State Farm Arena

• 1. Introduction

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  State Farm Arena opened on the 24th of September 1999 with an Elton John concert that drew 18,919 people to downtown Atlanta. The building had cost $213.5 million. For years it was known as Philips Arena, after the Dutch technology company based in Eindhoven, Netherlands. By 2011, it had ranked as the third-busiest arena in the United States for concerts. The Atlanta Hawks have played every home game there since the day the doors first opened. Yet the arena exists because of a design flaw in its predecessor, a canceled hockey deal, and a series of reinventions. Those chapters play out across more than two decades. The first chapter begins with a building that simply could not stop rusting.

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• 2. A Flaw in the Steel

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  Atlanta sits in a humid subtropical climate, and that fact, more than anything else, sealed the fate of Omni Coliseum. Cor-Ten weathering steel, used to build the Omni in the early 1970s, was designed to oxidize quickly and then form a durable protective seal. The idea was that a rust layer would lock in place and prevent further decay. Atlanta's persistent humidity meant that seal never fully formed, and the steel kept deteriorating faster than the building's designers had anticipated.

  Ted Turner owned the Hawks at the time and harbored an ambition beyond basketball: he wanted to bring NHL hockey back to the city. Atlanta's first NHL team, the Flames, had left for Calgary in 1980. The league made clear it would only grant Turner an expansion franchise if a modern arena was ready for opening night. The Omni, already compromised by structural decay, could not satisfy that requirement.

  In 1997, officials agreed to demolish the Omni and construct a replacement on the same site. The Hawks spent two seasons splitting home games between the Georgia Dome and Alexander Memorial Coliseum while the new building took shape. When the arena eventually opened, workers installed the Omni's original center-hung scoreboard in the new lobby. It still hangs there today, displaying the old arena's logo alongside those of the teams that followed.

  The architects tasked with designing the replacement made a structural choice so unusual that it would puzzle, and eventually influence, stadium builders for years.

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• 3. The One-Sided Arena

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  The arena opened with 92 luxury suites, 9 party suites, and 1,866 club seats. What distinguished it from almost every comparable venue of its time was where those seats were placed.

  In most arenas of that era, premium seating circled the building's midsection. That arrangement pushed the upper deck two to four stories higher than necessary. Here, all luxury boxes and club seats were concentrated on a single side of the building. The remaining three sides were reserved for general admission, positioned far closer to the court than a conventional arrangement would allow. The goal was to maximize lower-tier seats with clear sightlines. Enough premium spaces remained to make the building financially sustainable.

  Ford Field, Soldier Field, Levi's Stadium, and Addition Financial Arena each adapted elements of this same approach in subsequent years. The layout also proved capable of handling unusually large crowds. On the 2nd of May 2008, a playoff game against the Boston Celtics drew an announced crowd of 20,425. That remains the largest attendance recorded for a Hawks home game at the arena. For concerts and other entertainment events, the seating capacity can reach 21,000.

  On the exterior, angled steel columns facing downtown Atlanta were arranged to spell out the city's own name.

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• 4. The Name on the Wall

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  February 1999 was the month Philips paid $185 million to put its name on the arena for twenty years. By 2013, Philips had largely withdrawn from the consumer electronics market that had made such a sponsorship appealing. In February 2018, the company confirmed it would let the agreement expire when it ran out in June 2019. On the 29th of August 2018, the insurance company State Farm stepped in with a new twenty-year deal worth $175 million.

  Another face of the exterior was originally arranged to spell out CNN, whose headquarters sits directly adjacent to the building. That section was later altered to accommodate a Taco Mac restaurant. Below the arena, the SEC District rail station connects visitors to Atlanta's MARTA transit network.

  On the 2nd of April 2009, the arena became the first NBA or NHL venue in the world to earn LEED certification. The award, from the United States Green Building Council, covered operations and maintenance. Over the years, the building picked up an informal nickname: the Highlight Factory. The name honored the memorable plays that regularly unfolded on the court. It also played on Philips' background as a manufacturer of lights and electronics.

  The Hawks shared the building, through all of its naming changes, with tenants who came and went on their own timelines.

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• 5. Banners and Departures

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  On the 10th of April 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2. It was the franchise's final game. Tim Stapleton scored the last goal in Thrashers history.

  The Thrashers had joined the arena as an NHL expansion franchise for its first season in 1999. Their only appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs came in 2007. When the team relocated to Winnipeg in 2011, it ended a twelve-year run of professional hockey in the building.

