Special to The Times
Once known as the BJCC coliseum, the now-renamed Legacy Arena opened four decades ago to anticipation and acclaim with a John Denver concert on September 28, 1976. Since then, it has been a hub of sports and entertainment for millions of fans attending shows ranging from Elvis Presley to Pink, from Michael Jackson to Jay-Z, Birmingham Bulls Hockey and UAB Blazers Basketball to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus to Monster Jam over the last four decades.
The Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex is home to over 200,000 square feet of exhibit halls, a vast array of meeting rooms and three entertainment venues including Legacy Arena, the state’s largest indoor event space.
Construction of the coliseum in 1976 forever changed the entertainment landscape of Birmingham – and its addition in Birmingham was ahead of its time, said BJCC Executive Director Tad Snider.
“The foresight of civic, business and political leaders beginning in the mid-’60s and into the early ’70s in having the vision for such an ambitious project is quite remarkable,” Snider said. “As a part of the larger Civic Center development, at the time of its opening, the Coliseum looked to borrow the best from The Forum in Los Angeles, New York’s Madison Square Garden, the Omni in Atlanta to create a highly versatile venue on par with anything else in the country. Those aspirational goals resulted in a venue that has served the greater Birmingham community for 40 years.”
