Elephants stomped on the Toledo Sports Arena floor and Elvis Presley gyrated across its stage on November 22, 1956.
It was a giant bowling alley, a huge swimming pool, a big dirt pile, and a sweat box. Men and women shed blood in its boxing rings and on its ice, they graduated there, saw their first concerts, shopped for cars, and marveled at acrobats, clowns, and dancing bears.
With the process of dismantling the arena scheduled to start tomorrow, six decades of controversy and endless wrangling over where a new arena should be located in Lucas County will officially come to an end.
B&B Wrecking & Excavating Inc. of Cleveland will begin removing asbestos and other toxic materials from inside the Toledo Sports Arena tomorrow, according to Lucas County spokesman David Mann.
The county commissioners expect the abatement work to continue for the next three weeks. B&B will begin demolishing the arena once all hazardous materials are removed. Mr. Mann also said B&B will continue removing materials from the seven buildings that currently occupy on the site of the new downtown arena site, which straddles Superior Street between Madison and Jefferson avenues.
Mr. Mann said there is no fi nal timeline for those buildings to fall, but construction on the $85 million arena is scheduled to begin in October.
Toledo Sports Arena To Be Demolished
July 23, 2007 | Other
aura wrote on
July 23, 2007
And you are also right, Jerome ... I have already visited Toledo in Spain, it's not very far away from here (Cinfaes, Portugal).
rosiel wrote on
July 23, 2007
It always saddens me when a building that has an Elvis connection has to face the wrecking ball. Really sad.
rosiel wrote on
July 24, 2007
It doesn't matter where the bloody thing is, it matters that it is being torn down!!
Tony C wrote on
July 25, 2007
I think it is always sad when buildings associated with Elvis are demolished. Sad, but inevitable.