RABOBANK ARENA

'Rabobank Arena' is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Bakersfield, California, USA. Located downtown at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and N Street, it was built in 1998, and was formerly known as Bakersfield Centennial Garden, that was named by a local resident, Brian Landis. ^[1] It is home to the Bakersfield Condors ECHL ice hockey team, the Bakersfield Blitz arena football team, and the Bakersfield Jam NBA Development League team. The city-owned arena sold naming rights to the local branch of the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank in 2005, which also sponsors cycling and field hockey teams. Under the terms of the lease, Rabobank has exclusive naming rights for seven years with an option to extend it to ten years at a rate of $1 million per year. The arena will revert back to the name Centennial Garden unless a new sponsor is found or Rabobank signs a new deal at the end of the agreement.
It is also home to the men's and women's basketball teams of California State University, Bakersfield, which currently play in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, in Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The men's team plays all its home games here, whereas the women's team plays some at the smaller, on-campus Icardo Center. CSU Bakersfield is planning a move to the NCAA Division I (most likely in the Big West Conference), and will likely move all men's and women's basketball games to the Rabobank Arena. As a concert venue, the arena seats 6,400 for half-house shows and up to 10,225 for center stage and end-stage shows. The arena floor measures 17,000 square feet of total space.
The concourse of Rabobank arena serves as the exhibit home of the Bob Elias Kern County Hall of Fame. The Bob Elias Hall of Fame honors athletes and people involved with athletics from Bakersfield and Kern County. They include nationally prominent athletes, local coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to athletics.
Attached to Rabobank Arena is a 17,840 square foot exhibit hall, which combines with a 3,000-seat theater, which measures 28,512 square feet and features a 7,830-square-foot stagehouse to create a second arena. This was originally known as the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium (opened in 1962) and was later re-named the Bakersfield Convention Center in the 1980s following remodeling and the construction of the adjacent Holiday Inn Select Hotel in the 1990s. The convention center's stage (one of the largest stages in the world) was the Condors' previous home (when they were known as the Fog) until Centennial Garden was built in 1998 and, combined or separately, is also used for concerts (seating up to 5,800), sporting events, trade shows and, in the theater and stagehouse only, Broadway and family shows. There is also a 12,885-square foot lobby and 14 meeting rooms measuring 11,659 square feet of total space.

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1. Garden name change could be delayed

External links

★ Rabobank Arena

★ Rabobank Arena Information - Greater Bakersfield Convention and Visitors Bureau