Thanks for the Memories

Priscilla Searles, Business New Haven, 08/22/2005

For 30 years New Haven's Veterans Memorial Coliseum served as a venue for a vast array of events. Regardless of individual tastes, sooner of later most area resident were drawn to the Coliseum to see a game, hear a concert, attend a business expo or walk the aisles of a bridal show.

Construction of the Coliseum began in 1968 and was completed in 1972 at a cost of $19 million. Its purpose was to accommodate a full range of entertainment functions for greater New Haven, and historically few would disagree that for most of its diversity was a key part of the Coliseum's annual lineup.

Designed by architects Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates, the facility occupies a 4.5-acre site on South Orange Street adjacent to the Knights of Columbus headquarters building and a stone's throw away from the Oak Street Connector, I-95, I-91 and the New Haven Green.

The building is constructed of weathering steel spans and reinforced concrete piers. The concrete is clad in the same silo tile as the adjacent Knights of Columbus building to "lend a sense of continuity," said Kevin Roche, whose firm indeed also designed the Knights of Columbus world headquarters building.

The adjoining parking garage is probably the Coliseum's most defining feature. Unable to site the garage below ground as originally envisioned because it was too close to the water table and lacking space next to the Coliseum for a separate structure, the architects decided that vertical space made sense instead.

Spanning 360 feet by 560 feet, the four-story parking garage was constructed of 358-foot trusses spaced 60 feet apart. The structure is serviced by two double-helix access ramps at each end of the garage. For some, a drive up the sharply curved entrance ramp was a harrowing experience, for others an exciting adventure. Once your vehicle was parked in one of the 2,400 parking spaces, your second adventure was about to begin: a ride down the two-story external escalator.

The arena housed 9,000 seats for hockey, 10,200 for basketball and 11,500 for boxing. A typical concert configuration seated 9,500.

Other features intended by Kevin Roche, such as an exhibition hall, protected upper roof and street-level storefronts were never completed due to lack of funding.

In her book New Haven: A Guide to Architecture & Urban Design (Yale University Press, 1976), historian Elizabeth Mills Brown described the Coliseum: "The arena is below, parking is on top, thus freeing the street for pedestrian approaches. Over the arena the exposed roof truss makes a clear span of 184 feet, cars are layered inside it. The scale is gigantic. For an experience of sheer spatial intoxication, go through the Orange Street underpass."

In 1972 the New Haven Nighthawks, a professional hockey affiliate of the New York Rangers, launched the arena and its 200-by-85 foot ice rink, playing against the Minnesota North Stars a week before the official grand opening festivities. Attendees didn't seem to mind that the Coliseum wasn't quite ready for visitors, overlooking the pipes sticking out of the floor where the concession stands would soon be.

Over the years other teams would come and go; minor-league hockey's New Haven Knights and Beast of New Haven as well as the arena2 football team the New Haven Ninjas.

There were other major happenings on the ice at the Coliseum. More than three decades ago this writer's sons, both would-be hockey players, learned to skate at the Coliseum by pushing chairs around the ice wearing ice skates they couldn't even stand up in. It was definitely a more positive experience than a trip to the Coliseum to see the Monster Truck Show, which left some children screaming and covering their ears because of the noise.


The Harlem Globetrotters were one of the first acts to play the Coliseum and made regular stops on South Orange Street over the years, showing off their trademark floor antics, fancy dribbles and crazy free-throws there for nearly 30 years.

The biggest and best gave concerts at the Coliseum. Bob Hope was the first concert attraction. Ol' Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra performed there. There were many others: Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, the Who, Johnny Cash, locally bred superstars the Carpenters and even Chuck Berry.

Pat Benatar filmed a concert in the Coliseum, Live in New Haven. Van Halen also taped a concert in the Coliseum: Live Without a Net.

The King himself, Elvis Presley, performed twice at the Coliseum. In July 1975 Presley appeared on stage wearing one of his famous jump suits and wide jeweled belts, belting out signature classics to a crowd of 10,800 the first night and 10,920 the following evening. The King must have been pleased, because he came back again in 1976.

Three hours prior to a 1990s Garth Brooks' appearance at the Coliseum, I-95, I-91 and Route 34 were jammed with concertgoers and restaurants, nightclubs and area business flooded with customers.

For those who didn't care much for pop concerts, there were always plenty of other attractions: the Ice Capades, Ice Follies, Disney On Ice, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, the Moscow Circus, or the Royal Lippizan Stallions.

There were plenty of conventions, too, held at the Coliseum. One of the largest was the Jehovah Witnesses annual convention, which drew approximately 80,000 visitors to the Elm City each June for a number of years.

The Coliseum hosted events from 1972 to when it closed on September 1, 2002. In its last 12 months of operation the Coliseum hosted 113 event-days. The estimated number of people attending events at the Coliseum was 300,000 annually.

The Coliseum's final event, World Wrestling Entertainment's Tour of Defiance, took place on August 26, 2002.

A few weeks later, seats, signage and other miscellaneous items were sold off, the doors locked. Soon the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum will be a dim memory, as will the concerts, circuses and numerous other events that brought joy to so many lives.