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Chicago Stadium
Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago from 1929 to 1995. When it was built, it was the largest indoor arena in the world with a maximum seating capacity of 26,000. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. It was used for numerous other sporting events, opening with a championship boxing match in March 1929. In sports, it gained the nickname, the "Madhouse on Madison", and a feature during events was the playing of the largest Barton pipe organ ever built. It also hosted five United States presidential nominating conventions, including for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and for his opponents in 1932 and 1944.
The Stadium was built by Paddy Harmon, a promoter, who sank his entire fortune into the project, only to lose control to the Stadium shareholders. After exiting receivership in 1935, the Stadium was owned by the Norris and Wirtz families until its closure in 1994 and demolition in 1995. It was replaced by the United Center built across the street, also owned substantially by the Wirtz family.
The Stadium hosted the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL from 1929 to 1994 and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA from 1967 to 1994. The arena was the site of the first NFL playoff game in 1932; the 1932, 1940, and 1944 Democratic National Conventions; and the 1932 and 1944 Republican National Conventions, as well as numerous concerts, rodeo competitions, boxing matches, political rallies, and plays.
The Stadium was built by Harmon, first proposed in 1926, not long after the legalization of professional boxing in Illinois. Encouraged by the success of the New York Rangers and New York Americans expansion NHL teams, and their Madison Square Garden, Harmon also wanted to bring an NHL team to Chicago, but he lost out to Col. Frederic McLaughlin. This team would soon be known as the Chicago Black Hawks (later 'Blackhawks'). With or without the Black Hawks, Harmon then spent $2.5 million and borrowed more funds from friends, including $600,000 from James E. Norris, in order to build the stadium. Eric Hall was the architect and he designed a stadium where all had a view of the action. His design philosophy was "The man who pays the lowest admission price has as much right to see the show as those who sit at the ringside". The building used Art Deco flourishes, including flattened columns, long vertical windows, relief sculptures of various athletics and medallions of wrestlers adorned the walls above entrances.
Breaking ground in July 1928, it opened eight months later, on March 28, 1929. Various reports give the cost at US$5 million, US$7 million and US$9,500,000 (equivalent to $173,964,147 in 2024). Chicago Stadium was the largest indoor arena in the world at the time, with permanent seating for 15,000 people, and a capacity for 26,000 with floor seats and standing room. It was situated in Harmon's old "Valley" neighbourhood where he grew up. Its first event was a boxing match between Tommy Loughran and Mickey Walker for a purse of US$150,000 (equivalent to $2,746,802 in 2024).
Detroit's Olympia stadium, built two years earlier, was a model for Chicago Stadium. The Stadium was also the first arena with an air conditioning system. However, the system was fairly rudimentary by modern standards, and was memorably given to filling the arena with fog during late-season basketball and hockey games. The Stadium also had no elevators. To get kegs of beer to upper-floor concessions, concession workers formed a line to pass the kegs upstairs. To return the kegs downstairs, the workers simply rolled them down the stairs, damaging the stairs in the process.
Harmon became the Stadium's first president. Building it incurred enemies. Harmon himself helped put out a fire on the Stadium's roof set by disgruntled workmen. Harmon reached an impasse in getting the Black Hawks as a tenant, although both sides wanted the team to move to the Stadium from the Chicago Coliseum, which was much smaller. Fed up with the delay, the Stadium board of directors forced Harmon to resign as president, although he remained an executive with the Stadium. Sheldon Clark became the new president, and he retained Nate Clark as the Stadium's boxing matchmaker. The board acceded to the Black Hawks' terms and the team moved in weeks later. After Harmon was ousted, dynamite was placed at the home of James Norris when Sidney Strotz, treasurer of the Stadium was attending for dinner. The dynamite's fuse went out, preventing its explosion.
Harmon sank his entire fortune into the Stadium, and when he died less than a year later due to a car crash, he had only his shares in the Stadium and $2.50 in cash on hand to leave to his widow and daughter. His funeral was held in the Stadium, paid for by friends, and the Stadium held a benefit boxing show in August 1930 to benefit his family.
