Wrecking Ball Knocks Out Chicago Arena

CHICAGO - Chicago Stadium, a landmark building where Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the nomination for president, where Elvis Presley rocked and where Frank Sinatra crooned, met the wrecking ball today.

Built in 1929 for $6 million, the former home of the NBA's Chicago Bulls and the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks, is being knocked down and replaced by a parking lot that will serve its successor, the $176 million United Center which sits across the street.

Blackhawk owner William Wirtz was in tears as the two-ton ball first smacked into the west wall while a crowd of a few hundred people began to boo through the morning chill.

"It's like going through a wake," said Wirtz, who first visited the building as a child in 1934. "But it has to be."

The demolition will not be completed until mid-May, said James L. Werner, a vice president for U.S. Dismantlement Corp. The building, because of its steel and concrete structure, was not a candidate to be dynamited, he said. It was cheaper to use the crane and wrecking ball.

The stadium long was known as one loudest facilities in all of sports, where Blackhawk fans would begin cheering while the national anthem was sung and keep cheering for most of the game. The stadium was known as "The Madhouse on Madison," the street on which it sits - on Chicago's near west side.

One fan held up a sign in tribute:

"The Old Barn, the Sistine Chapel of Sports. Thanks For the Memories."

The United Center, with state-of-the-art luxury boxes, was built to produce more revenues. It opened this fall.