During the mid-late 1980s, an increasing number of international music acts began to bypass Adelaide as Apollo was seen as too small.

This led to the building of the new 12,000 capacity Adelaide Entertainment Centre which opened in 1991, and in 1992 the venue was superseded as the home of basketball and netball by the new 8,000 seat Clipsal Powerhouse.

The first ever NBL game was played at a half full Apollo Stadium on 24 February 1979 when the Glenelg Tigers defeated the City of Sydney Astronauts 68-65.

Award winning Adelaide based basketball journalist Boti Nagy, who also often doubled as a sideline television commentator during 36ers games, often described the seating at Apollo as being so close to the action that you could literally get hit with sweat from the players as they ran past.

For the Wildcats there was James Crawford, Kendall "Tiny" Pinder, Mike Ellis, Ricky Grace and Andrew Vlahov.