CFG Bank Arena is a multipurpose arena in Baltimore, Maryland. This venue is located about one block away from the Baltimore Convention Center on the corner of Baltimore Street and Hopkins Place in downtown Baltimore. With a seating capacity of 14,000 for concerts, CFG Bank Arena is owned by the City of Baltimore and managed by the Oak View Group, a global sports and entertainment company.
The venue officially opened on October 23, 1962 as the Baltimore Civic Center. Designed by AG Odell Jr. and Associates, it was built on the site of Old Congress Hall, where the Continental Congress met in 1776. The venue has been home to several Baltimore-based sports teams, most notably the Baltimore Bullets (now Washington Wizards) of the NBA from 1963 to 1973.
As a cornerstone for the Inner Harbor redevelopment during the 1980s, it was reopened after renovations and renamed the Baltimore Arena in 1986. In 2003, it was renamed 1st Mariner Arena for Baltimore-based 1st Mariner Bank, which purchased naming rights to the arena for 10 years. When this naming rights agreement ended in 2013, the arena returned to its "Baltimore Arena" name until convenience store chain Royal Farms purchased the naming rights in September 2014; the arena was known as Royal Farms Arena until 2022. After an extensive renovation, the venue reopened as CFG Bank Arena in February 2023.
History
1960s–1970s
A cornerstone to the Arena was laid in 1961 with a vault that included messages from then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy, then-Maryland governor J. Millard Tawes, and then-Baltimore Mayor J. Harold Grady. The vault was opened in 2006. The current site that was chosen for the Baltimore Civic Center was actually not one of the many sites proposed to the Greater Baltimore Committee in 1955. Among nine suggested locations were two in Druid Hill Park, three at the end of the Inner Harbor basin (where the World Trade Center and Harborplace are now located), and one in Clifton Park.
From 1962 through 1976, the Baltimore Clippers of the American Hockey League played their home games at the Arena. The financially troubled Clippers ceased operations in mid-season, 1974–75, when the professional Baltimore Blades (the relocated Michigan Stags) of the World Hockey Association (WHA) moved into the market/arena. The Blades folded at the end of the season, and the Clippers regrouped for one final AHL season 1975–76. The Arena has hosted two other AHL franchises: the Baltimore Skipjacks lasted from 1981 to 1993, and the Baltimore Bandits from 1995 to 1997.
On November 12, 1962, the Arena hosted a boxing match between Joey Giardello and Johnny Morris attended by 6,000 fans.
In 1963, the Arena became the home of the NBA's Baltimore Bullets, where the team played its home games until their move to the Capital Centre in 1973. The NBA All-Star Game was also played at the Arena in 1969.
The Beatles performed at the Arena on September 13, 1964, to a total of 28,000 attendees in two performances on the same day, at 4:00 pm and 8:30 pm.
On April 3, 1965, defending WWWF champion Bruno Sammartino defeated Gene Kiniski in a return title match. Just a few months later, in January 1966, Kiniski would win the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) title.
On April 12, 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech, "Race and the Church", before a gathering of Methodist clergy at the Baltimore Civic Center.
The venue also hosted Led Zeppelin several times through the early 1970s. A couple of scenes from the Led Zeppelin concert film The Song Remains the Same were filmed backstage. On June 13, 1970, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played the Civic Center with a last-minute decision to visit from New York and sold out. This was noted to be one of the best performances of the whole 1970 tour and was one of the last shows Hendrix played before his death a few months later. Chicago performed at the Civic Center on September 4, 1971, the month before the release of their fourth album, Chicago at Carnegie Hall. Elvis Presley played the Civic Center twice: Tuesday, November 9, 1971, 8:30pm (wearing the Red Lion Suit) and again on Sunday, May 29, 1977, 8:30pm (wearing the Mexican Sundial Suit), less than three months before his untimely death. Both shows were complete sell-outs. The Grateful Dead's performance on September 17, 1972, was recorded and later released as Dick's Picks Volume 23. It contains the complete concert, except for the encore, which was "One More Saturday Night". It contains the longest CD version of "The Other One", to date, at nearly 40 minutes long.