  A banner recognizing the 1958 NBA championship hangs in the arena. The Hawks made the playoffs from this building for the first time in 2008, ending an eight-season drought. Dominique Wilkins wore number 21 from 1982 to 1994; it is among the franchise's retired numbers. Pete Maravich's number 44 honors his three-year tenure from 1970 to 1973. Bob Pettit, Dikembe Mutombo, and Lou Hudson also have retired numbers in the building. The Hawks additionally honored Ted Turner and Kasim Reed; Reed's number 59 reflects his tenure as Atlanta's mayor from 2010 to 2018.

  The Atlanta Dream played at the arena from 2008 to 2016. They returned for the 2019 WNBA season before relocating to Gateway Center Arena in suburban College Park. On the 21st of June 2024, the Dream returned to State Farm Arena for a game against the Indiana Fever. High demand for tickets, driven by the Fever's rookie Caitlin Clark, prompted a move away from the smaller Gateway Center Arena. Since the 2010s, statues of Dominique Wilkins and Evander Holyfield have been placed near the arena.

  Tony Ressler acquired the Hawks and the arena's operating rights in June 2015. Almost immediately, he announced plans for a comprehensive renovation of the building.

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• 6. The Gut Rehab

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  On the 1st of November 2016, the Hawks and the city of Atlanta reached a financing agreement on the renovation. The city contributed $142.5 million; the Hawks committed $50 million plus any cost overruns. The deal also extended the Hawks' lease through the 30th of June 2046. An early exit from that agreement would carry a penalty of $200 million plus the remaining balance on the arena's bonds.

  The first phase of work, completed during the 2017 off-season, reduced the total number of suites from 90 to 40. Workers removed the upper levels of the suite wall and added a Courtside Club behind one of the baskets. Thad Sheely, the Hawks' chief operating officer, called the second phase in 2018 a "gut rehab". The renovation installed a center-hung videoboard three times larger than its predecessor. Connected 360-degree concourses were added throughout the building. A bar and grill operated by the Zac Brown Band opened on the premises. An in-arena barber shop run by Atlanta rapper Killer Mike followed. Topgolf suites were also installed. Over 100,000 square feet of former office and storage space was converted into publicly accessible fan areas.

  The first ticketed event at the renovated building was So So Def's 25th anniversary concert on the 21st of October 2018. The Hawks' first regular-season home game in the rebuilt configuration came three days later, on October 24, against the Dallas Mavericks. During the renovation, the Atlanta Dream moved their 2017 and 2018 home schedules to McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Tech campus. That echoed an earlier chapter in the building's history. The Hawks themselves had used the same Georgia Tech facility, then called Alexander Memorial Coliseum, during the years the original Omni was being demolished.

  In October 2024, Usher played four nights at the arena, drawing 34,504 fans and generating $6,657,505.

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• 7. Stage for the World

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  During a June 2000 run of shows, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed "American Skin" publicly for the first time. Pearl Jam recorded their August 2000 Atlanta concert and released it as a live album titled "8/7/00 - Atlanta, Georgia". A July 2005 Destiny's Child show was filmed for a DVD called "Live in Atlanta". Red Hot Chili Peppers shot the music video for their song "Goodbye Angels" during an April 2017 appearance at the arena.

  The venue has hosted the NBA All-Star Game in 2003 and 2021. The NHL All-Star Game came to Atlanta in 2008. The arena had previously been announced as the host of the 2005 edition, but the 2004-05 NHL lockout eliminated that event. Atlanta became only the second city after San Jose to lose a planned All-Star Game to a labor dispute. The arena also hosted the 2004 US Figure Skating Championships. In 2013, it held the NCAA Division II and Division III basketball finals as a companion event to the Final Four at the Georgia Dome.

  In 2005, the Georgia Force of the Arena Football League played the building's first professional playoff game there and won. The Royal Rumble wrestling event took place at the arena in 2002 and again in 2010. On the 19th of February 2020, the building staged All Elite Wrestling's first-ever steel cage match on AEW Dynamite. In 2022, the arena hosted the semifinals of the League of Legends World Championship. South Korean teams T1 and DRX advanced from Atlanta to the finals at Chase Center in San Francisco, where DRX won the title.

  In 2007 alone, the arena sold well over 550,000 concert tickets. A three-show Eagles run in February 2020 generated $8,871,615 in revenue. The venue also hosts the Passion Conference, one of the largest Christian gatherings for college-aged attendees in the country. Past speakers and musicians at the conference have included Louie Giglio, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and the rapper Lecrae.

  Lady Gaga's three-night engagement in March 2026 sold 23,250 seats each night. The total revenue for those three shows came to $6,754,244, placing that run among the highest-grossing individual engagements in the building's recorded history.

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