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28-765: The Little Rock Trojans , representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in NCAA Division I sports, played home basketball games at the arena from the time the arena opened until the team moved in 2005 to a new arena, the Jack Stephens Center , on the school's campus in Little Rock. The Arkansas RiverBlades , a defunct ice hockey team of the ECHL ; the Arkansas RimRockers , a defunct minor league basketball team of

56-421: A $ 28.1 billion sale of Alltel to Verizon Wireless , effective on June 30, 2009, with Alltel Arena renamed as Verizon Arena. Fleetwood Mac performed at the arena May 4, 2013, with surprise guests former president Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton attending the show. Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood introduced the couple, who were seated in an arena suite, to the sold-out audience and dedicated

84-691: A March 2000 show on their Reunion Tour . The arena is owned by the Multi-Purpose Civic Center Facilities Board for Pulaski County. The arena was designed by the Civic Center Design Team (CCDT), Burt Taggart & Associates, Architects/Engineers, The Wilcox Group, Garver & Garver Engineering and Rosser International of Atlanta. The arena held the 2004 , 2007 and 2009 American Idols LIVE! Tour concerts on August 13, 2004, July 13, 2007, and July 25, 2009, respectively. The arena's 20-year naming rights were part of

112-608: A non-football member of the Ohio Valley Conference and a wrestling affiliate member of the Pac-12 Conference . The university offers 7 men's and 8 women's varsity sports. Little Rock has Sun Belt rivalries with all the West Division schools (Arkansas State, Louisiana–Monroe, Louisiana–Lafayette, Texas State, and UT Arlington). Little Rock's primary in-state rival is Arkansas State . For the 2005–06 basketball season,

140-648: The NBA Development League ; and the Arkansas Twisters , a defunct af2 team, also played at the arena. The arena is also used for concerts, rodeos, auto racing, professional wrestling, and trade shows and conventions. On August 1, 1995, Pulaski County, Arkansas , voters approved a one-year, one-cent sales tax for the purpose of building a multi-purpose arena, expanding the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, and making renovations to

168-703: The National Invitation Tournament finals in New York City . The Trojans lost to both LaSalle and Nebraska to finish fourth. The next season, Little Rock lost to Louisiana Tech in the first round of the NIT . The Trojans returned to the NCAA tournament in 1989 and 1990 , losing to Louisville 76–71 in 1989 and to eventual tournament champion UNLV 102–72 the next season. With five tournament appearances out of six seasons in Little Rock, Newell departed after

196-827: The third season of American Idol , which aired in 2004. The tour was sponsored by Kellogg's Pop-Tarts. It was the third in the series the American Idols Tour. The tour started in Salt Lake City on July 14, 2004. Initially, 48 tour dates were planned, but two shows ( Ames, Iowa and Fargo, North Dakota ) were cancelled due to poor sales. and three shows were later added in Honolulu in response to demand from fans of Jasmine Trias and Camile Velasco, as well as one final show in Singapore . Despite having three sell-out shows in Hawaii,

224-524: The 14th seeded Little Rock beat the heavily favored and 3rd seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish , coached by Digger Phelps , now a college basketball analyst for ESPN , 90 to 83. The Trojans lost in the second round to North Carolina State , 80 to 66 in two overtimes. The 1986 NCAA Tournament success led to post-season appearances for the Trojans in each of the next four seasons. In 1987, Little Rock beat Baylor , Stephen F. Austin and California to make it to

252-514: The 1990 season and the Trojans didn't return to post-season play until the 1996 NIT under coach Wimp Sanderson , the Trojans' most recent tournament game. The Trojans played in the 2011 NCAA Tournament , their first appearance since 1990, after winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship. The women's team has also had its fair share of success since beginning play in 1969 and joining Division I in 1999. They have won

280-469: The 2022-23 athletic season the Trojans will join the Ohio Valley Conference as their primary athletic conference. In the years since becoming a four-year university, Little Rock has won slightly more games than they've lost. However, during the six-year coaching tenure of Mike Newell, the Trojans made a big splash on the national stage. Appearing in their first ever NCAA tournament game in 1986 ,

308-512: The Arkansas State Fairgrounds in Little Rock. Though the football program has long since been disbanded, the Trojans were a national powerhouse when the school was known as Little Rock Junior College. Coach Jimmy Karam revived a program in 1947 that hadn't played football since 1933. The team won the 1947 Coffee Bowl 31–7 against Coffeyville Junior College and played in the 1948 Junior Sugar Bowl, losing 18–7 to South Georgia. In 1949,

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336-676: The Main Street bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock. $ 20 million of the sales tax proceeds went toward the Convention Center expansion, with the remainder used to build the arena. That money—combined with a $ 20 million contribution from the State of Arkansas, $ 17 million from private sources, and $ 7 million from Little Rock-based Alltel Corporation —paid for the construction of the 377,000-square-foot (35,000 m) arena, which cost nearly $ 80 million to build. When its doors opened in 1999,

364-472: The Trojans moved into the $ 25 million Jack Stephens Center . This new facility almost doubled the seating capacity of the old Little Rock gym, with 5,600 seats and 149,000 square feet (13,800 m ) of space. On July 1, 2015, the Trojans officially announced they would no longer be branded as "Arkansas–Little Rock" or "UALR," but will be the Little Rock Trojans effective immediately. Starting in

