The Salt Palace was 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

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. Opened in 1969, the building hosted several professional sport teams, concerts, and other special events before it was closed and demolished in the 1990s to make way for the current Salt Palace Convention Center.

First Salt Palace

The first Salt Palace in the city was a theater and dance hall at 900 South, between State and Main streets; its exterior was sprayed with salt crystals to reflect the sun. This structure was lost to a fire in 1910.

Building history

Ground was broken for the county's "civic auditorium" in March 1967, and the Salt Palace opened in the summer of 1969 at a cost of $17 million with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 10,725. Later expanded to 12,666 seats, the venue was the home of the

Utah Stars The Utah Stars were an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under head coach Bill Sharman the Stars were the first major professional basketball team to use a pre-game shootaround. History prior to moving to ...

of the

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 ...

from 1970 to 1975, the Salt Lake Golden Eagles hockey club from 1969 to 1991, and the NBA's

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference. Since the 1991–92 season, the ...

from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

. Built on land that was once the " Little Tokyo" area of the city, construction was pushed by Salt Lake's bid committee for the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

, which included Gen. Maxwell E. Rich, president of the Greater Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Cal Rampton, and ''

Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History ...

'' publisher John W. Gallivan. From 1980 until the arena's closing, the arena was officially named the "Salt Palace Acord Arena" in memory of Thayne and Lorraine Acord. The

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

of the arena at street level was approximately above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. Construction on an expansion to increase the building's exhibit space was started in December 1981 and dedicated on November 9, 1983. The project increased the building's footprint north to South Temple street and west, across 200 West street (which had to be tunneled under the new addition to avoid being closed off). This exhibit space addition was not demolished in the 1990s, but incorporated into the new convention center. In 1994, three years after the Jazz moved into the new Delta Center, the Salt Palace was demolished. A convention center of the same name stands on the site today.

Basketball

When the

Los Angeles Stars LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to: Science and technology * Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation * Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers * Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...

of the ABA moved to Salt Lake City following the 1969–70 season, the Salt Palace had a major tenant. The Utah Stars were a major success initially, defeating the

Kentucky Colonels The Kentucky Colonels were an American professional basketball team based in Louisville, Kentucky. They competed in the American Basketball Association (ABA) from 1967 to 1976. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky Colonels. The Colo ...

in the ABA Finals and capturing the ABA Championship in 1970–71, behind Finals MVP Zelmo Beaty. The Stars set an ABA attendance record in that season (6,100 per game), and would continue to draw well and field excellent teams in the following seasons. The team reached the ABA Finals again in 1973–74, before losing to the

New York Nets New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

and

Julius Erving Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player ...

Moses Malone Moses Eugene Malone Sr. (March 23, 1955 – September 13, 2015) was an American professional basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1974 through 1995. A ...

was selected in the 1974 ABA Draft and joined the team directly out of high school. However, the franchise declined with a season in despite drawing 8,500 fans per game. Financial problems plagued owners of the franchise in 1975 and the team folded on December 2 (4–12 record), after the franchise could not make payroll. Less than six months later on May 19, the ABA Spirits of St. Louis announced that they planned to relocate to Salt Lake City and the Salt Palace as the Utah Rockies for the 1976–77 season. However, negotiations for the ABA-NBA merger were completed and the Spirits/Rockies were one of two ABA teams disbanded in the merger. The fan support that the Stars received established Salt Lake City as a viable basketball market, setting the stage for the NBA's New Orleans Jazz to relocate and become the

in 1979. The final regular season game in the Salt Palace was a 107–93 win over the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

on April 20, 1991. Its final NBA game was in the second round of the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, a three-point loss to the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

, 104–101 on May 12.

Seating capacity

Capacity over the years for basketball:

Concert deaths

Three teenagers were killed at an

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

rock concert A rock concert is a performance of rock music. During the 1950s, several American musical groups experimented with new musical forms that fused country music, blues, and swing genre to produce the earliest examples of "rock and roll." The coi ...

at the Salt Palace on January 18, 1991. When AC/DC took the stage, the crowd rushed towards the stage, trampling the three. Security guards tried to get the band to stop playing but failed to quickly communicate the extent of the dire situation leading AC/DC to play for about 20 minutes before the band learned people were hurt or dying. The band stopped playing as soon as they discovered what had happened. Blame was pointed at several different groups, including the fans, the band, the security personnel, and the Salt Palace's festival seating arrangement. The families of the victims sued AC/DC, as well as other groups associated with the concert, in connection with the deaths, and eventually settled out of court.

References

External links

Ballparks
– Salt Palace {{Authority control American Basketball Association venues Basketball venues in Salt Lake City Indoor arenas in Salt Lake City Defunct indoor arenas in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Salt Lake City Former NBA venues Ice hockey venues in Utah Defunct ice hockey venues in the United States Utah Jazz Utah Stars Salt Lake Golden Eagles