The arena is also used for concerts, rodeos, auto racing, professional wrestling, and trade shows and conventions.

$20 million of the sales tax proceeds went toward the Convention Center expansion, with the remainder used to build the arena.

The first was a 19.5-acre (79,000 m2) commercial site west of Interstate 30, which contained a strip mall, a Kroger, and an abandoned Kmart storefront (which in turn relocated to McCain Plaza in 1991, closing the Broadway Street location and closed in November 2000 as it was one of the 72 stores announced for closure that year[5]).

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 arena hosted portions of the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in March 2008 and the SEC gymnastics championships in 2007.

As a concert venue, its location prompted Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band to play one of its most rarely performed numbers, 1973's "Mary Queen of Arkansas", during a March 2000 show on their Reunion Tour.

[8] On January 29, 2022, Elton John performed at the arena for his Goodbye Yellow Brick Road farewell tour to a sold out audience.