Alerus Center

The Alerus Center is an indoor arena and convention center in the north central United States, located in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The facility is owned and operated by the city of Grand Forks and opened on February 10, 2001.

The arena's major tenant is the University of North Dakota football team, and also hosts many large concerts, sporting events, and trade shows. The seating capacity for football is 12,283, and up to 21,000 for other events. Located southwest of the UND campus, it is just east of Interstate 29 and south of its exit 140, the junction with state highway 297.

The convention center section of the facility includes a 26,000-square foot (2,400-square metre) ballroom and twelve meeting rooms. The convention center is used for conferences, seminars, banquets, parties, and smaller concerts. Directly adjacent to the Alerus Center is a large hotel and waterpark complex called the Canad Inns Destination Center.

Alerus Center is named after a local financial institution, Alerus Financial, which purchased the building's naming rights. Prior to opening, the facility had been referred to as the Aurora Events Center. Its approximate elevation at street level is 835 feet (255 m) above sea level.

History

After attempts going back to 1984 to fund expansion of the downtown civic center or construction of a new convention center (1992), in 1995 a vote to increase the local sales tax to build a new events center (dubbed The Aurora Events Center, costing $43 to $49 million) passed with 60% approval. Cost overruns required another vote in 1996 on an events center to cost $57 million which passed with 51% approval.

The Flood of 1997 delayed the project and led to redesigns to make the facility less susceptible to future flooding. Compass Management was hired to manage facility and in 2000 Aurora was renamed Alerus Center after Alerus Financial bought naming rights for twenty years. Alerus Center opened on February 10, 2001 with a final cost of $80 million. In 2006 construction started on Canad Inns hotel tower and water park, and was completed in 2007.

In 2007, the city ended its management contract with Compass Management but the same year rehired Compass Management, now renamed VenuWorks, with the provision they won't be paid if they lose taxpayer money. In 2009 Alerus Commission announced they lost $720,000 in the events fund due to Alerus operations. No accounting of that loss is made available to the public.

In July 2017, Spectra came in to take over the management contract for the Alerus Center.^[5]

Notable events

Concerts

Football Attendance

The Alerus Center has a football capacity of 12,283. The Alerus Center record attendance for North Dakota Fighting Hawks football is 13,500 vs. North Dakota State University on October 6, 2001. The second-highest attendance was 13,091 on October 14, 2023. As of September 2024, the Fighting Hawks hold a 110-30 record inside the Alerus Center.^{[citation needed]}

Other events

Other events have also been held at Alerus Center including WWE Smackdown, Toughest Monster Truck Tour, and the 2008 North Dakota Democratic-NPL Convention featuring presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton speaking.^[11]

Competition

Grand Forks is unique because it is a relatively small market with two major event centers, Alerus Center and the Ralph Engelstad Arena, both of which often bid to host the same events. To a lesser extent, the Chester Fritz Auditorium in Grand Forks also sometimes competes for these same events as well. Regionally, the Fargodome in nearby Fargo and the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba are seen as competitors to Alerus Center.

Canad Inns Destination Center

Located directly north of Alerus Center sits the Canad Inns Destination Center, completed in 2007.^[12] This $50 million complex, also designed by JLG Architects, is anchored by a 201-room, 13-story hotel tower which, at 126 feet (38 m), is the tallest building in Grand Forks and the tallest building constructed in North Dakota since the mid-1980s.^[13] The Destination Center also includes the largest waterpark in the state, three restaurants, a "boutique" casino, and an arcade. This was the first facility in the United States for the Canadian hotel chain.^[14]

See also

• List of NCAA Division I FCS football stadiums

References

1. ^ "The Aurora Begins". Grand Forks Herald. July 16, 1998.
2. ^ "Aurora Events Center". Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Inc. Archived from the original on October 30, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
3. ^ "Sports Facilities". Obermiller Nelson Engineering, Inc. Archived from the original on 2014-01-16. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
4. ^ "Sports and Event Centers". Mortensen Construction. Archived from the original on April 28, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
5. ^ "After deficit year, Alerus Center poised to make a profit". Retrieved 2018-08-03.
6. ^ "The Cher concert: you're kidding…Right?". Dakota Student. University of North Dakota. October 4, 2002. Archived from the original on June 6, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2010.
7. ^ "The Cher Concert". Dakota Student. October 4, 2002. Archived June 11, 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved September 17, 2005.
8. ^ Pamela Knudson (2018-09-12). "Alerus releases attendance numbers for Metallica concert". grandforksherald.com. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
9. ^ Adam Kurtz (2020-02-22). "KISS concert doesn't disappoint fans in Grand Forks". grandforksherald.com.
10. ^ Knudson, Pamela (2024-08-27). "Zach Bryan concerts shatter Alerus attendance, revenue records". Grand Forks Herald. Retrieved 2025-11-18.
11. ^ Haga, Chuck (April 5, 2008). "Democratic Presidential Hopefuls Bring Close Contest to N.D.". Grand Forks Herald. Retrieved April 5, 2008. ^{[dead link]}
12. ^ "Canad Inns Destination Center Grand Forks". Canad Inns. Archived from the original on January 16, 2014. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
13. ^ "Canad Inns Destination Center". Emporis. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved April 5, 2008.
14. ^ "JLG Architects -"

External links

• Official website
• University of North Dakota Athletics website