Blue Cross Arena

The Blue Cross Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Rochester, New York, home to the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. The Atlantic Hockey Association has played its conference tournament semifinals and final there since 2007. The Blue Cross arena also features occasional NCAA regular season hockey games featuring Western New York teams, most recently when the RIT Tigers men's team defeated the Cornell Big Red on October 27, 2007.

Officially the Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester War Memorial, the arena also is home to the Rochester Razorsharks of the Premier Basketball League, the Rochester Knighthawks of the National Lacrosse League, and the Rochester Raiders of the Continental Indoor Football League.

The arena was built on a downtown site that is bordered by Broad Street on the north, the Genesee River on the east and Court Street on the south. The property was formerly the home of the Kimball Tobacco Co. and other retail buildings. The arena was opened on October 18, 1955, and named the Rochester Community War Memorial. It was constructed in the style that was popular in the 1950s. The building included a full stage on the south end and an exhibition hall located on the basement level. The first event was a public trade show held in the exhibition hall and featured such famous Rochester-based companies as Eastman Kodak, Haloid (now Xerox), Bausch & Lomb, General Railway Signal, and Rochester Products. It hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 1956, the two-month finals of the American Bowling Congress tournament in 1966 and the 14th WWF "In Your House" pay-per-view in 1997.

From 1996 to 1998, renovations to expand the arena took place. On September 18, 1998, the arena re-opened and was renamed The Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. Rossetti Architects designed this multi-million dollar face-lift.

Its maximum seating capacity is 12,428. For hockey and lacrosse, its seating capacity is 11,215.

Events
On March 23, 2006, Atlantic Hockey, an NCAA Division I Men's ice hockey league, announced that its league tournaments in 2007, 2008, and 2009 would be held at the Blue Cross Arena. 2007 was the first time the tournament was held at a neutral site.

The 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Ice Hockey East Regional was held at the Blue Cross Arena. Attendance was low due to high ticket prices and distance from large Division I programs.

The arena has hosted many National Hockey League exhibition games in its existence, but on November 12, 2003, the Buffalo Sabres and the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils played the first NHL regular season game in the venue, a game which ended in a 2-2 tie. The game was made possible by Sabres owner B. Thomas Golisano, who hails from Rochester. The game also featured two Rochester natives, Brian Gionta of the Devils and Rory Fitzpatrick of the Sabres. A second regular season game was held at the arena on October 26, 2005 with the Sabres falling to the Washington Capitals, 3-2. With the Sabres' recent success and high demand for tickets at Buffalo's HSBC Arena, there are no current plans to bring a regular season game back to Rochester in the near future.

In addition to sporting events, the arena hosts a wide variety of entertainment events, including live concerts, ice shows and the circus.