Business View Magazine | July 2019

177 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JULY 2019 The Coliseum also hosts the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals of the annual Mountain East Conference postseason tournament, the West Virginia State High School Boys and Girls Basketball tournaments, music concerts, professional wrestling, and it hosted basketball games between in-state rivals West Virginia University and Marshall University until that series ended in 2016. The West Virginia State University also holds its commencement ceremonies in the Coliseum, and the Charleston Light Opera Guild conducts performances in the Little Theater throughout the year. The facility has been renovated and expanded multiple times since its debut, including a $100 million project, completed in 2018, that’s placed the eye-catching complex on equal footing with those found in much larger cities. Thus, according to John Robertson, the Center’s Executive Director for the past 42 years, the facility possesses an abundance of what’s needed to compete for business with the major- market competitors in its part of the country. “We have a facility here that is competitive with other facilities within our region,” says Robertson. “That would be from Charlotte, to Pittsburgh, to Cleveland, to Columbus, to Louisville. Now, some of those major markets may have more square footage than we have, but every event that happens in those facilities isn’t using all of that square footage. So, we will be very competitive for meetings with those communities. We do about 400 unique events annually in this facility.” The original portion of Charleston Civic Center opened in 1959 with a 6,000-seat Main Arena, a 750-seat Little Theater and three meeting rooms, a kitchen, and administrative offices. It was the scene of several historic events, including hosting a John F. Kennedy 1960 campaign stop and being the scene of the 1966 NBA game that saw Wilt Chamberlain break the league’s all- time career scoring record of 20,884 points. Robertson says there have been several distinctive additions to the building over the years. “In 1980, a new spectator arena seating 13,000 people was erected, and attached to old facility,” he explains. THE CHARLESTON COL I SEUM & CONVENT ION CENTER