The St. Pete Times Forum is an arena in Tampa, Florida, that is used for hockey games, basketball games, arena football games, and concerts.
The St. Pete Times Forum is currently home to the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League.
The venue, located in Downtown Tampa's Channelside District was a secondary location chosen after the failure of Tampa Coliseum Inc. to secure funding to construct an arena on Tampa Sports Authority land near Tampa Stadium.
The St. Pete Times Forum opened in 1996 as the Ice Palace. The arena was built as a new home for the Lightning to replace the Thunderdome in St. Petersburg, Florida, which is now known as the Tropicana Field and needed to be renovated back to its original purpose: a baseball stadium which now houses the Tampa Bay Rays. Upon the completion of the Ice Palace, both the Lightning and the Tampa Bay Storm, also a tenant of the Thunderdome, moved in and have made it their home since then.
The St. Pete Times Forum officially opened on October 20, 1996, as the Lightning hosted the New York Rangers. The Lightning were victorious in the game by a score of 5-2.
Control of the venue has changed hands three times since the building's opening in 1996. The lease agreement ties the arena to the ownership of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Currently Palace Sports and Entertainment (owned by billionaire William Davidson) operates the venue, and has held control since summer 1999 when Davidson purchased the Lightning from then-owner Art Williams.
Naming rights to the Ice Palace were sold to the St. Petersburg Times, a daily newspaper which circulates throughout the Tampa Bay area. Other entertainment events occasionally held in the Forum include concerts, NBA exhibition games, USF Basketball and NCAA Tournament games, tennis, professional wrestling, boxing, figure skating, and rodeos.
