America West Arena is a sports and entertainment facility located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is home of the NBA's Phoenix Suns, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, and arena football's Arizona Rattlers. The NHL's Phoenix Coyotes previously played here, but have moved to a new arena of their own in the suburb of Glendale. It was also the home of the indoor soccer Arizona Sandsharks. Three of the games of the 1993 NBA Finals between the Suns and the Chicago Bulls, including game six where John Paxson hit basketball's version of the shot heard around the world, were played there, as was one of the three 1998 WNBA finals games and two Arena Bowl games. In 1997, the Rattlers won the Arena football world championship at America West Arena.
Construction of this arena began in 1988, as Suns owner Jerry Colangelo envisioned a need for a new playing facility for his sports team. In 1993, the arena was officially inaugurated with an 111-105 Suns win over the Los Angeles Clippers. After the Suns failed to win the NBA championship that year, a parade that attracted more than 300,000 Suns fans finished up at the America West Arena.
In addition to sports events, many important singers and musical acts, such as The Spice Girls, Britney Spears, NSYNC, The Backstreet Boys,Vicente Fernandez and others have performed at the arena. Oscar De La Hoya had one of his first professional boxing bouts (versus Narciso Valenzuela) there, and Michael Carbajal also fought there various times.
The arena, which is situated across the street from Bank One Ballpark, is named after its sponsor, America West Airlines.
