After the concert in 1956, Elvis perfomed twice in Tucson in November 9, 1972 and in June 1, 1976. The Tucson Community Center, renamed as Tucson Convetion Center, is a small venue built in 1971. The complex contains an indoor arena and two performing arts venues.
The University of Arizona Wildcats club hockey team currently plays at Tucson Arena and is the primary tenant at this time. Although associated with the college, the team receives no funding directly from the school. The hockey team is a Division 1 member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association1.
The informational plaque that most buildings usually have in their lobbies.
The Arena looks nowadays as small as it looked in all those concert photos we have access to that were taken while Elvis was performing in The Tucson Community Center. These photos taken on November 9, 1972 (8:30 pm) show Elvis in good form and performing in front of a sold-out venue.
We noticed that the doors at the venue were open so inside we went. The lobby area was a bit dark and it looked like it had not been renovated since 1971
The following photos taken in June 1, 1976 (8:30 pm) look for some reason worse than the ones from 1972. It could be because that the stage looks small and the curtains in the back and at the edge of the stage don't help much either.
Inside, the venue was prepared for the local ice hockey games that are regularly hosted there.
Possibly the stage was to the left of the big entrance door in the photo below, but some things must have changed through the years, since I don't remember seeing those huge pipes in any of the photos with Elvis.
Tucson was a nice city and even though it has a population of half a million people, it had the feeling of a small town. After some days in Tucson, we headed to Phoenix, which is not a small town at all.
1 According to : Wikipedia