392-649: The addition of a wrestling program. The school received a $ 1.4 million pledge from Arkansas businessman Greg Hatcher, considered the father of Arkansas wrestling for helping the sport grow in a state that did not sanction high school wrestling before 2008. The program began in 2019 and is the first Division I program in Arkansas. Little Rock joins Presbyterian and the unified Long Island University program as new Division I programs in 2019. In June 2018, Little Rock named former Oklahoma State wrestler and assistant Neil Erisman as their first head coach. Little Rock's first commit

420-496: The all-time attendance record for an SEC Women's Tournament when 43,642 people attended the event in 2003. The arena hosted portions of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in March 2008 and the SEC gymnastics championships in 2007. The arena is also used for other events: concerts (seating capacity is between 15,000 and 18,000 for end-stage concerts;

448-540: The arena for his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road farewell tour to a sold out audience. Later in 2022, The Eagles played at Simmons Bank Arena on November 27 during their Hotel California tour. The show featured country star Vince Gill , Deacon Frey - son of founding band member Glenn Frey , the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra , and members of the Little Rock Saint Mark's Baptist Church choir. The concert

476-485: The arena has an 80-by-40-foot portable stage); rodeos and auto racing (seating capacity is 14,000); and trade shows and conventions (there are 28,000 square feet (2,600 m) of arena floor space plus 7,050 square feet (655 m) of meeting space and 2,580 square feet (240 m) of pre-function space). As a concert venue, its location prompted Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to play one of its most rarely performed numbers, 1973's "Mary Queen of Arkansas", during

504-742: The conference tournament in 2011, 2012, 2015 while competing in the NCAA tournament four times in the past seven years (2010, 2011, 2012, and 2015), while going to the Second Round in the first and latter appearances. Little Rock plays its home games in the Jack Stephens Center, an on-campus facility that seats 5,600. Prior to this home, the Trojans played at Alltel Arena (now Verizon Arena) in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Previous to that, Little Rock's home games were played in Barton Coliseum on

532-596: The facility was paid for, and there was no public indebtedness. Two sites in North Little Rock drew interest from county officials for the proposed arena. The first was a 19.5-acre (79,000 m) commercial site west of Interstate 30 , which contained a strip mall, a Kroger , and an abandoned Kmart storefront (which in turn relocated to McCain Plaza in 1991, closing the Broadway Street location and closed in November 2000 as it

560-533: The national rankings in February 2024, the first time any Trojan program reached the top 20, and had seven wrestlers in the coaches rankings, one of the factors that determine at-large bids for the national championship. The Trojans won the regular season Pac-12 title with a 4-1 record, 15-5 overall. Little Rock finished second in the Pac-12 tournament with three conference champions and five NCAA qualifiers. Nasir Bailey became

588-526: The new baseball stadium, Dickey-Stephens Park , constructed for the Arkansas Travelers . The Class AA minor-league baseball team moved from the then 73-year-old Ray Winder Field in Little Rock to a new $ 28 million home in North Little Rock at the start of the 2007 season. The arena was the home of the 2003, 2006, and 2009 Southeastern Conference women's basketball tournament and the 2000 Sun Belt Conference men's basketball tournament. The arena holds

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616-510: The program's first All-American at 133, followed shortly thereafter by Stephen Little at 197. Bailey's fourth and Little's seventh earned the Trojans a 19th place finish in the national tournament with 24 team points and Erisman honored as NCAA Tournament Coach of the Year. American Idols LIVE! Tour 2004 American Idols Live! Tour 2004 was a summer concert tour featuring the Top 10 contestants of

644-508: The song "Don't Stop" to them, which was Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential election campaign song. On October 5, 2016, the arena hosted the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions. With expiration of initial naming rights due in 2019, new naming rights for the arena were purchased by Arkansas-based Simmons Bank in a deal announced on November 9, 2018; the name change became official on October 3, 2019. On January 29, 2022, Elton John performed at

672-799: The team went undefeated and won the Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California , defeating Santa Ana Junior College 25–19 and earned the junior college national championship. The LRJC team had played their way to the Junior Rose Bowl by winning the Little Rock Shrine Bowl for the right to meet the California junior college champion. On March 17, 2018, just hours before the start of the Division I NCAA wrestling championship finals, Little Rock announced

700-401: The tournament, earning the Trojans their first NCAA Tournament win and finishing T58 with half a point. The 2023-24 season was Little Rock's best to date. After nine combined wins in its first four seasons, Little Rock exceeded that total during the season. On January 19, 2024, the Trojans had its first win over a nationally ranked opponent, 24th ranked Arizona State. Little Rock reached 17th in

728-556: Was Kansas state champion Conner Ward. As a member of the non-wrestling Ohio Valley Conference (just like its previous conference, the Sun Belt), the team is an associate member of the Pac-12 . On January 24, 2021, Little Rock had its first win against a Division I school (Fresno State) and followed it up with a win against Pac-12 rival CSU Bakersfield. Paul Bianchi became the school's first NCAA qualifier at 133 pounds in 2021. He finished 1–2 in

756-422: Was a sellout. On July 17, 2024, the arena hosted Dynamite 250 , the 250th episode of All Elite Wrestling 's weekly show Dynamite . 34°45′18.40″N 92°15′51.98″W  /  34.7551111°N 92.2644389°W  / 34.7551111; -92.2644389 Little Rock Trojans The Little Rock Trojans are the athletic teams representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock . The Trojans are

784-497: Was one of the 72 stores announced for closure that year). The second site was an 11.6-acre (47,000 m) plot at the foot of the Broadway Bridge. The Pulaski County Multipurpose Civic Center Facilities Board selected the larger site for the arena in 1996 and paid $ 3.7 million for the land, some of which was acquired through eminent domain, a move protested in court by several landowners. The second site later would be chosen for

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