The Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena holds historic memories of some of the greatest entertainment treasures on this planet.

Since it’s birth in 1973 there have been thousands of memorable performances by legends of Entertainment, sports, and much more.

When I was about 8 years old my father took us to the Allentown fair to see Johnny Cash perform, because we really didn’t have a venue to attract a big name like that at the time.

About four years later that would all change when Chicago and their opening act Bruce Springsteen walked on the stage of the newly build arena.

I still remember my first Broome County Arena experience, it was one of the biggest bands in the country at that time, Three Dog Night came to town, with opening act T-Rex (Rock and Roll hall Inductees of 2020).

The stage looked huge, and I had never been inside an entertainment venue like this before, I remember the lights and the loudness that overpowered the entire building.

The keyboard player was up high on a pedestal like platform and colored smoke rolled out from underneath the huge keyboard.

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When ever I think about my personal concert experiences within that building, I will never forget the Alice Cooper concert in 1975.

There had been a ban on allowing Alice to perform in Binghamton, I was a huge fan at the time, and as a 1970’s teen, mad as hell at the establishment.

A short time later we got the word that the concert was coming to Binghamton, and on a hot summer night, July 15th 1975, The Alice Cooper “Welcome to My Nightmare Tour was on.

This was by far the most theatrical stage performance I have ever witnessed, and to this day that still stands true.

The stage was dark, then filled with rolling smoke and Alice Cooper right in front of us, there were huge dark and creepy characters all over the stage that included a huge monster with one eye.

The highlight of the show was the massive spider web, with people in huge spider costumes crawling up and done the web and Alice Cooper singing one of the albums songs called “The Black Widow” as he fought with the spiders, ripping the legs off.

I know it sounds disturbing but it wasn’t, it was just an amazing show, and my best memory of the Broome County Arena days.

AND as the concert ended and the encores were complete the music stopped, lights went out and through the dark quiet  Broome County arena, Alice’s said “I didn’t Do Anything Naughty Did I”?

THROUGH THE YEARS: The Construction Of The Veterans Memorial Arena

What is now known as the Visions Veteran Memorial Arena have been a staple of downtown Binghamton and the Southern Tier for the better part of 50 years. Hockey, concerts, graduations... it's been the hub of huge local events for a long time. Nearly everyone has been to an event at the arena at least once.

But how did it come to be? We dug around for some pictures of its early days...

Alice Cooper Welcome to My Nightmare Tour 1975

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