Hara Arena has quite a history.
Wayne Gretzky played his first professional hockey game there.
The Rolling Stones played their first concert in America there.
Hara hosted the Dayton Hamvention for fifty years.
(The world's premier amateur radio convention -
each year hosting over 30,000 people from over 100 countries.)
Plus, it hosted numerous other events -
hundreds of gun shows, home and garden shows,
bridal shows, baby shows, model train conventions,
banquets, proms, concerts, professional hockey,
boxing competitions, professional wrestling,
monster trucks, motorcycle racing, rodeos,
and just about anything else one could possibly imagine.
Hara Arena was a rambling complex of several buildings,
all joined together at odd angles.
Just finding your way around in the complex
could be a fun challenge.
It also had a golf course on the property for several years.
Hara was named after its founder's two sons,
Harold and Ralph Wampler.
The largest part of the building was the arena itself,
which could seat 6,000 for hockey or basketball,
or 8,000 for concerts.
The entire complex actually could hold 30,000 people.
It always seemed rather shabby, which was part of its charm.
Its decline began when the Nutter Center opened across town.
Nutter can seat 11,000 for basketball or hockey, and looks much nicer.
(And Nutter is where Sarah Palin was introduced to the nation.)
Hara closed several years ago, and went into further disrepair when
the tornado made a direct hit on it on Memorial Day last year,
doing substantial damage.
The City of Trotwood has just announced that
they will demolish the complex
and redevelop the land for light industry.
The site is about four miles from the nearest freeway.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Also:
Hara Arena is just one mile east of the location of Roscoe Filburn's farm,
subject of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision,
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
My most unique memory of the place is the Amy Grant concert I attended there.
During intermission, they played "TV's Greatest Hits" over the intercom.
That might be the only time in history that 8,000 people sang "Green Acres" all together.
