Nassau Coliseum
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately 7 miles (11 km) east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of Queens, and is also next to the Meadowbrook Parkway.
Address
1255 Hempstead Turnpike
Nassau Inter-County Express: N70, N71[1]
Nassau Live Center, LLC
32
Concerts: 15,000
Basketball: 14,500[2]
Ice hockey: 13,917
Tennis: 6,500
Theatre: 4,500
Multi-surface
January 20, 1969[3]
1969–1972
February 11, 1972
2015–2017
1976, 1983, 2017
March 31, 2017 (renovations)
US$32 million
($266 million in 2023 dollars[4])
Irwin Schlef[3]
Opened in 1972,[5] the Coliseum occupies 63 acres (25 ha) of Mitchel Field, a former Army airfield, later an Air Force base. The facility is in the Town of Hempstead, within the Uniondale 11553 ZIP code. The Coliseum is used for sporting events, concerts, large exhibitions and shows as well as trade shows—44,000 square feet (4,100 m2) at the main arena, 60,000 at the Expo Center. In 2015, the arena was closed for a major renovation which was completed in April 2017.
The New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL) played at the Coliseum from 1972 to 2015 before moving to Barclays Center in Brooklyn. After the move was commercially unsuccessful, the team split its home schedule between Barclays and the renovated Coliseum from 2018 to 2020 and played the home portion of their 2020–21 season at the Coliseum, before moving to the new UBS Arena at Belmont Park for the 2021–22 season, which is also on Hempstead Turnpike, 7.7 miles (12.4 km) west of the Coliseum.
It was also the home of the New York Nets (now known as the Brooklyn Nets) of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1972 to 1977. In 2017, the venue became the new home of the Brooklyn Nets' NBA G League team, the Long Island Nets. Currently, the New York Riptide of the National Lacrosse League and the Nets serve as the building's main tenants.[6]
Entertainment[edit]
Concerts[edit]
Elvis Presley performed four sold-out concerts at the Nassau Coliseum on June 22, 23 & 24, 1973. His last Coliseum appearance was on July 19, 1975. In 1977, Elvis had been scheduled for an August 22 concert as part of his second tour of the year, but he died on August 16, the day before the tour was to start.[51] Tickets for the show have become collectors' items. Several of the songs included on The Beach Boys In Concert album were recorded at The Nassau Coliseum.
The Beach Boys performed to a sold-out audience on June 14, 1974. Their tour promoted the recently released Holland album and featured a set list of recent songs as well as several of their early '60s hits. They were joined onstage by Elton John and Paul Simon for the encore performance. David Bowie performed a radio broadcast from there during his Isolar Tour, in support of the album Station to Station. A heavily circulated bootleg of the concert saw official release in 2010 as part of the 2010 reissue of the album, and in 2017 as a separate release, Live Nassau Coliseum '76. Queen played at the Coliseum on February 6, 1977, during their A Day at the Races Tour. The band used footage of their performance of "Tie Your Mother Down" in the song's promotional film.[52] They would return on November 19, 1978, on their Jazz Tour.
Led Zeppelin played three nights at the Nassau Coliseum on their 1975 North American Tour.[53] During the second night, February 13, Ronnie Wood of the Faces and The Rolling Stones joined the band for a rousing rendition of "Communication Breakdown." High quality soundboard recordings of the band's performances on February 13 and 14 have surfaced on bootlegs.
The Jacksons played a night at the coliseum as part of The Jacksons Spring Tour on April 10 and 11, 1977, Destiny World Tour on November 8, 1979, and played a night at the coliseum as part of the Triumph Tour on August 7, 1981.
Blue Öyster Cult recorded a live version of "Dr. Music" in Nassau Coliseum on December 30, 1981, that was subsequently released on the Extraterrestrial Live album in April 1982.
The Coliseum was one of only two venues in the United States where Pink Floyd mounted their limited run of shows for The Wall Tour. The group performed five concerts from February 24 through 28, 1980 one of which was filmed and only appeared as an underground tape. In August 1988, they recorded and filmed the Delicate Sound of Thunder over four nights at the Coliseum. They first played the venue in June 1975 on their Wish You Were Here Tour.
Live on Long Island 04–18–80 by The Marshall Tucker Band was the original lineup's final concert and the final recording of bassist and founding member Tommy Caldwell, who died just ten days later in an automobile accident. Tommy Caldwell is pictured on the album cover. The Coliseum album was the first to feature a complete concert from the original band. However, the album wasn't released until 26 years later. The band was touring in support of their album Tenth at the time, and the recording features the songs "It Takes Time" and "Cattle Drive" from that release as well as classics such as "Heard It in a Love Song", "Searchin' for a Rainbow" and "Can't You See".
Billy Joel has a "retired number" banner hanging from the rafters, along with those of Islander greats, to commemorate his many sold-out Coliseum shows. His "retired number" is 69. One of Joel's concerts from his 1982 tour at the Coliseum was recorded for a 1983 HBO concert special and VHS/Laser Disc release, Billy Joel: Live From Long Island.[54]
Bruce Springsteen has performed at the arena numerous times, most notably during a three-night stand in December 1980. A number of songs from these shows were part of his 1986 live album, Live/1975–85, and full recordings of the three performances were released between 2015 and 2021. The New Year's Eve show in particular is often regarded by fans as one of the greatest gigs of Springsteen's career.[55][56]
Supertramp performed at the Coliseum on their final tour with Roger Hodgson in 1983 in support of their ...Famous Last Words... album. Styx performed at the Coliseum on their final tour with the band's classic lineup in 1983 in support of their Kilroy Was Here album before guitarist Tommy Shaw quit towards the end of the tour (they also played on the Main Event/Pieces of Eight Tour, Grand Decathlon/Cornerstone Tour and Paradise Theatre tours as well prior to it). The 1986 live album Finyl Vinyl by Rainbow features a rendition of the song "Can't Happen Here" which was recorded at Nassau Coliseum in 1981.
The 1987 home video Cliff 'Em All features a rendition of the song "Master of Puppets" by Metallica, filmed at Nassau Coliseum on April 28, 1986 (while the band was opening a show for Ozzy Osbourne).
The Spice Girls performed 2 sold-out shows on February 6 and 7, 2008 as part of their Return of the Spice Girls Tour.