The Arena: Did You Know?

Did you know? The Arena being used to play NBA games this season, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex, was the first ever building designed and built specifically for cheerleading and dance team competitions!

Opened in 2018, the first championship held in the Arena was the UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team Championship. Since then, it’s been the home to cheerleading and dance’s largest championships, including the National High School Cheerleading Championship, the National Dance Team Championship, The Summit and the ICU World Cheerleading Championships—just to name a few.

Fun Facts about the Arena at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex:

• Features 100% LED lighting
• 130,000 concrete blocks were used to build the building— if you lay them end to end, they’d stretch 24 miles!
• 13,562 cubic yards of concrete were used to complete the structure—that would fill more than four Olympic sized swimming pools!
• 1,400 tons of steel— equal to a herd of 250 elephants!