The Community First Champion Center is a
indoor sports center in
Grand Chute, in the
U.S. state of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
. The facility is primarily intended to be used for youth sports/community sporting activities and as of early 2019 is not planned to house a professional sports team.
The sports center was expected to cost $30 million to build. The cost of construction was provided by a 3% hotel-room tax being charged throughout the Fox Cities region; this tax was also used to pay for the
Fox Cities Exhibition Center
The Fox Cities Exhibition Center is a multi-purpose convention center located in the city of Appleton, Wisconsin in the United States. The city of Appleton owns the center and is operated by the connected Hilton Appleton Paper Valley Hotel.
On ...
. It is expected to contribute around $8–12 million the Fox Cities economy, one of the fast-growing regions in the United States.
Location and design
The arena is located along County Highway GV just north of the
Fox River Mall
Fox River Mall is an enclosed super-regional shopping center located in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, United States, which serves the Appleton, Wisconsin metropolitan area. It is a major driver of the local economy and its construction helped spur th ...
shopping district and less than west of
Fox Cities Stadium. The new arena broke ground on September 18, 2018. It opened in November 2019.
The Center has 3 separate arena spaces with one being permanently set up with an ice rink and another 2 multi-purpose arenas which could handle court sports, concerts, or additional ice rinks. The total capacity of all 3 arenas is expected to be between 3 and 4 thousand.
History
On January 23, 2019, the Center was the target of vandalism by a group of teenagers who also damaged other construction sites around the area as well as starting fires in elevators within parking ramps in downtown Appleton. The damage to the center was expected to cost over $1 million.
On March 22, 2019, the Town of Grand Chute announced that the naming rights for the center were bought by Community First Credit Union; terms of the deal have not been released.
References
External links
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{{Fox Cities, Wisconsin
2019 establishments in Wisconsin
Indoor arenas in Wisconsin
Sports venues in Wisconsin
Tourist attractions in Outagamie County, Wisconsin