Brookshire Grocery Arena

The Brookshire Grocery Arena[4] (formerly CenturyLink Center, CenturyTel Center, and Bossier City Arena) is a 14,000-seat multi-purpose arena, in Bossier City, Louisiana. The naming rights were purchased by the telephone company CenturyLink of Monroe, Louisiana in 2010.

Brookshire Grocery Arena

Former names	Bossier City Arena (2000) CenturyTel Center (2000–2010) CenturyLink Center (2010–2020) Brookshire Grocery Arena (2020–present)
Location	2000 CenturyTel Center Drive Bossier City, Louisiana 71112
Owner	City of Bossier City
Operator	SMG
Capacity	14,000 (concerts) 12,440 (hockey)
Surface	Multi-surface
Construction
Broke ground	March 30, 1999[1]
Opened	November 2, 2000[2]
Construction cost	$56.5 million ($83.9 million in 2019 dollars[3])
Architect	AE Design Group
Structural engineer	Walter P Moore
General contractor	Roy Anderson Corp.
Tenants
Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (CHL) (2000–2011) Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings (af2/AFL) (2004–2010)

History

Opened in 2000 during the administration of then Bossier City Mayor George Dement, the center is among several projects financed in part from revenues derived from three casinos in the city.[5]

The center was home to the Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings AFL team and the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs CHL team.

It hosted the Southland Conference men's basketball tournament in 2001. In 2011, the CenturyLink Center with the Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters hosted 1st and 2nd-round games for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament including the first two games of eventual champion Texas A&M.

On September 28, 2002, the NHL came to the arena, for a pre-season game, between the Nashville Predators and Atlanta Thrashers.

On January 14, 2007, the CHL All-Star game was played at the arena, for the first time ever, hosted by the Mudbugs.

On October 24, 2014, CLC held an NBA preseason game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

In December 2014, the Bossier City Council once again rejected pay increases for city employees as proposed by Mayor Lo Walker. Columnist Jeffrey D. Sadow attributed the lack of municipal funds for such raises to the recurring high costs associated with the operation of CenturyLink, which cost $1,500 per resident, or $55.6 million, nearly $20 million more than had been anticipated by city officials. Through 2013, the city spent $5 million more to operate the center. Minor league sports teams, unable to survive, abandoned the CenturyLink. In 2013 alone, the city transferred $750,000 into CenturyLink and still ran a deficit of $200,000. Those costs could have funded the pay raises Walker proposed. Sadow proposes that the city sell CenturyLink at a loss so that it not become a permanent white elephant on municipal expenditures.[6]

On October 1, 2016, CLC held another NBA preseason game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

Concert history

A list of notable concerts held in the arena

Date	Artist	Tour	Supporting act(s)	Attendance	Revenue	Notes
December 2, 2000	Elton John	Medusa Tour	N/A			This was the first major concert in the arena.
March 8, 2002	Kid Rock	Cocky Tour	N/A			N/A
July 18, 2002	Britney Spears	Dream Within a Dream Tour	O-Town	12,232	$749,181
November 16, 2002	Cher	Living Proof: The Farewell Tour	Cyndi Lauper	11,610	$771,806
April 25, 2003	ZZ Top	Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers Tour	Ted Nugent	6,300 / 7,500	$248,850
March 4, 2004	Kid Rock	Rock N' Roll Pain Train Tour	N/A
February 5, 2005	Cher	Living Proof: The Farewell Tour	Village People	9,323 / 12,397	$508,529
March 8, 2006	Nickelback	All the Right Reasons Tour	N/A
March 3, 2007	Justin Timberlake	FutureSex/LoveShow	N/A
November 15, 2007	Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus	Best of Both Worlds Tour	Jonas Brothers	N/A
September 10, 2009	Taylor Swift	Fearless Tour	Gloriana Kellie Pickler	N/A
September 19, 2009	Britney Spears	The Circus Starring Britney Spears	Kristinia DeBarge	10,240	$610,818
February 13, 2010	Martina McBride Trace Adkins	Shine All Night Tour	N/A
February 8, 2011	Kid Rock	Born Free Tour	N/A
September 20, 2011	Taylor Swift	Speak Now World Tour	Needtobreathe	11,510	$728,546
February 13, 2013	Kid Rock	Rebel Soul Tour	N/A
March 8, 2014	Luke Bryan	That's My Kind of Night Tour	Lee Brice Cole Swindell	12,292	$678,063
March 22, 2014	Elton John	Follow the Yellow Brick Road Tour	N/A	N/A
November 15, 2014	Cher	Dressed to Kill Tour	Cancelled due to viral infection[7]
March 20, 2015	Miranda Lambert	Platinum Tour	Justin Moore Danielle Bradbery	N/A
May 20, 2015	Taylor Swift	The 1989 World Tour	Vance Joy	12,459	$1,458,197	This show served as the opening night of the tour's North American leg.
July 29, 2015	Eagles	History of the Eagles – Live in Concert	N/A			N/A
March 12, 2016	Luke Bryan	Kill the Lights Tour	Little Big Town Dustin Lynch	N/A
April 22, 2016	Carrie Underwood	Storyteller Tour: Stories in the Round	Easton Corbin The Swon Brothers	10,883	$737,228
March 12, 2017	Miranda Lambert	Highway Vagabond Tour	Old Dominion	N/A
July 15, 2017	Paul McCartney	One on One	N/A
April 22, 2018	Foo Fighters	Concrete and Gold Tour	The Struts	N/A
March 16, 2019	P!nk	Beautiful Trauma World Tour	Julia Michaels KidCutUp	N/A
September 7, 2019	KISS	End of the Road World Tour	David Garibaldi	N/A
October 5, 2019	Miranda Lambert	Roadside Bars & Pink Guitars Tour	Maren Morris Pistol Annies Tenille Townes	N/A
March 10, 2020	Cher	Here We Go Again Tour	Nile Rodgers CHIC	—	—	After this show, the remaining dates of the tour were postponed to later in the year due to COVID-19.[8]
August 29, 2020	Journey	2020 Tour	Pretenders	—	—	This show was canceled due to COVID-19.[9]
September 30, 2020	Def Leppard	20/20 Vision Tour	ZZ Top	—	—	N/A
October 1, 2020	Luke Bryan	Proud to Be Right Here Tour	Morgan Wallen Runaway June	—	—

See also

• List of music venues

References

1. "Arena Tops Builder's Resume Bossier City Picks Anderson For Huge Multipurpose Center". Sun Herald. April 1, 1999.
2. http://www.mib.org/~lennier/hockey/graph.cgi
3. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.
4. Ferrell, Scott. "Brookshire Grocery lands naming rights to former CenturyLink Center in Bossier City". The Times. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
5. "Amanda Crane, "'Mr. Bossier' turns 91"". bossierpress.com. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
6. Jeffrey D. Sadow (December 22, 2014). "Sadow: Bossier City Fiddles While Its Arena Burns Tax Dollars". The Hayride. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
7. Gardner, Elysa. "Cher cancels remaining tour dates". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
8. Martoccio, Angie (2020-03-12). "Cher Postpones Here We Go Again Tour Due to Coronavirus". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
9. "Journey's 2020 Tour Canceled". Billboard. 2020-05-04. Retrieved 2020-05-22.

External links

• Official website