The Arena Sonora is an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

located in

Hermosillo Hermosillo (), formerly called Pitic (as in ''Santísima Trinidad del Pitic'' and ''Presidio del Pitic''), is a city in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. It is the municipal seat of the Hermosillo municipality, the state's ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...

, Mexico. Inaugurated in 1969, it seats 3,500 spectators. The arena is the home venue of the Rayos de Hermosillo of the

Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacífico The Pacific Coast Basketball Circuit ( or CIBACOPA), officially known as the Liga Chevron CIBACOPA for sponsorship reasons, is a ten team basketball league based in Northwestern Mexico. The matches take place from March to June. History A leag ...

(CIBACOPA). The Arena Sonora has previously served as the home of the Soles de Hermosillo, which played in the

Circuito Mexicano de Básquetbol The Circuito Mexicano de Básquetbol, also known with the acronym CIMEBA, was a professional basketball league in Mexico. The first edition was the 1970–71 season, and it continued until the 2006–07 season, after which the league was discontinu ...

(CIMEBA) and the CIBACOPA, and the Seris de Hermosillo, which played in the modern

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association thr ...

(ABA) in the

2004–05 ABA season The 2004–05 ABA season was the fourth season of the American Basketball Association. The regular season started in November 2004 and the year ended with the championship game in March 2005 featuring the Arkansas RimRockers and Bellevue Blackh ...

History

The building was inaugurated on 31 December 1969 as the Gimnasio del Estado. It has since hosted sports such as

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ), also , is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tī'' in Okinawan) un ...

taekwondo Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In ad ...

lucha libre ''Lucha libre'' (, meaning "freestyle wrestling" or literally translated as "free fight") is the term for the style of professional wrestling originating in Mexico. Since its introduction to Mexico in the early 20th century, it has develope ...

, and

cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

, as well as the (National Olympics). On 29 December 1979, local boxer Manuel "Topo Gigio" Vázquez defeated the reigning WBC bantamweight champion,

Lupe Pintor José Guadalupe Pintor Guzmán (born April 13, 1955), better known as Lupe Pintor, is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1974 to 1995. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBC bantamweight title fro ...

, in a non-title fight at the Gimnasio del Estado. On 23 February 2013, David Sánchez defeated

Marlon Tapales Marlon Tapales (born March 23, 1992) is a Filipino professional boxer. He has held world championships in two weight class (boxing), weight classes, including the World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight title from 2016 to 2017 and the Unifi ...

at the arena for the WBC interim Silver

super flyweight Super flyweight, also referred to as junior bantamweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . History The first title match in this division was in 1980, when the World Boxing Council responded to pressure from A ...

title. Sánchez returned to the arena on 18 January 2014, beating Filipino challenger Marco Demecillo via

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

. Future world champion Francisco Rodríguez Jr. was on the same card. Empalme native

Hernán Márquez Hernán Márquez Beltrán (born September 4, 1988), commonly known by his nickname " Tyson" Márquez, is a Mexican professional boxer. He held the WBA flyweight title from 2011 to 2012, and has challenged once for the WBA interim super flyweig ...

headlined two cards at the Gimnasio del Estado. On 19 April 2013, he stopped Edgar "Power" Jiménez in the third round of their bout. Márquez returned four years later and earned a victory against Eduardo Hernández via

technical decision A technical decision is a term used in boxing when a fight has to be stopped because of a headbutt. In mixed martial arts, a technical decision occurs when a fighter is rendered unable to continued by a foul and the majority of the final round ha ...

. Another Emplame native,

José Luis Castillo José Luis Castillo (born December 14, 1973) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 1990 to 2014. Generally considered one of the best lightweights of his era, he is a two-time world champion at that weight, having held the WB ...

fought at the arena on 21 March 2014, defeating Félix Bojórquez at the age of 40. The arena helped to host the Mini Basketball Festival of the Americas and Congress, which was held in Hermosillo from 31 January to 3 February 2019. On the first day of the event, the venue was reinaugurated as the Arena Sonora by the

Governor of Sonora List of governors of the Mexican state of Sonora since 1911: *2021–present Alfonso Durazo Morena (political party), MORENA *2015–2021 Claudia Pavlovich Arellano Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI *2009–2015 Guillermo Padré ...

, Claudia Pavlovich, and it was announced that MXN$65.5 million had been invested into remodeling the property. There was general maintenance work done to the court and to the hydraulic and electric systems, and amenities such as the dressing rooms and bathrooms were upgraded. Other work done includes the installation of video boards and air conditioning units, as well as the construction of a food area, an

esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

, and a parking lot. The event was also attended by

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French language, French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. FIBA defines the rules of basketball, specifies the Basketball equipment ...

president Horacio Muratore and legendary Mexican player

Horacio Llamas Horacio Llamas Grey (born July 17, 1973) is a Mexican former professional basketball player. He played two seasons with the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA), becoming the first Mexican-born player in NBA history. He curr ...

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the arena was used as a

COVID-19 testing COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that cases COVID-19 and is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The two main types of tests detect either the presence of the viru ...

site from July 2020 to April 2022. The arena hosted the

2022 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup The 2022 Women's Pan-American Volleyball Cup was the 19th edition of the annual women's volleyball tournament. It was held at the Arena Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North Ameri ...

, a ten-team volleyball tournament held from 19 to 29 August. The Mexico national team finished in fourth place after losing the bronze-medal game to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Basketball

The arena has served as the home venue for several

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

teams throughout its history. In the early 1990s, it hosted the Soles de Hermosillo of the

(CIMEBA). The Soles later resurfaced as members of the

(CIBACOPA), playing in the arena from 2003 to 2005. Additionally, the arena served as the home of the , which played in the modern

(ABA) in the

. However, the team suspended its operations in January 2005 due to financial issues. The arena also hosts a youth basketball tournament every winter, celebrating its 35th edition in 2022 with a record 120 teams. In 2009, a new CIBACOPA team, the Rayos de Hermosillo, began playing at the Gimnasio del Estado. For three consecutive seasons, the arena hosted the deciding game of the CIBACOPA Finals. After getting swept by the Mineros de Cananea in the 2011 Finals, Hermosillo secured their first league title in franchise history by beating the

Ostioneros de Guaymas The Ostioneros de Guaymas were a professional baseball team based in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico. The Ostioneros played in the Mexican Pacific League and used the Estadio Abelardo L. Rodríguez as their home ballpark. During its existence, the club wo ...

at home in game 7 of the 2012 Finals. The Rayos went on to repeat as CIBACOPA champions the following year after beating the

Garra Cañera de Navolato ''Garra'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. These fish are one example of the " log suckers", sucker-mouthed barbs and other cyprinids commonly kept in aquaria to keep down algae. The doctor fish of Anatolia and the Middle East be ...

in seven games. The Rayos de Hermosillo played their first game in the remodeled Arena Sonora on 5 April 2019, defeating the

Venados de Mazatlán Venados de Mazatlán () are a professional baseball team in the Mexican Pacific League based in Mazatlan, Sinaloa. History In February 1958, Venados participated in an international tournament, dubbed the Pan-American Series, against two other c ...

by a score of 73–64.

References

{{Reflist Basketball venues in Mexico Sports venues in Sonora Sport in Hermosillo Sports venues completed in 1969 1969 establishments in Mexico