It was the idea of Clyde Ratcliffe, son of the former head of the State Fair, to turn the exhibition hall into an arena.

The first sporting event held in the hall was a Richmond Spiders men's basketball game against the VMI Keydets.

In addition to basketball, the 5,152-seat arena also played host to numerous exhibitions, concerts and professional wrestling and boxing events.

The building, which had no insulation or cooling system, fell out of popular use after the opening of the much larger Richmond Coliseum in 1971.

The land was given to Virginia Commonwealth University, and in 1999 Sports Backers Stadium was built on its site.