On a game night, you can sense it before you see it if you stroll down Jefferson Street in downtown Phoenix. You can smell street food carts, hear the low murmur of a crowd, and see the purple-and-orange illumination emanating from the stadium entrance. Over the years, the building has gone by so many names that residents occasionally pause in the middle of a sentence to recall the correct one. America West Arena. US Airways Center. The Talking Stick Resort Arena. Center for Footprints. PHX Arena.
Mortgage Matchup Center is now open. In just over thirty years, there have been six names, all of which arrived with press releases and quietly left as the sponsorship funds moved on. However, the structure remains precisely where it has always been: a million square feet of concrete and memory situated on an 11-acre property in the center of Phoenix.
At a cost of $89 million, it debuted on June 6, 1992, which at the time seemed like a huge amount for a city that was only beginning to establish itself as a true major-league sports town. There was a strong feeling that building a decent arena was the city’s way of making an announcement because the Phoenix Suns had been playing in smaller, older venues. America West Arena was the original name of an airline that has now been incorporated into American Airlines. The idea that a structure might outlive the businesses whose names it formerly bore has a little depressing quality. The arena itself doesn’t appear to care. In any case, the games continue.
The city’s soul has always been the Phoenix Suns. Here, Kevin Johnson performed. During those early 1990s runs that temporarily made the city feel like the epicenter of the basketball world, Charles Barkley turned this court into one of the loudest settings in the NBA. Running Mike D’Antoni’s offense through this building, Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP awards and attracted audiences that were visibly shaken by the roar as they left the arena.
The WNBA team that has won numerous titles and established a sizable fan base, the Phoenix Mercury, shares the floor and has produced its own thrilling evenings. No venue in the American Southwest may have held as many significant sporting events in such a small space.
Other renters have moved in and out. After moving from Winnipeg in 1996, the Arizona Coyotes, formerly known as the Phoenix Coyotes, played their first seven seasons here before relocating to Glendale. This building served as the home of the ECHL’s Phoenix Roadrunners until they folded during the 2008–2009 season. It was also home for a while to the Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers. Just by remaining open long enough, an arena this big tends to gather stories. With the exception of a few older East Coast towns, the blocks around Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, are among the nation’s densest concentrations of professional sports real estate.
The arena admittance procedure at Mortgage Matchup Center now illustrates how much the live sports experience has evolved since 1992. Fans arriving without baggage now have the quickest admission thanks to Evolv express lanes, which use scanning technology to allow visitors to pass through security without emptying their pockets.
Over the past few years, prominent arenas have adopted the restriction that standard backpacks are not permitted inside. As long as they don’t exceed the 14-by-14-by-6-inch dimensions, clear bags, tiny clutches, medical bags, and diaper bags are allowed. The queues at the Evolv lanes indicate that most fans have largely acclimated, however it’s still unclear if these security measures feel like a legitimate precaution or an imposition. The arena continues to fill up. At least that hasn’t altered.
