BankAtlantic Center

The BankAtlantic Center is an indoor arena located in Sunrise a suburb west of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The arena is accessible off of the Sawgrass Expressway at the Oakland Park Boulevard exit.

The arena is home to the Florida Panthers of the NHL and formerly the Florida Pit Bulls of the ABA and the Florida Bobcats of the AFL 1996-2001. The arena also hosted the 2005-2006 ABA All-Star game. The arena was completed in 1998 at a cost of $212 million, almost entirely publicly financed. The building seats 19,250 for ice hockey, 20,737 for basketball, between 15,207 and 21,371 for end-stage concerts, and 22,457 for center-stage concerts, boxing and wrestling such as Bash at the Beach '99, Armageddon '99 and Armageddon 2002. The arena features 70 suites and 2,300 club seats.

The building can also be used for trade shows (offering 17,000 square feet of arena floor space) and other events including circuses and ice shows. It is the Miami-Fort Lauderdale site of many major arena concert tours. U2 started their Elevation Tour at the arena in 2001. Guns N' Roses started their 2006/2007 North American "Chinese Democracy" tour in the arena on the October 24, 2006.

On October 30, 2006, Barbra Streisand was pelted with a beverage and, as her anti-GOP riff ended, another man in the crowd found himself being escorted out as he shouted at her. Streisand shrugged both incidents off, saying some people would do better to buy her records than come to her shows.

A similar scenario unfolded during Streisand's concert earlier in October at Madison Square Garden in New York, during which the singer used the F-word in shouting down a heckler.

External link

• BankAtlantic Center

Coordinates: 26°9′30″N, 80°19′31″W

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