Austin Convention Center
Encyclopedia
Convention center
A convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
located in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, USA. The building is the home of the Texas Rollergirls
Texas Rollergirls
The Texas Rollergirls are a flat track roller derby league based in Austin, Texas, . The full trademarked name of the league is Texas Rollergirls Rock-n-Rollerderby...
, and was also home to the Austin Toros
Austin Toros
The Austin Toros are a NBA Development League minor league basketball team based in Cedar Park, Texas, United States.The team plays home games at Cedar Park Center.Their logo is the design of a bull and basketball with the state of Texas in the background...
basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
team, until their move to the Cedar Park Center in nearby Cedar Park
Cedar Park, Texas
Cedar Park is a city in Travis and Williamson counties in the U.S. state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the population is 48,937. The city is a major suburb of Austin, the center of which is approximately to the southeast, although Austin directly borders Cedar Park at the latter's...
in 2010.
Ballroom
A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated purpose of which is holding formal dances called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions contain one or more ballrooms...
s, including one of the largest ballrooms in Texas with 43300 square feet (4,022.7 m²).
The origin of the convention center goes back to 1983, when civic leaders became concerned that Austin was losing money from potential convention business because the city's current convention facility, Palmer Auditorium, was too small. The Austin city council unveiled a concept for a $35 million convention center as part of a $350 million complex of hotels and parkland on the south shore of Town Lake (now Lady Bird Lake). Resistance to this plan by neighborhood groups near the proposed site and downtown business leaders caused the city to consider several other sites, finally choosing the downtown site near Waller Creek for construction. Financing was provided for by a US$69 million bond sale, approved by referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
on July 29, 1989 . The grand opening ceremony took place on July 4, 1992
The Austin City Council changed the name of the Austin Convention Center on July 29, 2004 to honor civic leader Dr. W. Neal Kocurek (1936–2004), who helped rally community support for construction of a convention center for Austin. Kocurek died after suffering a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
on March 29, 2004. The formal dedication took place on December 2, 2004.