions and many other large entertainment performances such as concerts, circuses and prowrestling. Some of the avant garde artists that have performed at Charlotte Bobcats Arena include U2, Clay Aiken, Beyonce, Bon Jovi, Keith Urban, Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz and many more. The Charlotte Bobcats Arena can seat 19,026 for NBA games and can be expanded to seat up to 20,200 for college basketball games.However, the unique feature of the Charlotte Bobcats Arena is the center-hung Daktronics video screens which measure 16 feet by 28 feet and are the largest of any indoor arena.