Seating Capacity: 16500

Venue Type : Indoor Arena

Longest Performance:
12.19.03 - Dodo (12:22)

Media Gallery

The doors to the Hartford Civic Center Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Exhibition Center opened on January 9, 1975, with a performance by Glenn Campbell. The following evening, Johnny Mathis and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra took to the stage. Professional hockey in Hartford began as the New England Whalers played their first game at the Hartford Civic Center, hosting the San Diego Mariners. On the evening of January 18, 1978, just hours after the University of Connecticut Men's Basketball team defeated the University of Massachusetts, the weight of snow from the day's heavy snowstorm was too much for the Civic Center roof to withstand and forced it to collapse. Nearly two years later to the day, on January 17, 1980, the new Hartford Whalers reopened the doors with a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.