Newcastle Entertainment Centre
Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose Australian arena within the Newcastle Showground. It was opened in 1992.[1]
Location
Newcastle Showground, Brown Road, Broadmeadow, New South Wales, Australia
4,658
54.4 m × 79.3 m (178 ft × 260 ft)
1991
21 June 1992
$12 million
The venue has a seating capacity of 4,658. The centre is air-conditioned (installed as a requirement of the NBL when it moved to playing in the summer), equipped with top-grade lights, and also has scoreboards used for basketball and netball games. The venue is owned by Venues NSW and operated by ASM Global.
Tenants[edit]
The centre's original tenant was the Newcastle Falcons NBL team who moved to the new venue in 1992 from their previous home at the Broadmeadow Basketball Stadium. After the Falcons folded at the end of the 1999 season its only tenant was the Hunter Jaegers netball team who played in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. The Jaegers played in the centre from 1997 until 2008. From 2003 the NEC served as the home court for another NBL team, the Hunter Pirates (formerly the Canberra Cannons before the team was moved to Singapore to become the Singapore Slingers after the 2005-06 NBL season).
The Newcastle Show uses the centre for various displays and the showbag area. The stadium has also played host to some of Kostya Tszyu's early fights as an Australian-based fighter.