Roberts Municipal Stadium
| Location | 2600 East Division Street Evansville, Indiana 47711-6813 |
|---|---|
| Owner | City of Evansville |
| Operator | SMG |
| Capacity | 12,732 |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | March 18, 1955 |
| Opened | October 28, 1956 |
| Renovated | 1980, 1990 |
| Closed | October 29, 2011 |
| Demolished | January 2013 |
| Construction cost | $2 million $1.2 million (1980 renovations) $16.2 million (1990 renovations) |
| Architect | Ralph Legeman |
| Tenants | |
| Evansville Purple Aces (NCAA) (1956–2011) Evansville Thunder (CBA) (1984–86) Evansville BlueCats (NIFL/UIF) (2003–07) | |
Roberts Municipal Stadium was a multi-purpose arena in Evansville, Indiana, for sports, public events, and concerts. The arena was built in 1956. It seated up to 12,732 spectators and featured four locker rooms and a press room. On June 13, 1972, it hosted a concert by Elvis Presley. He then again performed at Roberts, for the second and last time on Oct. 24, 1976, breaking all existing attendance records, by drawing a crowd of 13,500.
Roberts Stadium hosted concerts by musicians such as Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Bob Dylan, and Tool.
The arena received a $16 million upgrade in 1990. In 2007, the city of Evansville hired a professional consultant to examine whether the stadium should be renovated or replaced with a new downtown arena. Choosing between the strong concerns from several business owners on the city's east side who were concerned of losses to their businesses and the need to revitalized a badly degraded downtown area, in December 2008, the Evansville city council approved plans to construct the new arena, which opened in the fall of 2011 as the Ford Center.
It was co-managed with Mesker Amphitheatre, The Centre, and Victory Theatre. The building was demolished in 2013.