Greensboro Coliseum The Greensboro Coliseum complex is an indoor arena in Greensboro , North Carolina . The arena was the home of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League from 1997 – 1999 , and was the long - time home of the Atlantic Coast Conference Men ' s Basketball Tournament . The coliseum also hosted the 1974 NCAA Men ' s Final Four . Originally built in 1959 as War Memorial Coliseum , it was renamed simply the Greensboro Coliseum in the late 1960s . As originally built in 1959 , it seated 9 , 200 , one of the largest arenas in the South . The arena was heavily renovated in 1993 - 1994 , bring it up to its current configuration , through future expansions are planned . Today , the arena seats 21 , 273 for ice hockey , and seats up to 23 , 500 for basketball , the largest in the state of North Carolina ( 30 % larger capacity than Charlotte ' s Time Warner Cable Arena ; 10 % larger than the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill ) . Owned by the City of Greensboro , the complex features a flexible capacity arena that can accommodate concerts and events for 4 , 000 to 23 , 500 fans ; a 2 , 376 seat auditorium for Broadway theatre and concerts ; and a 120 , 000 square foot Special Events Center for trade and consumer shows and 20 , 000 square feet of space for meetings of all sizes . The Special Events Center also features a 4 , 300 seat theater set - up for concerts and sporting events . There are roughly 6 , 000 on site parking spaces . Hockey . The hockey history of Greensboro actually begins in 1959 , when the Greensboro Generals of the Eastern Hockey League set up shop and played until the league folded in 1973 ; the team jumped to the Southern Hockey League for four seasons until that league too ceased operations in January 1977 . Greensboro hockey ' s modern era began with the Greensboro Monarchs of the East Coast Hockey League , who played there from 1989 – 90 to 1994 – 1995 . When the American Hockey League expanded southward in 1995 , it invited Greensboro to join ; the new team took the Monarchs nickname , but attempted to draw a more regional fan base by labeling themselves the Carolina Monarchs . When the Carolina Hurricanes announced their move from Hartford , Connecticut in 1997 ( when they were known as the Hartford Whalers ) , they leased the Coliseum for two years while waiting for the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena in Raleigh , North Carolina to be completed . Subjected to their second major ticket price hike in three years and not willing to support a team that was destined for Raleigh , Greensboro hockey fans rarely sold the Coliseum out for the Hurricanes ; In the 1998 – 99 season , the team actually curtained off most of the upper deck for home games in an effort to artificially create scarcity in the ticket market , force would - be attendees to purchase higher - priced tickets , and hide what national media mocked as " Green Acres " of empty seats . Once the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena ( now the RBC Center ) was completed and the Hurricanes moved out , the plan was that the Monarchs , who spent those two years in New Haven , Connecticut as the Beast of New Haven , would move back into the Coliseum as a Hurricanes affiliate . However , Monarchs owner Bill Black had a different idea ; he briefly explored the possibility of selling shares of the Monarchs to the public . After that fell through , he exercised the option to sell the team to the Hurricanes , who promptly folded the deal , as well as the team . Rather than leave the coliseum without a hockey team for the first time in over 10 years , a new hockey team would be born , returning the city to the East Coast Hockey League . The new team would be called the Greensboro Generals . They played in the arena until 2004 , when they were terminated by the ECHL due to poor performance and lackluster support from the community . Increased operating expenses from the ECHL Players Union ( that formed during the years hockey was away from Greensboro ) and increased overhead costs as a result of recent coliseum renovations significantly affected the Generals ' ability to promote within the community . It was revealed that after the team folded , nearly all of the money used to support the team over and above ticket revenues , could have been covered by coliseum advertising revenue that was purchased as a direct result of the hockey team ' s presence . After the team folded , the coliseum saw a significant revenue drop in local advertising and to this day , the coliseum operations must be supplemented with nearly $ 2 Million a year from city government .