Community First Champion Center

The Community First Champion Center is a 164,000 sq ft (15,200 m²) indoor sports center in Grand Chute, in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The facility is primarily used for youth sports/community sporting activities and does not house a professional sports team.

Community First Champion Center

Logo
Main entrance gate
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Full name	Community First Champion Center Fox Cities
Address	2200 North McCarthy Road Grand Chute, Wisconsin, United States
Coordinates	44°16′57″N 88°28′51″W
Owner	Town of Grand Chute
Type	Multi-purpose arena
Events	Sporting events and concerts
Capacity	~3,000 - 4,000 total across all 3 spaces
Scoreboard	Yes
Construction
Broke ground	September 18, 2018
Built	2018–2019
Opened	November 20, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-11-20)[1]
Construction cost	$30 million ($37.6 million in 2024 dollars[2])
Architect	Performa Architects
General contractor	Miron Construction
Website
championcenterwi.com

The sports center was expected to cost $30 million to build. The cost of construction was provided by a 3% hotel-room tax being charged throughout the Fox Cities region; this tax was also used to pay for the Fox Cities Exhibition Center.^[3] Shortly before its opening, it was expected to contribute around $8–12 million to the Fox Cities economy.^[4]

Location and design

The arena is located along County Highway GV just north of the Fox River Mall shopping district and less than .5 mi (0.80 km) west of Fox Cities Stadium. The new arena broke ground on September 18, 2018.^[5] It opened in November 2019.^[6][7][8]

The Center has three separate arena spaces with one being permanently set up with an ice rink and another two multi-purpose arenas which could handle court sports, concerts, or additional ice rinks.^[9] The total capacity of all three arenas was expected to be between three and four thousand.

History

On January 23, 2019, the Center was the target of vandalism by a group of teenagers who also damaged other construction sites around the area as well as starting fires in elevators within parking ramps in downtown Appleton. The damage to the center was expected to cost over $1 million.^[10]

On March 22, 2019, the Town of Grand Chute announced that the naming rights for the center were bought by Community First Credit Union; terms of the deal have not been released.^[4]