Tyson Events Center

Tyson Events Center is an events center located in Sioux City, Iowa. The center also includes the Fleet Farm Arena, formerly known as Gateway Arena, a multi-purpose arena. The center was announced in September 2000 and officially broke ground in April 2002. The center officially opened in December 2003. The arena has three spectator levels: one suite level and two general seating levels named the 100 level and the 200 level, respectively. Its official maximum capacity is 10,000. The center is owned by Sioux City and is operated by Spectra.

Tyson Events Center

Tyson Events Center in 2011
Former names	Gateway Arena (2003-19)
Location	401 Gordon Drive, Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
Coordinates	42.49146113935062°N 96.40723400273797°W / 42.49146113935062; -96.40723400273797
Owner	City of Sioux City
Operator	OVG360
Capacity	Concerts: 10,000 Basketball: 6,813, with standing room for at least 9,500 Hockey: 6,731, with standing room for at least 9,500 Indoor football: 6,941, with standing room for at least 9,500
Surface	Multi-surface
Construction
Broke ground	April 30, 2002[1]
Opened	December 17, 2003[2]
Construction cost	$53 million[2] ($90.6 million in 2024 dollars[3])
Architect	Ellerbe Becket FEH Associates
Services engineer	KJWW Engineering Consultants, P.C.[4]
General contractor	Mortenson/Klinger[2]
Tenants
Sioux City Musketeers (USHL) (2003–present) Sioux City Bandits (CIF/NAL) (2004–present)

It is home to the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) and the Sioux City Bandits of the National Arena League (NAL). The arena also hosts many college tournaments associated with the NAIA, including the NAIA Wrestling National Tournament, NAIA Women's Volleyball National Tournament, and the Division II NAIA Women's National Basketball Tournament, which was won back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 by Sioux City's Morningside College Mustangs.

History

In September 2000, it was announced that Sioux City would be developing an arena/event center to replace the Sioux City Municipal Auditorium.^[5] Plans were later expanded in December, and the project was formally announced that same year.^[6] In 2001, IBP, Inc. and its parent, Tyson Foods, purchased the naming rights for the event center.^[7] Additionally the arena inside the center's naming rights were purchased by Gateway, Inc.^[8] The arena officially broke ground on April 30, 2002 with construction beginning shortly after.^[9] The Tyson Events Center officially opened on December 17, 2003.^[10]

In 2007, Acer Inc. acquired Gateway but retained the Gateway Arena naming rights until the rights expired in June 2019.^[11][12] On September 30, 2019, retail chain Fleet Farm took over as naming rights partner under an eight-year deal which would brand the arena as Fleet Farm Arena.^[13] In 2018, the center, which was operated by Sioux City, went under management by Philadelphia-based venue management firm Spectra.^[14] Spectra was acquired by Oak View Group in November 2021 to form OVG360 and in the process took over the arena management.^[15]

Hosted events

Wrestling

The site has hosted World Wrestling Entertainment on numerous occasions, including a live un-televised event on September 25, 2004, followed by a televised SmackDown on May 17, 2005; and four televised Raw programs on July 10, 2006, February 5, 2007, January 12, 2009 along with an ECW taping the same night, and Raw on July 1, 2013. There was another non-televised show on August 16, 2009. It has also hosted TNA Wrestling Live on June 4, 2010. In December 2014, there was a SmackDown televised event featuring the Immortal Hulk Hogan acting as an authority figure for the night.

In 2016 there was a WWE Live event (Smackdown) non-televised event featuring AJ Styles vs Dean Ambrose for the WWE Championship, The Usos vs Ryhno and Heath Slater for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships, The Hype Bros and American Alpha vs The Ascension and the Vaudevillians, Kalisto vs Tyler Brezze, The Miz vs Apollo Crews, Natalya and Carmela vs Emma and Naomi, Kane vs Bray Wyatt and Luke Harper and Alexa Bliss vs Becky Lynch for the Smackdown Women's Championship.

Most recently on April 22, 2019, the arena hosted non-televised WWE Live: Smackdown. The event featured 7 Matches including Charlotte Flair defeating Bayley via her signature Figure 8, Roman Reigns defeating Elias, WWE Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor defeating Mustafa Ali. The main event featured WWE Champion Kofi Kingston defeating Randy Orton to retain thanks to assistance from Kevin Owens who gave Orton a Stone Cold Stunner while the referee was knocked out and Kingston finished with his signature Trouble in Paradise.

WWE was scheduled to return to the arena on December 17, 2019 for a RAW taping that would air on December 23, 2019 but was cancelled by WWE for “scheduling conflicts” but was actually due to low ticket sales.^[16]

Entertainment

• It has hosted numerous concerts, by artists such as Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Alan Jackson, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney, Cher, Rascal Flatts, Fleetwood Mac, KISS, Nickelback, 311, Neil Diamond, Carrie Underwood, Little Big Town, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Buckcherry, The Offspring, Brad Paisley, Miranda Lambert, Whitesnake, Papa Roach and Creed.
• This venue has also hosted comedian Larry the Cable Guy on three occasions.
• It has also hosted Monster Truck Nationals shows.

Other events

President George W. Bush spoke here during his re-election campaign in 2004.

See also

• Sioux City Municipal Auditorium