Mechanics Bank Arena

Mechanics Bank Arena formerly Rabobank Arena and previously Centennial Garden is a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Bakersfield, California, USA. Located downtown at the corner of Truxtun Avenue and N Street, it was built in 1998, and was originally known as Bakersfield Centennial Garden. The city-owned arena sold naming rights to the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank in 2005, which also sponsors cycling and field hockey teams. The naming rights contract, signed for $2.5 million dollars, lasts through 2015. 
It is home to the Bakersfield Condors AHL ice hockey team and California State University, Bakersfield Roadrunners Men's NCAA Division I basketball. The Bakersfield Jam NBA Development League team will play selected games at the arena during the 2009-10 season. Rabobank Arena was the former home of the af2 affiliated Bakersfield Blitz Arena Football team which disbanded due to financial difficulties after the 2007 season. CSU Bakersfield now plays in Division I as an independent and currently plays all of its men's basketball games at Rabobank Arena. The women's team, which used to play their games at Rabobank Arena, have opted to have all of their games played at the more intimate on-campus Icardo Center. Rabobank Arena is also the current home to the California Interscholastic Federation High School State Wrestling Championship Tournament held the first weekend in March. The arena will also host the 2010 CIF State Basketball Championships. As a concert venue, the arena seats 6,400 for half-house shows and up to 10,225 for center stage and end-stage shows. The arena floor measures 17,000 sq. ft. of total space. 
The southern concourse of Rabobank Arena serves as the exhibit home of the Bob Elias Kern County Hall of Fame. The Bob Elias Hall of Fame honors athletes and people involved with athletics from Bakersfield and Kern County. They include nationally prominent athletes, local coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to athletics. A separate display on the western concourse honors the founders of Bakersfield and Kern County, as well as country music legend Buck Owens and current athletes and dignitaries from Bakersfield and Kern County.
Attached to Rabobank Arena is a 17,840 sq. ft. exhibit hall, which combines with a 3,000-seat theater, which measures 28,512 sq. ft. and features a 7830 sq. ft. stagehouse to create a second arena and is presently known as the Rabobank Theater and Convention Center. This was originally known as the Bakersfield Civic Auditorium (opened in 1962) and was later re-named the Bakersfield Convention Center in the 1980s following remodeling and the construction of the adjacent Holiday Inn Select Hotel in the 1990s (now known as "Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center"). The convention center's stage (one of the largest stages in the world) was the Condors' previous home (when they were known as the Fog) until Centennial Garden was built in 1998 and, combined or separately, is also used for concerts (seating up to 5,800), sporting events, trade shows and, in the theater and stagehouse only, Broadway and family shows. There is also a 12,885 sq. ft. lobby and 14 meeting rooms measuring 11,659 sq. ft. of total space. Next to the Theatre and Convention Center is the "Bakersfield Marriott at the Convention Center" (formerly the Holiday Inn Select) on the corner of Truxtun Avenue and Q Street. 
The front of Rabobank Arena is called the Rabobank Plaza (formerly known as the Centennial Plaza). The Plaza has a large fountain that drains into the concrete of the plaza, a stage, a sculpture fountain, art work, and bricks commemorating the City of Bakersfield's Centennial as an incorporated city in 1998. 
Parking for the Rabobank Arena, Theater, and Convention Center is in a lot on the southern side of the arena between N Street on the west, Q Street on the east, and 13th Street on the south. The lot is adjacent to the Bakersfield Ice Sports Center (the Condors practice facility and public ice rink); and the McMurtrey Aquatic Center. 
==External links==
*Rabobank Arena
*Condors Hockey
*City of Bakersfield
*CSUB Athletics
*CIF High School Sports
*Ice Sports Center
*McMurtrey Aquatic Center
Category:ECHL arena
Category:AHL Rinks
Category:Indoor ice hockey venues in California