The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum

It will be sad to see it go, but like many venues of past if has fallen to modern technology, size, sky boxes, and in our case "The 2005 Super Bowl" which will be hosted here in Jacksonville. There will be a parking garage at it's current location and a new coliseum will be built 2 blocks from where it currently sits. The Coliseum will be missed, however it is a little dated and to be honest the sound in the building is atrocious, or to be blunt terrible. The Coliseum when built was unique for many of it's innovative features, the most notable being it's floor icing system. Which at the time was the first of it's kind and was used as a model for many other venues built afterward in other cities. The system still works today effective and efficiently after all these years and is still considered to have some of the best ice of any arena there is. It has long been the home for many minor league hockey teams. But mostly it will be remembered for the annual fair and many Concerts held there, the most recent being "Cher" in February this year. The building opened Thanksgiving Day 1960 & will be destroyed in July of 2003, [ oddly 42 years 8 months later - which is exactly how long Elvis lived] A coincidence? Who Knows.

The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum which was originally billed as: "The Sports Mecca of the South" is scheduled for demolition. The Coliseum as it is called in Jacksonville was built 42 years ago for a cost of 3 million dollars. The 10,000 plus seat arena was, in it's day, a state of the art building that was ahead of it's time. It was designed by Eugene Cellar and George Ryad Fisher. It has played host to many historical events in Jacksonville, the biggest being The Elvis Presley Show.

There are many Elvis fans who will be sad to see it go, it has a significant place in Elvis Presley's career.
On April 16th 1972 on a Sunday afternoon at 2:30pm Elvis performed there for the first of five times. It was during a project that was then being called; Standing Room Only - [later changed to Elvis on Tour in America]... Elvis can be seen in the Documentary Films "Elvis On Tour - 1972 and This is Elvis - 1981" riding in a black limousine [hot time in Florida/rainy night in Georgia] in the back seat with Joe Esposito and the boys to and from the Coliseum, also getting out in front of the Coliseum

Elvis was also photographed for an LP that was to also be called "Standing room Only " with material from a tour that began April 5th and ended April 18th 1972. The album was never made. The photo did however find a place on the cover of the "Madison Square Garden - LP"... The reason they used the Jacksonville photo was that Elvis had two performances June 10th 1972 just as he had in Jacksonville at the Coliseum. The difference being Elvis was photographed with the same outfit in the evening show in NY which was recorded for the LP and it was said he looked a little tired in the photo's with it being the 2nd show of the day. So they went with the photo from the Jacksonville show which he wore that outfit in the 1st or afternoon performance [see photo]

Elvis returned to the Coliseum that evening at 8:30pm to do another performance, He wore his powder blue outfit in the film "Elvis On Tour!" [see photo] Which opened nationwide November 1st. 1972 at 187 theatres in 105 cities raking in a respectable $494,270!!! [noted film director Martin Scorsese worked on Elvis On Tour as the montage supervisor, also the film was voted best Documentary of 1972 by The Hollywood Foreign Press].

Elvis returned to the Coliseum on Friday, April 25th 1975 at 8:30pm where he wore a white with blue 2 piece suite [see photo] Elvis had gained a little weight, but was still looking good. Elvis returned to the Coliseum on Wednesday, September 1st 1976 wearing his white phoenix suit. His performance was not one of his best, and his show was very short. [see photo] as you can see Elvis is a little puffy here, but no one noticed. Much to our surprise it was announced that Elvis is returning in April 1977 but that show is rescheduled for Monday, May 30th 1977 and as you can read in my article "Elvis in Jacksonville" he was outstanding. I have many memories of Elvis at the Coliseum, I can't help but think of him everytime I look at the building, it will seem strange when it's gone! The reality that time is moving on [Elvis 1977] .... and that soon nothing will be as we remember it, that is if we live long enough. However we still have our memories and mine is not only seeing Elvis at the Coliseum but also having the opportunity to be asked in honor all the entertainers that have performed at the Coliseum, in memory to them with the most notable being Elvis! To perform as Elvis; The National Anthem at the last sporting event at; "The Sports Mecca of The South!" [see photo] An honor!!!!