Simmons Bank Arena (previously Verizon Arena and Alltel Arena) is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena in North Little Rock, Arkansas, directly across the Arkansas River from downtown Little Rock. Opened in October 1999, it is the main entertainment venue serving Central Arkansas. The Little Rock Trojans, representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in NCAA Division I sports, played home basketball games at the arena from the time the arena opened until the team moved in 2005 to a new arena, the Jack Stephens Center, on the school's campus in Little Rock. The Arkansas RiverBlades, a defunct ice hockey team of the ECHL; the Arkansas RimRockers, a defunct minor league basketball team of the NBA Development League; and the Arkansas Twisters, a defunct af2 team, also played at the arena. The arena is also used for concerts, rodeos, auto racing, professional wrestling, and trade shows and conventions. History On August 1, 1995, Pulaski County, Arkansas, voters approved a one-year, one-cent sales tax for the purpose of building a multi-purpose arena, expanding the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, and making renovations to the Main Street bridge between Little Rock and North Little Rock. $20 million of the sales tax proceeds went toward the Convention Center expansion, with the remainder used to build the arena. That money—combined with a $20 million contribution from the State of Arkansas, $17 million from private sources, and $7 million from Little Rock-based Alltel Corporation—paid for the construction of the arena, which cost nearly $80 million to build. When its doors opened in 1999, the facility was paid for, and there was no public indebtedness. Two sites in North Little Rock drew interest from county officials for the proposed arena. The first was a commercial site west of Interstate 30, which contained a strip mall, a Kroger, and an abandoned Kmart storefront. The second site was an plot at the foot of the Broadway Bridge. The Pulaski County Multipurpose Civic Center Facilities Board selected the larger site for the arena in 1996 and paid $3.7 million for the land, some of which was acquired through eminent domain, a move protested in court by several landowners. The second site later would be chosen for the new baseball stadium, Dickey-Stephens Park, constructed for the Arkansas Travelers. The Class AA minor-league baseball team moved from the then 73-year-old Ray Winder Field in Little Rock to a new $28 million