Fresno Convention Center
Encyclopedia
The Fresno Convention & Entertainment Center is a convention center
located in Fresno, California
. The five building complex was originally made up of three main venues when completed in 1966, and underwent several expansions with the latest additions in 1981 and 1999.
, the Selland Arena is a 24200 ft2 multi-purpose arena
with a seating capacity of 11,300. The facility is home to the Central Valley Coyotes
of the af2
and was home to the Fresno State men's basketball program and Fresno Falcons
hockey
team. It has hosted various entertainment, concert, and college sporting events throughout the years, most notably WWE
's Royal Rumble
, WWF Fully Loaded, the 2000 Western Athletic Conference
basketball tournament and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
.
The numerous bands and artists that have played Selland Arena in concert include; Metallica
, No Doubt
, Korn
, Garth Brooks
, Tom Petty
, Hilary Duff
, Rush
& Van Halen
. Van Halen recorded their 1992 "Right Here Right Now" Live Home Video/DVD concert here over a two night sold out series of concerts May 14–15, 1992.
the 2,353 seat theatre is home the Fresno Philharmonic and the Fresno Ballet. Thomas Griswold conducted the inaugural concert in this new theatre on October 14, 1966. The concert included the Consecration of the House Overture
by Ludwig van Beethoven
, Enigma Variations
by Edward Elgar
, Appalachian Spring
by Aaron Copland
and Daphnis et Chloé
by Maurice Ravel
.
The theatre has hosted Mikhail Baryshnikov
, Arthur Fiedler
, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, and Isaac Stern
as well as magician David Copperfield
, Broadway shows Cats
, The Sound of Music
, Evita, Chicago
, and Riverdance
and the Miss California Pageant
.
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 Fresno, California
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
. The five building complex was originally made up of three main venues when completed in 1966, and underwent several expansions with the latest additions in 1981 and 1999.
Selland Arena
Named after former Fresno mayor Arthur L. SellandArthur L. Selland
Arthur L. Selland was an American politician, and mayor of Fresno, California from 1958 to 1963. Selland was born in North Dakota and died in an auto accident in Fresno. Upon his death, he was currently serving as mayor of Fresno, and as president of the U.S...
, the Selland Arena is a 24200 ft2 multi-purpose arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
with a seating capacity of 11,300. The facility is home to the Central Valley Coyotes
Central Valley Coyotes
The Central Valley Coyotes are a professional arena football team and were a charter member of Arena Football 1. The team currently is not in a league...
of the af2
Af2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...
and was home to the Fresno State men's basketball program and Fresno Falcons
Fresno Falcons
The Fresno Falcons are a defunct minor league hockey team. They were once members of the ECHL . They were located in Fresno, California.-Early history:...
hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
team. It has hosted various entertainment, concert, and college sporting events throughout the years, most notably WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
's Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. The event was created in 1988, with its inaugural event taking place on January 24, 1988 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario...
, WWF Fully Loaded, the 2000 Western Athletic Conference
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference, which was formed on July 27, 1962, making it the sixth oldest of the 11 college athletic conferences currently participating in the NCAA's Division I FBS...
basketball tournament and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is an American circus company. The company was started when the circus created by James Anthony Bailey and P. T. Barnum was merged with the Ringling Brothers Circus. The Ringling brothers purchased the Barnum & Bailey Circus in 1907, but ran the circuses...
.
The numerous bands and artists that have played Selland Arena in concert include; Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Korn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
, Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
, Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
, Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff
Hilary Erhard Duff is an American actress, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur, and author. After working in local theater plays and television commercials in her childhood, she achieved fame playing the title role in the Disney Channel television series Lizzie McGuire. She also reprised her role in...
, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
& Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...
. Van Halen recorded their 1992 "Right Here Right Now" Live Home Video/DVD concert here over a two night sold out series of concerts May 14–15, 1992.
William Saroyan Theatre
Named after native Fresnan, novelist William SaroyanWilliam Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
the 2,353 seat theatre is home the Fresno Philharmonic and the Fresno Ballet. Thomas Griswold conducted the inaugural concert in this new theatre on October 14, 1966. The concert included the Consecration of the House Overture
Consecration of the House Overture
Consecration of the House , op.124, is a work by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna’s new Theater in der Josefstadt, and was first performed at the theatre's opening on October 3, 1822. It was the first work...
by Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Enigma Variations
Enigma Variations
Variations on an Original Theme for orchestra , Op. 36, commonly referred to as the Enigma Variations, is a set of a theme and its fourteen variations written for orchestra by Edward Elgar in 1898–1899. It is Elgar's best-known large-scale composition, for both the music itself and the...
by Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, Appalachian Spring
Appalachian Spring
Appalachian Spring is a modern score composed by Aaron Copland that premiered in 1944 and has achieved widespread and enduring popularity as an orchestral suite...
by Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
and Daphnis et Chloé
Daphnis et Chloé
Daphnis et Chloé is a ballet with music by Maurice Ravel. Ravel described it as a "symphonie choréographique" . The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine from an eponymous romance by the Greek writer Longus thought to date from around the 2nd century AD...
by Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
.
The theatre has hosted Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler
Arthur Fiedler was a long-time conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a symphony orchestra that specializes in popular and light classical music. With a combination of musicianship and showmanship, he made the Boston Pops one of the best-known orchestras in the country...
, George Carlin, Jerry Seinfeld, and Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
as well as magician David Copperfield
David Copperfield (illusionist)
David Copperfield is an Emmy Award-winning American illusionist, and was described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history. Copperfield's network specials have been nominated for 38 Emmy Awards and won a total of 21 Emmys...
, Broadway shows Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
, Evita, Chicago
Chicago (musical)
Chicago is a musical set in Prohibition-era Chicago. The music is by John Kander with lyrics by Fred Ebb and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the "celebrity criminal"...
, and Riverdance
Riverdance
Riverdance is a theatrical show consisting of traditional Irish stepdancing, notable for its rapid leg movements while body and arms are kept largely stationary. It originated as an interval performance during the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, a moment that is still considered a significant...
and the Miss California Pageant
Miss California
For the state pageant affiliated with Miss USA, see Miss California USAThe Miss California competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of California in the Miss America pageant. Delegates from the states of California, Ohio and Oklahoma have each won the title of Miss...
.