Adelaide Entertainment Centre
| The Ent Cent | |
Exterior of venue, showcasing "The Orb" c. 2010
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| Address | 98 Port Rd Adelaide SA 5007 Australia |
|---|---|
| Location | Hindmarsh |
| Owner | Government of South Australia |
| Operator | Adelaide Entertainments Corporation |
| Capacity | 12,000 (total capacity) 11,300 (in the round) 10,500 (seated) 1,900 (Theatre) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1990 |
| Opened | 20 July 1991 |
| Construction cost |
A$44 million ($83.5 million in 2016 dollars) |
| Tenants | |
| Adelaide Thunderbirds (ANZ Championship) (2010–2013) | |
| Website | |
| www |
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Adelaide Entertainment Centre (AEC) is an indoor arena located in the South Australian capital of Adelaide, and is used for sporting and entertainment events. It is the principal venue for concerts, events and attractions for audiences between 2,000 and 12,000. It is located on Port Road in the suburb of Hindmarsh, just north of the Adelaide city centre. With modern architecture and acoustics, function rooms and award-winning catering, the Adelaide Entertainment Centre provides a live entertainment venue for hundreds of thousands of people each year. In 2010 the Adelaide Entertainment Centre completed a $52m redevelopment with a new entry and Theatre complex.
The AEC was established by the Government of South Australia in response to rising demand from the people of South Australia (primarily Adelaide) for a suitable venue for international and local popular entertainment and sport. The 3,500 capacity Apollo Stadium, which had been Adelaide's primary entertainment and indoor sports venue since 1969, was increasingly considered to be too small to meet this need and by the end of the 1980s many international music acts were bypassing Adelaide (especially in the winter months) on their Australian tours due to the lack of a suitable indoor venue (the only other viable indoor venues in Adelaide were the Adelaide Festival Centre or the Thebarton Theatre, both of which only held 2,000 which was even less than the Apollo's capacity). To meet the demand for a new indoor venue that could hold upwards of 10,000 people, the AEC was announced in late 1989 and would be built at a cost of AU$44 million.
Building for the venue began in early 1990 and involved the excavation of 75,200 tonnes of earth and the pouring of 36,480 tonnes of concrete, the largest concrete pour in South Australia at the time, as well as over 750,000 hours on construction. The Main Arena floor is 65.4 metres by 42.1 metres and the roof height is approximately 20 metres from the Arena floor (approximately the height of a 5 storey building). The clear span of the Arena is 85 metres, the 8 roof trusses weighed a total of 216 tonnes and 980 tonnes of structural steel was used in the construction. The Adelaide Entertainment Centre was officially opened on 20 July 1991 by John Bannon, the then Premier of South Australia.
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