Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Sports History

Sports History

The Coliseum originally had a capacity of 13,000 to 15,000 depending on the event, and in the early 1980s the maximum capacity was increased to around 18,000. As of 2012 it seats 16,250 for hockey, up to 18,100 for concerts and 17,686 for boxing and professional wrestling. The arena has hosted many live wrestling events, most notably the first part of the World Wrestling Federation's WrestleMania 2 in 1986. In addition, it played host to WWE's SummerSlam in August 2002, The Great American Bash in July 2008, and WWE Fatal 4-Way on June 20, 2010. The Coliseum has also hosted several WWE television shows including RAW, SmackDown!, HEAT, Velocity, Superstars of Wrestling, and Saturday Night's Main Event, as well as non-televised "house shows".

Earlier, the Coliseum had hosted the New York Arrows and later the New York Express of the original Major Indoor Soccer League. Before that, the Coliseum had been home to the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association, and later the National Basketball Association, from 1972–1977. The first event held at the Coliseum was a Nets game against the Pittsburgh Condors on February 11, 1972. The Coliseum has also hosted first and second round games of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament in 1982, 1994 and 2001.

The New York Sets of the World Team Tennis league played their first game at Nassau Coliseum on May 17, 1974 and won championships in 1976 and 1977. The team changed its name to the New York Apples in 1976 and began playing some of its games at Madison Square Garden.

The New York Raiders, intended by the fledgling World Hockey Association to be their flagship franchise, was initially slated to play in the brand-new Nassau Coliseum. However, Nassau County didn't consider the WHA a professional league and wanted nothing to do with the Raiders. Nassau County retained William Shea to get an National Hockey League (NHL) team to play in the new building. The NHL responded by hastily awarding a franchise to Long Island—the New York Islanders—which forced the Raiders to play in Madison Square Garden, in the shadow of the New York Rangers. On February 8, 1983, the arena hosted the 35th National Hockey League All-Star Game, during which Wayne Gretzky scored four goals in the third period and was honored as the game's most valuable player.

The Coliseum was home to the New York Saints of the National Lacrosse League from 1989–2003, but the Saints became an inactive team in 2004. In 2007, it was home to four of the New York Titans National Lacrosse League team's eight home games (along with Madison Square Garden).

The Nassau Coliseum hosted minor league hockey prior to the awarding of the Islanders franchise, an event that was brought back in 2005, when the Islanders-affiliated Bridgeport Sound Tigers (AHL) played two "home games" at the Coliseum in the absence of National Hockey League (NHL) hockey due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout. On April 17–18, 2009, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the New York Islanders, played two of their home playoff games against the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at the Coliseum due to a scheduling conflict at the Sound Tigers' regular home, the Arena at Harbor Yard.

In 2000 and 2005, the Professional Bull Riders brought their Built Ford Tough Series (originally Bud Light Cup) to the Coliseum.

"Fort Neverlose" was also used as a nickname for the Nassau Coliseum, during the period between the 1979–80 and 1983–84 seasons, as the Islanders won the Stanley Cup four consecutive times.