Philips Arena, Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia is home to the Philips Arena. The structure is an indoor arena with plenty of seating for the various events held there. The arena was constructed in 1999 at a $213.5 million cost. It is home to the Atlanta Thrashers NHL team, and the Atlanta Hawks NBA team. It also has the Women's National Basketball Association team, the Atlanta Dream.c

The facility is owned and operated by Atlanta Spirit. It is the group that owns the Hawks and Thrashers. For basketball the arena can hold up to 19,445 and hockey - 18,545. The largest crowd at the arena was for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA Playoffs for Game 6 against the Boston Celtics. 20,485 people attended that sporting event. The arena has 92 luxury suites. It also has 1866 club seats. For concert events Philips Arena can sit up to 21,000 people.

Magazines have called Philips Arena the number 1 venue in the United States for concerts and other events based on their attendance figures. In fact the arena beats out Madison Square Garden in New York City. The arena is laid out in a different manner than most. The club seats and luxury boxes are along one side of the playing surface with general admission on the other three sides. This allows the boxes and club seats to be in the "belly'' of Philips Arena, with the upper deck being 2-4 stories higher. They wanted to bring the seating closer to the playing surface for general admission as well as still have plenty of revenue raising seats.

The roof is angled so that it faces downward to show the ATLANTA spelled on the top. It also has CNN on the roof. Philips Arena is supported by Philips Electronics among other businesses.

Atlanta was home to the Omni Arena before the Philips Arena was started. In fact the site of the Philips Arena is on the demolished home of the Omni. The first event held at the arena was a 1999 concert with Sir Elton John. Since then a number of wrestling events like the WCW Nitro, Royal Rumble, and SmackDown have been hosted at the arena. The facility also hosted the 2004 US Figure Skating Championships. It was the site of the 2005 Southeastern Conference for Women's Basketball Tournament.

As with most arenas, the Philips Arena has had a number of different artists bringing their concerts to the facility. Kings of Leon, Taylor Swift, Dave Mathews Band, Britney Spears, Pearl Jam, Tina Turner, Madonna, Shakira, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Metallica, and Green Day have all been to the arena.

Some of the names above and following have appeared more than once at the arena and will most likely return such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, The Rolling Stones, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, KISS, U2, Elton John, and Jay-Z. Philips Arena also had the 2005 concert of Destiny's Child where a DVD was made of the performance. Widespread Panic is one concert that had 17 sold out shows in nine years at the Philips Arena.