St. Paul Civic Center, 143 West Fourth Street, St. Paul, MN

Capacity 16,000

The St. Paul Civic Center was an indoor arena that was part of the RiverCentre. The arena opened on January 1, 1973.


The Civic Center is best remembered for it's unique hockey boards that were made of clear acrylic glass all the way down to the ice. This was because the seating configuration was round, meaning the closest seats at center ice were not right up against the glass. The clear boards made for
better sightlines for those spectators. The last professional hockey team to skate in the civic center was the IHL Minnesota Moose hockey club from 1994-1996. The clear boards were replaced with normal wood boards when the Moose played there, as the professional team needed to be able to sell
advertising on the boards. This wrecked the sightlines for what should have been the best seats, and proved that to get an expansion NHL team a new arena was needed.(1)

The arena was renamed the RiverCentre in the mid 1990s.

The arena was torn down in 1998 to make way for the Xcel Energy Center which was built in the exact same location as the old Civic center, which opened to play in 2000 with the Minnesota Wild, and subsequently the return of the State High School Hockey Tournament to play in St. Paul.(1)




Jerry performed here on
11/22/75 Jerry Garcia Band
5/11/77 Grateful Dead
7/3/78 Grateful Dead
7/10/81 Grateful Dead
8/6/82 Grateful Dead
6/25/83 Grateful Dead



1.)^http://www.vintageminnesotahockey.com/arenaciviccenter.html