TROY — A local arena is celebrating 75 years of sports and entertainment in Miami County.
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The Hobart Arena in Troy announced this week that it is celebrating its 75th year.
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The legacy of the Hobart Arena started in November 1943 when three sons founded the C.C. Hobart Foundation in honor of their father, Clarence Charles Hobart, known as CC, who passed in 1932.
The foundation was established to express their gratitude and give back to the Troy community that their father had loved.
In 1946, Edward Hobart unveiled a plan for a five-thousand-seat indoor arena, inspired by a winter sports arena built by the Hershey Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
The arena would be financed entirely by the C.C. Hobart Foundation and was part of a broader comprehensive plan for Tory’s recreation system.
The plan went on to be the subject of a bond issue vote, which passed with over 88% approval on March 4, 1947.
By January of 1950, the Hobart arena was ready to host basketball games, and that summer the Board of Park Commissioners signed a two-year contract to bring “top-flight entertainment” to Troy.
Later that year September 7, the grand opening of the arena featured a performance of Holiday on Ice.
Since then, Hobart Arena has hosted hundreds of concerts, shows, and sporting events and has become a “cornerstone of Troy’s cultural and recreational life.”
Over the course of its 75 years, the arena has hosted several performers, including Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, the Harlem Globetrotters, Luke Combs, Alice Cooper, and many more.
Many of the highlighted performers are commemorated with banners along Adams Street and the Adams Street Bridge.
There are also decade-by-decade displays throughout the Hobart Arena corridor outlining the historical events that have taken place in the arena since 1950.
“The bold vision first shared in 1946 by the Hobart Brothers not only reshaped the city’s landscape but also enriched its quality of life for generations to come,” a spokesperson for the arena said.
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