Charlotte Hornets

Location

Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Capacity

19,077

Opened

2005

Time zone

UTC -05:00 Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Time Warner Cable Arena (originally Charlotte Bobcats Arena and commonly The Hive, Time Warner Arena, or The Cable Box), is an entertainment and sports venue, located in center city Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by the city of Charlotte, and operated by the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. It made its grand opening in October 2005 as the Charlotte Bobcats Arena, with a concert by The Rolling Stones and hosted its first Bobcats game on November 5, 2005. The arena's center-hung video screen, known as "Hornets TV", measures 16 feet by 28 feet, the largest of any indoor arena. On April 8, 2008, the Hornets, then known as the Bobcats, announced a naming rights deal with Time Warner Cable, the area's largest cable television provider, to rename the arena. As part of the deal, the Bobcats ended a somewhat restrictive deal that kept them off satellite and regional cable television. The change became effective immediately, with printed tickets for the Bobcats' April 8, 2008 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves reflecting the arena's new name and the game airing on FSN South. The arena seats 19,077 for most NBA games, but can be expanded to seat up to 20,200 for college basketball games (and presumably NBA playoff games). The arena also serves as home to the Charlotte Checkers, an ice hockey team that plays in the AHL. When the Checkers play there, capacity is reduced to 14,100 (though 4,000 of those seats have obstructed views)