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Chicago Stadium AI simulator
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Chicago Stadium
Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago from 1929 to 1995. When it was built, it was the largest indoor arena in the world with a maximum seating capacity of 26,000. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. It was used for numerous other sporting events, opening with a championship boxing match in March 1929. In sports, it gained the nickname, the "Madhouse on Madison", and a feature during events was the playing of the largest Barton pipe organ ever built. It also hosted five United States presidential nominating conventions, including for Franklin D. Roosevelt, and for his opponents in 1932 and 1944.
The Stadium was built by Paddy Harmon, a promoter, who sank his entire fortune into the project, only to lose control to the Stadium shareholders. After exiting receivership in 1935, the Stadium was owned by the Norris and Wirtz families until its closure in 1994 and demolition in 1995. It was replaced by the United Center built across the street, also owned substantially by the Wirtz family.
The Stadium hosted the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL from 1929 to 1994 and the Chicago Bulls of the NBA from 1967 to 1994. The arena was the site of the first NFL playoff game in 1932; the 1932, 1940, and 1944 Democratic National Conventions; and the 1932 and 1944 Republican National Conventions, as well as numerous concerts, rodeo competitions, boxing matches, political rallies, and plays.
The Stadium was built by Harmon, first proposed in 1926, not long after the legalization of professional boxing in Illinois. Encouraged by the success of the New York Rangers and New York Americans expansion NHL teams, and their Madison Square Garden, Harmon also wanted to bring an NHL team to Chicago, but he lost out to Col. Frederic McLaughlin. This team would soon be known as the Chicago Black Hawks (later 'Blackhawks'). With or without the Black Hawks, Harmon then spent $2.5 million and borrowed more funds from friends, including $600,000 from James E. Norris, in order to build the stadium. Eric Hall was the architect and he designed a stadium where all had a view of the action. His design philosophy was "The man who pays the lowest admission price has as much right to see the show as those who sit at the ringside". The building used Art Deco flourishes, including flattened columns, long vertical windows, relief sculptures of various athletics and medallions of wrestlers adorned the walls above entrances.
Breaking ground in July 1928, it opened eight months later, on March 28, 1929. Various reports give the cost at US$5 million, US$7 million and US$9,500,000 (equivalent to $173,964,147 in 2024). Chicago Stadium was the largest indoor arena in the world at the time, with permanent seating for 15,000 people, and a capacity for 26,000 with floor seats and standing room. It was situated in Harmon's old "Valley" neighbourhood where he grew up. Its first event was a boxing match between Tommy Loughran and Mickey Walker for a purse of US$150,000 (equivalent to $2,746,802 in 2024).
Detroit's Olympia stadium, built two years earlier, was a model for Chicago Stadium. The Stadium was also the first arena with an air conditioning system. However, the system was fairly rudimentary by modern standards, and was memorably given to filling the arena with fog during late-season basketball and hockey games. The Stadium also had no elevators. To get kegs of beer to upper-floor concessions, concession workers formed a line to pass the kegs upstairs. To return the kegs downstairs, the workers simply rolled them down the stairs, damaging the stairs in the process.
Harmon became the Stadium's first president. Building it incurred enemies. Harmon himself helped put out a fire on the Stadium's roof set by disgruntled workmen. Harmon reached an impasse in getting the Black Hawks as a tenant, although both sides wanted the team to move to the Stadium from the Chicago Coliseum, which was much smaller. Fed up with the delay, the Stadium board of directors forced Harmon to resign as president, although he remained an executive with the Stadium. Sheldon Clark became the new president, and he retained Nate Clark as the Stadium's boxing matchmaker. The board acceded to the Black Hawks' terms and the team moved in weeks later. After Harmon was ousted, dynamite was placed at the home of James Norris when Sidney Strotz, treasurer of the Stadium was attending for dinner. The dynamite's fuse went out, preventing its explosion.
Harmon sank his entire fortune into the Stadium, and when he died less than a year later due to a car crash, he had only his shares in the Stadium and $2.50 in cash on hand to leave to his widow and daughter. His funeral was held in the Stadium, paid for by friends, and the Stadium held a benefit boxing show in August 1930 to benefit his family.