Miami Arena
The former home of the Miami Heat (1988-1999) and the Florida Panthers (1993-1999), Miami Arena is currently scheduled for a 2008 demolition. It has been largely unused in recent years, and the site is slated for redevelopment.

Chances that the Miami Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 100 percent

Wachovia Spectrum
The former home of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers (1967-1996) and NHL Philadelphia Flyers (1967-1996), the Wachovia Spectrum has in recent years served as the home of the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms and concerts too small for neighboring Wachovia Center. The current plan is to tear down the arena in favor of an entertainment district.

Chances that the Wachovia Spectrum will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 100 percent

DECC
The home to both men’s and women’s hockey teams at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center -- or DECC -- is slated to be torn down to make way for a new, larger arena soon. The unique circular design features some nice views of the Duluth harbor, and it's one of the few arenas in college hockey where the upper-level seats are better than the main-floor seating.

Chances that the DECC will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 99 percent

1st Mariner Arena
Baltimore faces several challenges on the arena front. A desire for a larger facility is causing local officials to push for a new 18,000-seat arena that would attract larger concerts, attractions and possibly professional sports. Ironically, 1st Mariner Arena, a smaller facility seems perfectly suited for smaller events hitting the Baltimore market and is actually profitable. But the natives’ grumbling has gotten louder in recent years. So what will be decided? As of now the plan is to tear down 1st Mariner Arena and replace it with the larger arena.

Chances that 1st Mariner Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 95 percent

Mellon Arena
It is perhaps the most unique arena in NHL history, originally opening as an opera house and later transformed into a professional sports venue. But with just two seasons left as the home of the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL), Mellon Arena faces an uncertain future. The combination of its unique design and uncertain future puts Mellon Arena on our list of endangered arenas.

Opening in 1961 as Civic Arena, Mellon Arena was designed as the home of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Designed not just as a standard arena of its day, Civic Arena features a unique retractable dome, the largest such dome in the world at 170,000 total square feet, made of 2,950 tons of Pittsburgh steel. The dome is divided into eight leaves and is supported by a cantilever arm. Since 1967 it has been home to the Penguins and has been renovated several times, bringing seating capacity from 10,500 to over 17,000. It has been used as a basketball venue over the years and will host the 2009 CBA All-Star Game.

With the loss of the Penguins to a new arena (being built across the street), the fate of Mellon Arena is unclear. However, it is hard to see Pittsburgh retaining two large venues.

Chances that Mellon Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 95 percent

Amway Arena
The home of the Orlando Magic (NBA) and the Orlando Predators (AFL) is slated to be replaced by a new downtown arena. Subsequently, Amway Arena has been put on the market. Unless a charismatic preacher wants to buy the property and turn it into a mega church -- which is always a possibility in Florida -- look for the arena to be torn down to make way for more development.

Chances that Amway Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 90 percent

Maple Leaf Gardens
It is unclear which would be worse: the tearing down of Maple Leaf Gardens or the reuse of the historic facility as a grocery store. In either case, the future of Conn Smythe’s old home is increasingly bleak. Unless things change, the facility is certainly destined for the wrecking ball.

Maple Leaf Gardens was once the jewel of the NHL, opening in 1931 as the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs in an amazing five-month construction process led by Smythe. Between 1946 and 1999, the Maple Leafs sold out every single game, an amazing streak that may never be matched. (It was very common for season tickets to be listed in people’s wills.) When the Leafs weren’t there, the place stayed busy with boxing and wrestling matches, concerts and other unusual events. (Winston Churchill once spoke there.) The Marlboros, a junior team, played there for many seasons as well.

The only Original Six building still standing, the arena sat empty for many years after the Maple Leafs moved to Air Canada Centre until it was purchased in 2007 by the Loblaws grocery-store chain, who announced plans to convert the property at 60 Carlton Street to a grocery store. But those plans are on hold as Loblaws faces its own financial issues. With minimal maintenance performed on the building, the center cannot hold.

