abstract
| - U.S. Bank Arena (known originally as the Riverfront Coliseum, and known later as The Crown and the Firstar Center), is an indoor arena located in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio near the Ohio River next to the Great American Ball Park. Completed in September 1975, the arena seats 17,556 persons (in the round). It is the largest indoor arena in the Greater Cincinnati region. It was the home of the Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA from 1975–1979. Since then, the arena has hosted another minor-league hockey team and various concerts, political rallies, tennis tournaments, figure skating, a Billy Graham Crusade, and other events. The facility's longest-serving tenant was the men's basketball program of the University of Cincinnati, which used the arena from its completion until 1987, when U.C. played its games at Cincinnati Gardens (1987–89) until an on-campus facility (Shoemaker Center), now known as Fifth Third Arena, was completed. The arena building was heavily renovated in 1997, and is still in use. The current main tenant is the Cincinnati Cyclones franchise of the East Coast Hockey League. The Cincinnati Jungle Kats of the arenafootball2 league played their one and only season at the U.S. Bank Arena in 2007, posting a record of 1–15. On occasion, there are local pushes for the attraction of another major sports franchise to occupy the arena, possibly an NBA franchise either relocated or expanded, though little has ever come to fruition. The NBA was last played in Cincinnati in 1972 (as the Cincinnati Royals), and never at this facility, aside from exhibition games.
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