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US Airways Center (formerly '''America West Arena''') is a sports and entertainment facility located in Phoenix, Arizona . It is home of the NBA 's Phoenix Suns , the WNBA 's Phoenix Mercury , Arena Football 's Arizona Rattlers , and the ECHL 's Phoenix Roadrunners . The NHL 's Phoenix Coyotes previously played here, but have moved to A New Arena Of Their Own in the suburb of Glendale . Since then, the Phoenix Roadrunners of the ECHL have made this their home. It was also the home of the indoor Soccer Arizona Sandsharks . Three of the games of the 1993 NBA Finals between the Suns and the Chicago Bulls , including game six where John Paxson hit Basketball 's version of ''the shot heard around the world'', were played there, as was one of the three 1998 WNBA finals games and two ''Arena Bowl'' games. In 1997 , the Rattlers won the Arena football world championship at ''America West Arena''. It also hosted the 1995 NBA All-Star Game . Construction of this arena began in 1988 , as Suns owner Jerry Colangelo envisioned a need for a new playing facility for his sports team. In 1993 , the arena was officially inaugurated with an 111-105 Suns win over the Los Angeles Clippers . After the Suns failed to win the NBA championship that year, a parade that attracted more than 300,000 Suns fans finished up at the ''America West Arena''. When the Winnipeg Jets announced their intention to move to Phoenix for the 1995-96 season, the arena was quickly retrofitted for hockey. By the team's second season in Phoenix, though, listed capacity for hockey had to be cut down from over 18,000 seats to just over 16,000--the smallest capacity in the NHL at the time--because the rink views from so many seats were badly obstructed due to the arena's design for the much smaller basketball floor. A small section of seats on one end of the arena actually hung over the boards, and some fans reported seeing where original concrete was sheared off to create retractable seating for hockey. The Coyotes eventually moved to the suburban Glendale Arena in early 2003.
The arena, which is situated across the street from Chase Field , is named after its sponsor, US Airways , under a Naming Rights arrangement. After America West's merger with US Airways , it was announced that America West Arena would be renamed to US Airways Center on November 14 , 2005 with the name change taking place in January 2006 . EXTERNAL MAP LINKS |
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