Sullivan Arena

The George M. Sullivan Arena (commonly shortened to the "Sullivan Arena" and often referred to colloquially as "The Sully") is a 6,290 seat arena in Anchorage, Alaska, United States.[5] It was home to the professional ice hockey team, the Alaska Aces of the ECHL and also the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves men's ice hockey team. It is the former home of the Great Alaska Shootout basketball tournament which has relocated to the Alaska Airlines Center as of 2014,[6] and is the current home of the Alaska Fighting Championship mixed martial arts events. In 2007 it briefly became home to the Alaska Wild of the Indoor Football League which is now a defunct team. The arena opened in 1983 and sits just east of Mulcahy Stadium as part of the Chester Creek Sports Complex.[7] Sullivan Arena hosted the 1989 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships along with the Harry J. McDonald Memorial Center in Eagle River.

Sullivan Arena

The Sully
Sullivan Arena (2020)
Sullivan Arena Location within Anchorage Show map of Anchorage Sullivan Arena Sullivan Arena (Alaska) Show map of Alaska
Full name	George M. Sullivan Arena
Address	1600 Gambell Street
Location	Anchorage, Alaska
Owner	Municipality of Anchorage
Operator	SMG
Capacity	Ice Hockey: 6,290 (seated), 6,490 (with standing room) Basketball: 7,987 Concert: up to 8,751 Boxing/Wrestling: 8,935
Surface	200' x 100' (ice hockey)
Construction
Broke ground	August 1981
Opened	February 8, 1983[1]
Renovated	2015
Construction cost	$25 million[2] ($64.2 million in 2019 dollars[3]) $9.1 million (2015 renovations)
Architect	The Luckman Partnership Inc.[4] Harold Wirum & Associates[2]
Project manager	Hanscomb Heery, Inc.[2]
Services engineer	Skogland, Inc.[2]
General contractor	Kissee Contractors[2]
Tenants
Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (NCAA) (1983–2019) Anchorage/Alaska Aces (WCHL/ECHL) (1995–2017) Alaska Wild (Intense/IFL) (2007–2010)

The arena is named after former Anchorage mayor George M. Sullivan. It is owned by the Municipality of Anchorage and operated by SMG, a nationwide property management company.

For hockey, the Sullivan Arena offers 6,251 seats with a standing room capacity of 6,451. If areas designated for wheel chairs are included, the arena can seat 6,290, plus standing room, during hockey games. The arena is noted for having an international-dimension (Olympic-sized) ice rink (61 m × 30 m / 200 ft × 98.5 ft) instead of the NHL dimensions (200 ft × 85 ft / 61 m × 25.9 m) common among North American venues. The main arena floor contains 32,000 square feet of space.

In 2014, a new center-hung scoreboard, with four 8-by-8-foot video screens and a wraparound LED display system was installed to replace the 80s style scoreboard which had a black-and-white dot matrix display. The new scoreboard was previously installed at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California where it was used by the ECHL affiliate of the San Jose Sharks, the San Francisco Bulls. The Bulls purchased the scoreboard for their first season in 2012 but the team folded less than two years later. The scoreboard is made by Colosseo, a European company specializing in stadium and arena LED and entertainment technology.[8]

There are currently plans, projected for 2015, for the neighboring Mulcahy Stadium to be demolished and rebuilt to its west in order to create 400 new parking spaces for the Arena.[9] In addition, all seats and telescopic risers inside Sullivan Arena were replaced, the arena floor was rebuilt, and its ice-making equipment was upgraded for the 2015-16 hockey season. With the loss of the Aces, which leaves the Seawolves and WWE wrestling as sole tenants of the arena, another renovation in 2017 expanded the arena's storage space by 5,000 square feet, replaced the arena's portable stage, floor seating and artificial turf, and improved the arena's acoustics.

Musicians that have played the Sullivan Arena are The Beach Boys in '83, Johnny Cash in '83, Eric Clapton (from the UK) in '85, Jimmy Buffett (from Key West) in '87, Bon Jovi in '89, Scorpions in '91, Ozzy Osbourne in 1992, Steve Miller Band (from San Francisco) in '93, Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dogg in '94, Coolio in '96, Filter in '96, Metallica in '89, '92, '99 Aerosmith (from Boston) in '98, Green Day in '98, Stone Temple Pilots in '00, No Doubt in '00, Blink-182 in '01, James Brown in '01, Elton John in '08, Red Hot Chili Peppers in '13, Alaska's 36 Crazyfists in '15 for the Vans Warped Tour, Ontario's Sum 41 in '16, and Luke Bryan in '17.