Omni Coliseum
| "The Omni" | |
 The Omni in 1978
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| Location | 100 Techwood Drive Atlanta, Georgia 30303 United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 33°45′27″N 84°23′48″W / 33.75750°N 84.39667°WCoordinates: 33°45′27″N 84°23′48″W / 33.75750°N 84.39667°W |
| Owner | City of Atlanta |
| Operator | City of Atlanta |
| Capacity |
Basketball: 16,181 (1972–1977), 16,400 (1977–1984), 16,522 (1984–1987), 16,451 (1987–1988), 16,371 (1988–1990), 16,390 (1990–1991), 16,425 (1991–1992), 16,441 (1992–1993), 16,368 (1993–1994), 16,378 (1994–1997) Hockey: 15,078 (1972–1973), 15,141 (1973–1977), 15,155 (1977–1983), 15,278 (1984–1997) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | March 30, 1971 |
| Opened | October 14, 1972 |
| Closed | May 11, 1997 |
| Demolished | July 26, 1997 |
| Construction cost |
$17 million ($97.3 million in 2017 dollars) |
| Architect | Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates |
| Structural engineer | Prybylowski and Gravino, Inc. |
| Services engineer | Lazensky & Borum, Inc. |
| General contractor | Ira H. Hardin Company |
| Tenants | |
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Atlanta Hawks (NBA) (1972–1997) Atlanta Flames (NHL) (1972–1980) Atlanta Chiefs (NASL Indoor) (1979–1981) Atlanta Attack (AISA/NPSL) (1989–1991) Atlanta Knights (IHL) (1992–1996) Atlanta Fire Ants (RHI) (1994) |
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Omni Coliseum (often called The Omni) was an indoor arena located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Completed in 1972, the arena seated 16,378 for basketball and 15,278 for hockey. It was part of the Omni Complex, now known as the CNN Center.
It was mainly used as the home arena for the Atlanta Hawks (NBA) and the Atlanta Flames (NHL). It also hosted the 1977 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament and the 1996 Summer Olympics indoor volleyball.
The arena was considered an architectural marvel when first constructed, combining innovative design for the roof, seating, and the structure itself. The logo is based on the unique seating arrangement. The exterior was composed of Cor-Ten weathering steel, which was supposed to seal itself by continuing to rust, making a solid steel structure that would last for decades. The Omni was noted for its distinctive space frame roof, often joked about as looking like an egg crate or a rusty waffle iron. Designed by the firm of tvsdesign with structural engineering work by the firm of Prybylowski and Gravino, the roof was technically described as an ortho-quad truss system.
The only remaining reminder is the scoreboard from the Omni that now hangs in the pavilion of the Philips Arena. That scoreboard, a basketball-specific scoreboard, was created by American Sign and Indicator in the early 1980s to replace a hockey-specific scoreboard that was the arena's original scoreboard, but was maintained by Daktronics during the 1990s. As well, the arena contained on each end zone four message boards, two of which were animation boards.
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