Mercer Arena facts for kids

The Mercer Arena building.

The Mercer Arena was a big building in Seattle, Washington. It was used for many different events, like concerts, sports, and shows. Over the years, it had a few different names, including the Exposition Building, Civic Ice Arena, and Seattle Center Arena.

This arena was built in 1927. It was part of a larger project called the Seattle Center. The Mercer Arena was built next to the Seattle Civic Auditorium, which is now the Seattle Opera House. It was built about 35 years before another famous Seattle venue, the Seattle Center Coliseum.

A Look Back: What Was the Arena Used For?

From Ice Rink to Multi-Purpose Venue

The Mercer Arena was first planned to be an ice skating rink. But it quickly became a large place for many different kinds of events. People sometimes called it "the House of Suds." This was because a local business owner named James Osborne gave a lot of money to help build it.

After the Century 21 Exposition (a big World's Fair in 1962), its name changed to Seattle Center Arena. Then, in 1995, it changed again to Mercer Arena. This new name came from its location on Mercer Street. It also helped avoid confusion with the Seattle Center Coliseum, which had just been renamed KeyArena.

Sports and Shows at the Arena

The arena was very flexible. It could host about 183 events every year! From 1962 to 1974, it was home to the Seattle Totems. They were a minor professional hockey team.

The Seattle Thunderbirds, a junior hockey team, also played some of their games there. They started using the Coliseum more in 1989. However, they still used Mercer Arena part-time. In 1992, a big hockey tournament called the Memorial Cup was held there.

From 1996 to 1998, the Mercer Arena was home to the Seattle Reign. This was Seattle's first professional women's basketball team.

A Temporary Home for Opera and Ballet

From 2000 to 2003, the arena had a special job. It became a temporary home for the Seattle Opera and Pacific Northwest Ballet. This happened while their main building, McCaw Hall, was being built.

About $6 million was spent to improve the arena for the opera. They added new heating and cooling systems. They also put in an orchestra pit and new carpet. The old pipes that froze water for the ice rink were removed or covered. The drop ceiling was taken out to make the sound better for performances.

Even with these improvements, the arena was only meant to be a temporary home. Some bigger structural problems were not fixed. Because of this, the arena closed down after 2003.

For concerts, the arena could hold between 5,000 and 8,000 people. This depended on how the seats were arranged. The building then sat empty from 2003 until it was torn down in 2017.

Future Plans: What Happened Next?

New Ideas for the Space

In 2007, the mayor of Seattle, Greg Nickels, suggested a new plan. He wanted to change the arena for use by the Seattle Opera. The idea was to have offices, rehearsal rooms, and workshops for the opera company there.

The arena shared a wall with McCaw Hall, where the opera performs. This would have been amazing! It would have allowed opera sets to be built in the workshop and then moved directly onto the stage. No other opera company in the world had such a setup.

The Seattle Opera tried to rent the arena from the city. They hoped to raise enough money to make these changes. However, a big economic downturn called the Great Recession happened in the late 2000s. This forced the opera company to put their plans on hold in 2008. They had to ask the city for more time to decide in 2010.

A New Building Takes Shape

In February 2016, the Seattle Opera showed new plans. They wanted to build a new $60 million facility to replace the Mercer Arena. This new building was named the Seattle Opera at the Center.

It was planned to be four stories tall. It would have about 105,000 square feet (9,755 square meters) of space. This space would be used for offices, storage, building sets, and community events. The old Mercer Arena, which was no longer safe, was torn down in 2017 to make way for this new project.