St. Paul Civic Center

The arena opened on January 1, 1973, and had seating capacity of approximately 16,000 for hockey.[3]The arena could be expanded up to 17,800 for concerts and other non-sporting events. The Civic Center was the home of both iterations of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA—the first from 1973 to 1976 and the second from 1976 to 1977. The boys' state high school hockey and basketball tournaments were also held at the Civic Center as well as three NCAA Frozen Four national ice hockey championships.[4] The arena was also the home of Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA).

The arena was unique in North America in that the hockey dasher boards were made of clear acrylic glass from the shelf all the way down to the ice. This was because the arena's seating configuration was round, and the closest seats between the blue lines were not flush against the boards. The clear boards made for better sightlines for most spectators seated between the blue lines, since the seating angles in the Civic Center were shallow. The clear boards were replaced with standard white dashers boards when the Minnesota Moose of the International Hockey League played there, as the team needed to be able to sell advertising on the boards.[5] This wrecked the sightlines for what should have been the best seats, and this illustrated that Saint Paul needed a new arena with appropriately-designed seating.

On June 28, 1984, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, actress Courteney Cox and 200 extras filmed the Brian De Palma-directed music video for "Dancing in the Dark" at the arena, one day before Springsteen's 1984 Born in the U.S.A. Tour formally opened at the arena.[6]

The song "I Bought a Headache" from The Replacements' album Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash is about regretting purchasing marijuana from someone at the arena for $8.50. Billy Joel recorded and release a live version of his song, "Streetlife Serenader". The song was recorded from a 1980 concert held at the arena.