PEMBROKE PINES -- The Hollywood Sportatorium arena, known for bad acoustics and raunchy rock `n` roll, will close on Oct. 21, the arena`s manager said on Thursday.
The arena and its 500-acre site, once considered remote, is now seen as an attractive spot for builders as a wave of development sweeps southwest Broward County.
``The Sportatorium has always lost money,`` said manager Mike Oliver. ``It was never a big winner to begin with. With the new building opening in Miami, that has taken away some shows.``
The 16,500-seat Miami Arena will now be the only venue for large indoor concerts in South Florida. The 15,532-seat Sportatorium opened in 1969 with motorcycles racing on a dirt floor, and recently it has been known for heavy metal concerts popular with teen-agers.
Jack Boyle, president of Cellar Door Productions, said he would not rule out buying the arena to operate as a concert hall, but the site could also be sold for housing.
The arena, 13 miles west of Interstate 95 on Pembroke Pines Boulevard, was once remote. A moat built in the early 1970s to deter gate crashers used to be visited by alligators. But today, the arena is at the edge of development in southwest Broward, sitting just west of an intersection with Route 75, which links up with the Sawgrass Expressway and the Palmetto Expressway in Dade County.
David Hollander, president of Silver Builders, plans to build a 6,500-house complex on 2,350 acres to the west of the Sportatorium. ``We would be the likely candidate because we`re in the area,`` Hollander said, also saying that he has talked with the arena owners about buying. Hollander said land in the area recently had been appraised at $25,000 an acre.
The arena site is zoned for commercial recreation, but the city has proposed changing it to zoning for one to three houses per acre.
Shows during the Sportatorium`s 19-year history have been eclectic, ranging from ZZ Top to a sequined Elvis Presley in his last year of life.
The arena was built by the late Stephen Calder, who once was part-owner of the Calder Race Track. Hort Soper, executor of the estate, could not be reached for comment.
The arena opened in 1969 with a dirt floor and bleachers underneath a steel roof. It became the site of both indoor motorcycle racing and big-name concerts such as Crosby, Stills and Nash, Elton John and the Byrds.
In 1975, the arena was renovated in hopes of attracting an American Basketball Association franchise, but the team never left Buffalo.
Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and the Virginia Slims tennis tour played the arena in the late 1970s. By the 1980s, it became a rock `n` roll venue much criticized for its poor acoustics.
In 1981, 13 people were arrested at a Rick James funk concert for possession of weapons and drugs, and at a Rush rock concert, 11 police officers were injured trying to break up a rock and bottle fight.
The following year, the Pembroke Pines City Council created a task force that has been credited with reducing problems at the arena.
Recently, the arena has been best known for staging heavy metal concerts with groups such as Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Judas Priest. The arena`s final event will be a country-and-western show for the Fraternal Order of Police on Oct. 21, Oliver said.
Boyle said he would not rule out buying the Sportatorium. ``If the price is right, I would certainly consider it. I`m never too busy to try something better.``
Cellar Door has a contract to buy the 5,000-seat Sunrise Musical Theater, in a deal scheduled to close on Oct. 10.
But Oliver said the arena has been for sale for years. Hollander of Silver Builders called the arena ``passe.`` He said if he bought the site, he would consider some recreational activity for the site, such luring the Broward County Fair.
CHRONOLOGY
-- 1969: The 14,000-seat Sportatorium, the largest indoor arena in South Florida at the time, opens on a 435-acre tract along Pines Boulevard in a desolate area of western Pembroke Pines, 13 miles west of Interstate 95 and 3.5 miles east of U.S. 27. Concerts and some rodeo, wrestling and boxing events are booked.
-- 1975: Arena is refurbished in an effort to attract a professional sports team. Owners spend $4 million in renovations, including adding upstairs seating and installing pipes under the floor to make ice.
-- 1976: Efforts to bring the Buffalo Braves professional basketball team to the Sportatorium collapse after the city of Buffalo files a lawsuit to block the move.
-- 1981: Rowdyism and violence plague the Sportatorium. At a Rick James concert, Pembroke Pines police arrest 13 people on charges of illegally carrying weapons, including a .38-caliber revolver and semiautomatic pistols, and possession of cocaine and marijuana. At another concert by the rock group Rush, 11 police officers are injured in a rock-and-bottle-throwing incident outside the Sportatorium. Police use tear gas to control the crowd.
-- 1982: Police set up a Sportatorium task force, credited with reducing the problems.