Chances that Maple Leaf Gardens will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 80 percent

San Diego Sports Arena
It's kinda sad (and, frankly, very unusual) when the loss of minor-league hockey in a major market is a big factor in the closing of an arena. But the loss of the ECHL's San Diego Gulls was a major blow to San Diego Sports Arena, once home to NBA teams (the San Diego Rockets in 1967-1971 and the San Diego Clippers in 1978-1984), WHA teams (the San Diego Mariners in 1974-1977), ABA teams (the San Diego Conquistadors in 1975, the San Diego Sails in 1975-1976) and various minor-league hockey teams (the San Diego Gulls, the San Diego Barracudas, the San Diego Mariners, et al). Only the hockey teams consistently drew well -- there's no memorial inside the ballpark honoring the likes of Mark Olberding -- and today smaller events play the smaller, plain arena. In the 1970s, this was a hot arena for activity. In a span of four years (1971-75), it hosted a NBA All-Star game, the Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton heavyweight fight and was the scene of John Wooden’s last NCAA Basketball Tournament for UCLA.  There's a lot of sentiment against paying for sports facilities in San Diego, but at some point the city will figure out they're losing out on larger events because of the limitations of San Diego Sports Arena. And that will be the end of the road for the facility.

Chances that San Diego Sports Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 75 percent

KeyArena
Opening in 1962 as the Seattle Center Coliseum and renovated in 1994, KeyArena recently lost its major tenant -- the NBA's Seattle SuperSonics -- leaving the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds and the WNBA's Seattle Storm as the only sports attractions there. It is remembered in NBA lore as the arena where was game once had to be postponed because of a leaky roof – the only time this has happened in league history.  Built as part of the World's Fair, KeyArena
may need to be torn down or extensively renovated again before a NBA franchise comes back.

Chances that KeyArena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 50 percent

Assembly Hall
The home of the University of Illinois Fighting Illini has been around since 1963, and the university is taking a good, long look at renovating or replacing the 16,618-seat facility. The Illini regularly sell out the place, but a lack of space for premium facilities (perhaps the biggest problem with smaller university venues) is forcing the hand of athletic-department officials. The flying-saucer design was a staple of 1960s arena layouts, and it would be a shame to lose such a distinctive facility.

Chances that Assembly Hall will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 40 percent

Kemper Arena
Long synonymous with amateur athletics, Kansas City's Kemper Arena is now the number-two facility in the market, attracting smaller shows with less frequency. True, the place is still busy, but instead of hosting NCAA tournament games you'll find roller hockey and free American Royal events on the calendar.

Although it has served as the home for a variety of sports, it is best known as a basketball facility. The NCAA has played its women’s and men’s Final Four there. From 1973-1993, it was the home to the NAIA Basketball Tournament, a haven for hoop junkies.

Supporting two major arenas in any large metro market is hard, and Kansas City is barely big enough to qualify as a major market. There has already been some grumblings from local political leaders about subsidies paid to keep Kemper Arena open.

Chances that Kemper Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 25 percent

McArthur Court
The home of the NCAA's Oregon Ducks since January 1927, McArthur Court represents all that is good about college basketball: noisy crowds and an intimate atmosphere make it the place in the Pac-10 where visiting teams like visiting the least.

And, of course, the place will be superceded in coming seasons after the university builds a new, larger and most certainly less intimate arena after Nike's Phil Knight donated $100 million to the project.

True, there doesn't seem to be a place for a college facility seating only 9,087, given the exploding budgets in big-time athletic departments. The university currently says that the venerable old gym won't be torn down. As of now, reuse plans to date have been vague.

Chances that McArthur Court will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 20 percent

Izod Center
What happens to the Izod Center in the New Jersey Meadowlands once (or, rather, if) the NBA's New Jersey Nets move to a new Brooklyn arena? That's an interesting question. New Jersey politicians say they'll keep the place open, fitting in with the Xanadu entertainment complex currently under construction. But the addition of Prudential Center in 2007 brought a major competitor to the New Jersey arena market, and a renovated Madison Square Garden and new Brooklyn arena would pose even more competition. If the Izod Center runs into major economic problems, look for some Jersey politicians to call for its closure.

If that happens, Bruce Springsteen, for one, might shed a tear. He has had concert runs of 15, 11 and 10 days there over the years. College basketball fans will remember it as the place that hosted the last NCAA Final Four men’s tournament and 11 regionals.

Chances that Izod Center will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 17 percent

Cow Palace
The roots of San Francisco's Cow Palace goes back to 1915, when organizers of the Pan-Pacific International Exposition realized a larger livestock-exposition hall was needed for future events. Alas, it was not a realization that met with any immediate action: a decade passed before plans were laid for another exposition, and, in 1931, the California State Legislature appropriated $250,000 for an expo site. As the Great Depression deepened, many questioned whether a quarter-million dollars should have be used to build, as one local newspaper put it, a "palace for
cows"? The name stuck, and the facility opened in 1941.

