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The New Orleans Arena is an indoor arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is located in the city’s Central Business District, adjacent to the Louisiana Superdome.

It has been home to the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA since 2002, and is also home to some Tulane University basketball games as well as some high school basketball games and other special events. The now-defunct New Orleans Brass of the ECHL played in the New Orleans Arena their last three seasons before their demise in 2002. Since February 2004, the New Orleans VooDoo, of the Arena Football League (AFL), has played their home games in the arena.

The arena was completed in 1999 at a cost of $84 million and officially opened on October 19, 1999. The Brass was the main tenant for its first three years until the team was forced to fold after Hornets management demanded priority upon moving. The arena seats 18,000 for basketball and 16,500 for arena football and has 56 luxury suites.

The Arena is also used as a venue for music concerts where it can seat from 7,500 for a half-stage setup to 17,221 for end-stage shows and at the most 17,805 for a center-stage show. For trade shows and conventions the Arena features 17,000 square feet (1,600 m²) of space. The ceiling is 65 feet (20 m) to beam and roof, 70 feet (21.5 m) to the top of the arena.

It hosted ArenaBowl XXI in 2007, will host the 2008 NBA All-Star Game, ArenaBowl XXII in July 2008, the 2012 Southeastern Conference men’s basketball tournament, and has hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 2007, and will do so again in 2010. The Arena has also hosted the 2004 Women’s Final Four and will host the 2008 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament South Regionals.

Hurricane Katrina

Following Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, medical operations that had previously been housed in the Superdome were moved to the Arena. Medical personnel had been working in an area of the Superdome with poor lighting, leaking ceilings and soggy carpet. The Arena’s design was tested in 1996 by CPP, a wind engineering consulting firm, so it fared far better than the Superdome during the storm and was in better condition to house sensitive medical operations. Thus, unlike the Superdome, the Arena reopened to activities only one month after the storm.

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