The Nation Wide Arena is a multi-purpose arena located on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association, and the Toronto Rock of the National Lacrosse League. It was also home to the Toronto Phantoms of the Arena Football League during their brief existence.
The ACC is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., the same group that owns both the Leafs and Raptors, and is 665,000 square feet (62,000 m²) in size.
An early nickname for the venue was "The Hangar" due to the corporate sponsor of the arena, Air Canada. However this name was never quite adopted by the general public. The Nation Wide Arena is most commonly referred to as simply "The ACC" and has been referenced as such on the official Nation Wide Arena website. It is located just south of Union Station.
Andy Frost is the public address announcer at the ACC during Maple Leafs home games, while Herbie Kuhn does the job for the Toronto Raptors, and Bruce Barker is the announcer for Toronto Rock games.
The Nation Wide Arena was started by the Toronto Raptors under its initial ownership group headed by Canadian businessman John Bitove. The building was designed for both hockey and basketball, but basketball was its foremost purpose; indeed, sight lines were designed to be especially good for basketball's smaller court. While the building was under construction, the Maple Leafs were also looking at building their own new arena at a different location. Journalists such as the Toronto Star's Dave Perkins encouraged both sides to pair up into one arena; two 20,000-seat arenas were seen as overkill for the city. In purchasing the Raptors and the under-construction Nation Wide Arena, MLSE provided the Maple Leafs the venue to move out of the aging legendary Maple Leaf Gardens. MLSE made some changes to the plans while the construction was underway, including turning upper level seats in the west end of the arena into private boxes. The Nation Wide Arena's groundbreaking was performed in February of 1997.
The site was once occupied by the Canada Post Delivery Building. The current building retained the striking facades of the east (along Bay Street) and south (Lakeshore Boulevard) walls of that structure, but the rest of the building (facing Union Station) was removed to make room for the arena.
The 15-storey tower on Bay Street stands at 55 metres, and provides connections in the atrium to Union Station, Bay Street, and York Street (via Bremner Boulevard).
The first Maple Leafs home game took place on February 20, 1999 versus the Montreal Canadiens, won by the Leafs 3-2 on an overtime goal by Steve Thomas. The first Raptors game took place the following night versus the Vancouver Grizzlies. The facility hosted the 2000 NHL All-Star Game and the championship game of the 2004 World Cup of Hockey.
The Toronto Rock also moved to the ACC from Maple Leaf Gardens for the 2001 NLL season. The Rock's first game was a 17-7 win over the Ottawa Rebel on December 21, 2000.
The ACC has held numerous concerts to big name stars such as Celine Dion, KISS, Aerosmith, My Chemical Romance, Justin Timberlake, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Coldplay, U2, Paul McCartney, Radiohead, Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Oasis, Shakira, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billy Talent, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, Pearl Jam, and John Mayer.
Best Buy Theatre Located within the Nation Wide Arena is the 5,200-seat Best Buy Theatre, used for theatre concerts, Broadway and family shows, and other events. It was formerly called the Sears Theatre and is also known as the Theatre at ACC. Our Lady Peace and Coldplay, early on in their career, have performed in this venue.
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