Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:32:00

Over a billion people watched what happened in this round room on 14 January 1973 - Elvis Presley's Aloha from Hawaii, the first concert by a solo artist ever beamed worldwide by satellite. The Neal S. Blaisdell Arena, at 777 Ward Avenue in Honolulu, opened in February 1964 as part of the Honolulu International Center. The building is a mid-century dome: a circular hall with radial structural ribs and unobstructed sightlines, designed with total flexibility - portable lower-level seating reconfigures the floor for basketball, boxing, ice shows, concerts in the round or full-floor exhibitions, with capacity running 7,700 for sports and up to 8,800 for stage events. The Elvis legacy is enshrined in bronze: a TV Land-sponsored statue of Presley stands outside the entrance, commemorating the broadcast that reached more than 40 countries - and aired in the US only in April, having been bumped from its live date by Super Bowl VII. The calendar has carried Hawaii's big events for six decades: University of Hawaii basketball eras, championship boxing, sumo tournaments, graduations, concerts by nearly every major act to cross the Pacific, and the touring family-show circuit - the arena remaining the islands' default indoor venue. The complex is heading into reinvention: the city's master plan for the 22-acre Blaisdell campus proposes upgrading the historic arena alongside new venues - preserving the 1964 dome that, with the concert hall, is one of the last surviving works of Honolulu's civic-modernist moment. Practical notes: parking spreads across the complex lots off Ward Avenue and Kapiolani Boulevard with TheBus lines on both frontages; the permanent upper-level theatre seats hold the comfort, floor seating varies wildly by configuration, and the Elvis statue photo stop is obligatory whether or not a show is on.