Kia Center

indoor arena in Downtown Orlando, Florida, United States

Kia Center is a multi-use arena located in Orlando, Florida that serves as the home for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Orlando Solar Bears of the ECHL, and the Orlando Predators of the National Arena League (NAL).

View of the outside of the arena when it was called the Amway Center

They first started to build the stadium on July 25, 2008. The arena opened on October 1, 2010 and the first event was a concert by Vicente Fernández.[1] The Magic had their first preseason game in the arena on October 10, 2010. In the game, they defeated the New Orleans Hornets 135–81.[2]

Amway own the naming rights for the arena. Amway also used to own naming rights for the Magic's former arena, the Amway Arena. When the new Amway Center was being built, Amway had right of first refusal fr the new arena from their last arena's contract. On August 3, 2009, Amway signed a $40-million contract to have their name on the arena.[3] On December 20, 2023, Kia America purchased the naming rights for the arena and the arena would be renamed to the Kia Center.[4]

WWE has hosted many shows and pay-per-views at the arena including the Royal Rumble in 2016, NXT TakeOver: Orlando, and 2020's SummerSlam, Payback, Clash of Champions, Hell in a Cell, and Survivor Series pay-per-views. During the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE used Amway Center as a bio-secure bubble and they called it the WWE ThunderDome.[5] They would host episodes of Raw, SmackDown and pay-per-views in the Thunderdome.

References

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  1. "Amway Center: Live updates from the Vicente Fernandez concert". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  2. "Magic crush Hornets in preseason debut at Amway Center". ESPN. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  3. "So What's in a Name? $40 Million When It Comes to New Amway Center". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved December 3, 2023.
  4. "Orlando's Premier Downtown Sports and Entertainment Destination to be Renamed Kia Center". National Basketball Association. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
  5. "WWE Turning Orlando's Amway Center into 'WWE ThunderDome'". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 3, 2023.

Other websites

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