Business View Magazine | September 2019

143 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 ARENA T H E AT E R & C O N V E N T I O N C E N T E R to the exhibit hall. This unique feature allowed the convention center to be used as a staging ground or warm-up facility for events being held in the arena. The entire complex was renamed seven years later, when the city signed a 10-year agreement with Rabobank, to name the complex the Rabobank Arena, Theater and Convention Center. Today, the Rabobank Arena is home to the Bakersfield Condors, an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League, and occasional California State University, Bakersfield Roadrunners Men’s NCAA Division I basketball games. The Arena is also the current home of the California Interscholastic Federation High School State Wrestling Championship Tournament held the last weekend in February. It has also served as the home field of the Bakersfield Blitz arena football team and the home court of the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA-D League. As a concert venue, the building seats 5,400 for half-house shows and up to 10,225 for center stage and end-stage shows. The arena floor measures 17,000 square feet of total space. The southern concourse of Rabobank Arena serves as the exhibit home of the Bob Elias Kern County Sports Hall of Fame, which honors athletes and people involved with athletics from Bakersfield and Kern County, including nationally prominent athletes, local coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to athletics. A separate display on the western concourse honors the founders of Bakersfield and Kern County, as well as country music legend Buck Owens, and current athletes and dignitaries from Bakersfield and Kern County. Steve Eckerson, the combined facility’s General Manager, reports that AEG has a full-time staff THE RABOBANK ARENA , THEATER AND CONVENT ION CENTER