MGM Grand Garden Arena

Sporting events

MGM Grand Garden Arena, the Thomas & Mack Center and the Mandalay Bay Events Center were the main sports arenas in the Las Vegas Valley until 2016, when the MGM co-owned T-Mobile Arena opened.

Professional wrestling

From 1996 to 2000, it hosted World Championship Wrestling's Halloween Havoc events. The UWF television event Blackjack Brawl was held at the venue in 1994.

On May 25, 2019, it hosted All Elite Wrestling's inaugural event, Double or Nothing (2019). Tickets for the event sold out in four minutes. It was originally scheduled to host Double or Nothing (2020) on May 23, 2020, and the May 27 episode of AEW Dynamite, but was moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It hosted Money in the Bank on July 2, 2022, which was originally scheduled to be held at the larger Allegiant Stadium. This marked the first WWE pay-per-view to have taken place at the arena.

Combat sports

The arena is well known for numerous professional boxing superfights, such as Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Marcos Maidana and II, Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurman, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Andre Berto, Manny Pacquiao vs. Juan Manuel Márquez IV, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Canelo Álvarez, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao, Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury II, Canelo Álvarez vs. Caleb Plant and Canelo Álvarez vs. Erislandy Lara.

On September 7, 1996, the Bruce Seldon vs. Mike Tyson bout was held here; later that night, rapper Tupac Shakur (who attended the fight) was shot in a drive-by attack. He succumbed to his injuries six days later.

The arena held 42 Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts events, starting with UFC 34 in 2001 and ending with The Ultimate Fighter 23 Finale in 2016. UFC currently uses the T-Mobile Arena for major events.

On May 2, 2015, Floyd Mayweather Jr. defended his WBA (Unified), WBC, and The Ring world welterweight titles in a highly anticipated fight against fellow superstar Manny Pacquiao, who defended the WBO and IBO world welterweight titles. The fight continued to the 12th round and Mayweather won by unanimous decision and became the unified welterweight champion of the world.

Professional sports

In 1994, the Las Vegas Dustdevils, an indoor soccer team in the Continental Indoor Soccer League played one season at the arena. It also served as the pre-season home for select Los Angeles Kings games against the Colorado Avalanche, Phoenix Coyotes and San Jose Sharks until 2015, known as Frozen Fury. Two more games occurred at the new T-Mobile Arena before the launch of the NHL's newest team, the Vegas Golden Knights, who went on to play in the NHL's Stanley Cup Playoffs within their first season.

On October 24, 2014, it held an NBA preseason game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. They returned for another match on October 13, 2015.

College sports

During the 1990s, the arena served as the site for the WAC women's volleyball tournament.

On March 13, 2012, it was announced that the Pac-12 men's basketball tournament would take place at the arena from at least 2013 through 2016 and then to T-Mobile Arena in 2017 until 2020.

From 2014 to 2017, the MGM Grand Garden Arena hosted the Roman Main Event, then called The MGM Resorts Main Event, an 8-team college basketball tournament held during Monday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week of NCAA Division I men's basketball season.

Starting in 2025, the arena will host eight First Round and four Quarterfinal games of the College Basketball Crown.

Bull riding

The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) held its annual World Finals event at the MGM Arena from 1994 to 1998 before moving to the Thomas & Mack Center in 1999 and then to T-Mobile Arena in 2016. The PBR later returned on June 11 and 12, 2021 for an Unleash the Beast Series event in its first visit to the MGM Arena since 1998.

Award shows

The arena has frequently hosted various awards shows. It was the site of the Billboard Music Awards from 1997 to 2006, from 2011 to 2015 and in 2018, 2019 and 2022.

It was a consistent site for the Academy of Country Music Awards and served as host from 2006 to 2019, with the exception of 2015 and 2017.

The MGM Grand Garden Arena has hosted the Latin Grammy Awards six times: 2014, 2015, from 2017 to 2019, and in 2021. The arena will host the upcoming 26th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 13, 2025. The MGM Grand Garden Arena is one of three venues in Las Vegas that have hosted the Latin Grammy Awards which are typically held in Las Vegas.

The arena hosted the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on April 3, 2022, marking the first time the Grammy Awards were held in Las Vegas. The ceremony was originally scheduled to be held on January 31, 2022, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles; however, the Recording Academy postponed the ceremony indefinitely due to health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The MGM Grand Garden Arena was chosen due to resultant scheduling conflicts with the Crypto.com Arena.

Other events

Phish Halloween

Improvisational jam band Phish has hosted several significant halloween concerts at the venue. On October 31, 2014, they performed Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House with original instrumental music to accompany the album as their "musical costume" for the second set of their Halloween night show at the venue. Following that performance, the band has made their interpretation of "Martian Monster" a regular part of their concert repertoire and have performed it at over 25 subsequent concerts. On October 31, 2016, the band covered David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in its entirety as their musical costume for the evening. On October 31, 2018, the band performed a set of all-new original material that they promoted as a "cover" of í rokk by "Kasvot Växt", a fictional 1980s Scandinavian progressive rock band they had created. On October 31, 2021, they performed the album Get More Down by another fictional band of their creation, "Sci-Fi Soldier."

Concerts

Gallery

File:MGMGRANDGARDEN2.JPG|MGM Grand Garden Arena interior File:MGMGRANDGARDEN3.JPG|MGM Grand Garden Arena interior

References

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