Thomas & Mack Center

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Thomas & Mack Center is an arena on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Its primary tenants are the UNLV men's basketball team and the Las Vegas Gladiators of the Arena Football League; it also hosts the National Finals Rodeo annually. The facility also hosted the Las Vegas Thunder of the now defunct International Hockey League. The facility also hosts numerous other events, such as concerts, conventions, boxing cards, and professional wrestling shows such as WWE No Way Out 2001 and WWE Vengeance 2005. For ring events, the capacity is 19,522; for basketball, the capacity is 18,776.

The facility is named after two prominent Nevada bankers, E. Parry Thomas and Jerome Mack, who donated the original funds for the feasibility and land studies.

In 2001, a smaller arena, Cox Pavilion, was added to the complex; the two arenas are directly connected. Cox Pavilion is used for smaller events; its main tenants are the UNLV women's basketball and volleyball programs.

In 2005, the arena hosted the Arena Football League's ArenaBowl. It was the first of a three-year hosting tenure. It will also host the 2007 NBA All-Star Game, marking the first time that this game will be held in a city without an NBA franchise. For the first time in NBA history, an on-campus college sports arena will serve as host venue for an NBA All-Star game.

The Thomas and Mack Center had also been an alternate home for the Utah Jazz in the mid-1980's, and was where Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke Wilt Chamberlain's record for points in a career in 1984. The 1997-99 Western Athletic Conference and 2000-03 Mountain West Conference men's basketball tournaments were held there as well.

External link

• Thomas & Mack Center web site