Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum

Capacity: The Knoxville center comprises a 6,500-capacity coliseum with 22,000 square feet of exhibit space, a 2,500-capacity auditorium, a 10,000-square-foot exhibit hall, a 4,800-square-foot ballroom, and a performance lawn with a capacity of 10,000.

The building is partitioned into three different areas: the Coliseum, the Auditorium, the Ballroom, and the Private Party Room.

Opened: 1961

Home team: Knoxville Ice Bears

Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum

The Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum perfectly amalgamates the Knoxville city’s picturesque scenery and economic practicality. Its breathtaking exteriors, complemented by design-efficient interiors, provide a wholesome, exciting experience for just about any event-goer.

The auditorium handles performances of different kinds and scales, whether ballet-dancing Celtic singers, platinum-level musicians, or ice-cold hockey players.

For the avoidance of confusion, the building is referred to as the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum because it comprises both a coliseum and an auditorium. However, they are often addressed as separate entities or event centers. Case in point, team Knoxville Ice Bears is housed in the coliseum division of the facility, not the auditorium.

As the main event area, the Coliseum is the space with which most people can easily identify the facility. It usually hosts rock concerts, ice hockey games, graduation ceremonies, and city conventions. The Coliseum can stage any event, drawing thousands, with two floors worth of stadium seating and a ground floor for the main events. At maximum, it can take 7,141 people.

On the other hand, the auditorium is a quaint, much simpler area--a typical stage set in front of a seated audience of up to 2,500. The events often occur here are theater plays, choruses, ballets, and operas--much of which are deemed upper-class entertainment.

What’s more, it includes one of the largest indoor stages around, and it even boasts balcony seating!

Events at Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum

The facility is one of the most versatile buildings one can find in the entirety of Knoxville. Due to this standing, anyone within the area will likely be able to find at least one event worth their time.

Since its doors were flung open, the KCAC has taken center stage in Knoxville’s entertainment industry, having played host to everything from musicals to theatrical productions, sporting events, concerts, and circus displays, and has featured notables like Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Buffet and the Rolling Stones.

This quarter, the auditorium will hold several high-profile events, including the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone concert, Matt Rife’s ProbleMATTic world tour, the Golden Girls Photo Experience, and Gabriel Iglesias’s Don’t Worry Be Fluffy. Celebrities such as Kevin Gates and Jordan Davis will also grace the scene.

Transportation and parking

Located northwest of Knoxville’s city outskirts, the auditorium sits directly off U.S. Route 158 between the James White Parkway and Howard Baker Jr BoulevardIt. Since it sits adjacent to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fames and James White Fort, the KCAC is smack from a boiling tourism point.

The Knoxville Civic Auditorium has three parking garages capable of holding up to 2,500 vehicles at a time. As such, parking space is easy to find. However, visitors will have to pay $10 per event. The complex’s location cannot be more perfect, as it is far away from the city center where there is traffic, and close to major roads.