This thread bought back memories..Damn the Hollywood Sportatorium was a dangerous place back then..What a collection of fukked up MFs walking around all over the place..The early 1970s hippy was not as gentle as the 60s hippy..Everyone stoned off their ass lookin for fights..Lots of people fukked up on Quualudes...Lemon and Rorhere 714 or some shit..Those things fukked u up good..Glad those days are behind me
Hollywood Sportatorium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to:
navigation,
search
<!-- start content --> The
Hollywood Sportatorium was a large events facility for
South Florida in the 1970s and 1980's, and during its existence was the only venue of its kind in
Broward County. Built in 1969 and opened in September of 1970, it had a concert capacity of 15,500 seats, over three times the capacity of its Dallas counterpart, also called the
Sportatorium. It was located at 16661 West Hollywood Boulevard, (later Pines Boulevard) in what was then unincorporated Broward County. It was adjacent to the
Miami-Hollywood Motorsports Park, constructed four years earlier. At the time, Pines Boulevard was a two-lane road in a thinly populated area.
The Sportatorium was a crudely-constructed arena made of cement and sheet metal, and originally lacked any indoor climate controls. Air conditioning was installed in 1976, but it was ineffective. The Sportatorium was damaged in late 1979 when the rock group
KISS suspended, or 'flew,' too much equipment from the superstructure of the building. The land on which the arena stood was annexed to
Pembroke Pines in 1980. The Sportatorium was the site of concerts for
Elvis Presley,
Led Zeppelin,
Elton John,
Queen,
U2,
Bruce Springsteen,
Van Halen, the
Grateful Dead,
Billy Joel,
David Gilmour (on his 1984 solo tour),
Rush, and other bands in the 1970s and 1980s. Numerous conventions took place at the facility, including a
Star Trek convention featuring
Gene Roddenberry. Despite hosting well-known musical acts, the Sportatorium was notorious for poor acoustics. At one concert at the facility, Billy Joel reacted to the echo by yelling, “This place sucks!”.<sup class="noprint Template-Fact">[
citation needed]</sup> On a nationally syndicated radio show featring Robert Plant as a quest, he fielded a call from SOuth Florida. Upon hearing where the caller was from, Plant responded by saying "You have that awful Sportatorium down there. When are you going to build something new?" It was also infamous for occasioannly leaking over the stage (and performers) during heavy rainfalls.
Plans to convert the Sportatorium into a hockey arena were never realized, and it finally closed in
1988 due to the loss of business to the newly-built
Miami Arena in neighboring
Miami-Dade County. The Sportatorium did gain a short reprieve when a few shows, including one by
AC/DC, that were originally scheduled to take place at the new
Miami Arena had to be moved to the Sportatorium due to delays on the completion of the new arena. While Its final show on
October 21,
1988 featured country music acts
Highway 101,
The Desert Rose Band, and
Larry Boone.
In
1993, due to disuse, hurricane damage from the previous year's
Hurricane Andrew and zoning changes creating residential neighborhoods surrounding the facility, the Hollywood Sportatorium was torn down. A supermarket and the
Pembroke Isles community occupy the site. Most of the Sportatorium's target business would return to Broward County in
1998 with the completion of
BankAtlantic Center in nearby
Sunrise, Florida
Bands That Performed There
Aerosmith
Alice Cooper
Billy Joel
Black Sabbath
Blue Oyster Cult
Boston
Bruce Springsteen
Cars
Chicago
Deep Purple
Dio
Dobbie Brothers
Duran Duran
Eddie Money
Elton John
Elvis Presley
Emerson, Lake, & Palmer
Eric Clapton
Grateful Dead
Heart
Iron Maiden
Kiss
Led Zeppelin
Madonna
Mötley Crüe
Ozzy Osbourne
The Police
Robert Plant
Roger Waters
Queen
Rod Stewart
Rush
Santana
Styx
Thin Lizzy
Tina Turner
Three Dog Night
U2
Uriah Heep
Van Halen
Whitney Houston
Whitsnake
Judas Priest