It has proven to be a very popular multiuse facility. Currently the home to the Grand National Rodeo, Horse & Stock Show, the Cow Palace has also served as the original home of the San Francisco Warriors (1962-1964 and again in 1966-1971) after that storied franchise left Philadelphia and the original home of the San Jose Sharks in 1991-1993. The Cow Palace was also the longtime home of the San Francisco Seals of the WHL. Despite San Francisco’s reputation as a liberal stronghold, the Cow Palace served as the home of the Republican National Convention on two occasions (1956, 1964)

There have been some proposals from legislators to sell the Cow Palace as a way to generate income for the cash-starved state of Californa, and a sale almost happened in early 2008 that would have eliminated the facility in favor of more development. However, at the last minute a compromise saved the history place, though there surely will be other calls to tear it down in coming years.

Chances that the Cow Palace will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 15 percent

Berkeley Iceland
Earlier this year, it looked like Berkeley (Cal.) Iceland would be taking the wrecking ball treatment in favor of some new townhouses. Citizens organized, and the city has now designated landmark status on the 3,000-seat, larger-than-Olympic-size rink.

Although fundraising for the preservation effort has started out a bit slow, clearly "Save Berkeley Iceland" is picking up steam and gaining broad visibility with recent help from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The place certainly has ample history. Since opening in November 1940, Berkeley Iceland has hosted the National Figure Skating Championships in 1947, 1956 and 1966, served as a hockey practice rink for the California Golden Seals during the 1970s, Squaw Valley Olympics in 1960 and the U.S. Olympics men’s team in 1994.

The design of Berkeley Iceland is unique and attractively features considerable natural lighting brought into the rink by large windows. Owner Eastbay Iceland is asking $6.45 million to walk away from the investment, but the price of course is negotiable.

Save Berkeley Iceland points out that nowhere else in the city can hundreds of people gather under the same grand roof and interact while doing something healthy. The preservation effort goes beyond the goal of keeping the ice-rink tradition alive with a plan expanding the facility to include off-ice recreation activities such as gyms for working out, rooms for ballet, batting cages, community gathering spaces and a cafe/restaurant open to the general public.

Chances that Berkeley Iceland will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 15 percent

Windsor Arena
It's one of the great arenas in Canadian hockey history, but Windsor Arena will cease to be the home of the Windsor Spitfires (OHL) in 2009, removing the major tenant from the mix. It is also the answer to a trivia question: name the only Canadian city that has served as the host arena for an American-based NHL team. (Detroit played there in the 1926-27 season.)

Two local colleges are slated to continue playing their games there, however, and unless there's a proposal for a major development on the site (which could always happen), look for the historic facility to remain open -- after all, ice sheets in Canada can be hard to find and schedule, believe it or not.

Chances that Windsor Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 15 percent

Los Angeles Sports Arena
The Los Angeles Sports Arena has never ranked high among arena aficionados as a great facility; more often than not it was criticized as a bland arena offering nothing more than what was on the floor or stage at a given time. True, some great players and teams passed through the arena in the 1960s: Elgin Baylor graced the arena with his athletic prowess when the Sports Arena was the original home of the Los Angeles Lakers (1960-1968), and also serving as tenants there were the NHL's Los Angeles Kings (1967), the WHA's Los Angeles Sharks (1972-1974), NBA's Los Angeles Clippers (1984-1999) and the USC Trojans.

The $8.3-million Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena opened in 1959 with a July 4 dedication from then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon, "in recognition of all who served their country in all wars." Being Los Angeles, a fair number of movies have been shot there, including (fittingly) Escape from LA. There's not a lot of passion either way about the place Charles Barkley once called a "dump," and given the motley schedule of upcoming events -- rodeos, naturalization ceremonies -- we expect there will be calls to tear down the place once a viable economic plan emerges.

Chances that the Los Angeles Sports Arena will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 10 percent

The Pyramid
The original home of the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and the Memphis Tigers before the opening of FedEx Forum, the Pyramid remains one of the most distinctive arenas ever built and a major presence in downtown Memphis. The current plan is to sell the Pyramid to a mega church, a plan that helped save Houston's Compaq Center.

Chances that the Pyramid will meet the wrecking ball in the next five years: 5 percent