Lakewood Church Central Campus

The Lakewood Church Central Campus is a house of worship in Houston, Texas, United States. From 1975 until 1998, it was a multi-purpose sports arena known as The Summit, and from 1998 until 2003 it was known as the Compaq Center. This venue is located about five miles southwest of Downtown Houston next to the Greenway Plaza.

Construction of The Summit

In 1971, the National Basketball Association's San Diego Rockets were purchased by a new ownership group that moved the franchise to Houston. The city, however, lacked an indoor arena suitable to host a major sports franchise, so plans were immediately undertaken to construct the new venue that would become The Summit. The Rockets played their home games in various local facilities such as Hofheinz Pavilion during the interim.

Completed in 1975, The Summit represented a lavish new breed of sports arena, replete with amenities, that would help the NBA grow from a second-tier professional sport into the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry that it is today. The Omni in Atlanta (now the site of Philips Arena), McNichols Sports Arena in Denver (now a parking lot for Invesco Field), and the Coliseum at Richfield in Richfield, Ohio (now an open meadow in the process of being reclaimed by forest) were all constructed during this period and remained in service until the continued growth of the NBA sparked a new arena construction boom in the late 1990s.

Notable events

Sports

The Summit housed the Houston Comets, Houston Aeros, Houston Rockets and several arena football sports teams until they vacated the arena in favor of the new Toyota Center in downtown Houston. Additionally, the arena was a prime Houston venue for popular music concerts and special events such as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.

The Summit hosted the NBA Finals on four different occasions: 1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995. In 1994 and 1995, the then-Summit was the site of the deciding games in the championship series and of the ensuing celebrations. The Summit was also host to championship teams from 1997-2000 when the Houston Comets won the WNBA title for four consecutive years.

The Summit also held the World Wrestling Federation's Royal Rumble on January 15, 1989. This was the first time the Royal Rumble was televised on Pay-per-view. The Rumble was won by Big John Studd.

The Compaq Center was also host to the Justin Bull Riding Championship, a PBR Bud Light Cup bull riding event, from 1998-2001.

Concerts

Prior to the construction of Toyota Center, Compaq Center was the principal Houston venue for large pop and rock music concerts.

Wings played there on May 4, 1976, during their famous Wings Over America Tour.

On October 31, 1976, Parliament-Funkadelic performed at the venue during their similarly famous P-Funk Earth Tour. Their performance was later released on DVD in 1998.

Queen recorded and filmed a heavily bootlegged concert at this venue on December 11, 1977, during their News of the World Tour. The concert is considered one the band's greatest performances. They returned to perform during The Game Tour on August 10, 1980 & during their Hot Space Tour on August 20, 1982.

Led Zeppelin performed an acclaimed and extensively bootlegged concert in The Summit on their record-setting 1977 U.S. Tour.

Aerosmith also performed a heavily acclaimed and bootlegged concert during their Permanent Vacation Tour in 1988 and later recorded the live portions of their "Blind Man" music video at the arena during their Get a Grip Tour in 1994. They returned to perform during their Nine Lives Tour on October 11, 1997.

A 1981 performance from the rock band Journey, was released as the CD and DVD package Live in Houston 1981: The Escape Tour in 2005.

The video for Mötley Crüe's "Home Sweet Home" was also shot at The Summit.

Prince played extensively this 16,000 seats capacity venue in the '80s. When he played there on Dec, 9, 1981, (for the Controversy Tour), it was the biggest venue he had performed in thus far. He returned the year after on December 29, 1982, for 1999 Tour (other dates include : January 10-11, 13-14 & 16-17, 1984, on Purple Rain Tour, November 27, 1988, for Lovesexy Tour & December 31, 1997, on Jam Of The Year Tour - it has then been renamed Compaq Center).

In 1989, Stevie Nicks performed at the Summit as part of The Other Side Of The Mirror tour. The music video for Whole Lotta Trouble was filmed and the rest of the concert was recorded for a radio broadcast.

Paul McCartney performed at the venue during his Back in the U.S. Tour on October 13, 2002. This was his first performance at The Summit in 26 years, since Wings' 1976 Tour of America.

Other artists who have performed at The Summit include Elvis Presley, Cher, David Bowie, Kansas, Billy Squier, The Rolling Stones, Electric Light Orchestra, Def Leppard, The Jacksons, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, 'N Sync, Sisqo, P!nk, Backstreet Boys, Whitney Houston, Shania Twain, Bon Jovi, U2, Hall and Oates, Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis, Billy Joel, Matchbox Twenty, Heart, Bon Jovi, Billy Ocean, Chicago, Thompson Twins, Elton John, Pixies, Guns N' Roses, Roger Walters, David Gilmour, KISS & American Idol Live!, among others.

From vacancy to Lakewood Church

In 1998, The Summit became the first Houston sports arena to sell its naming rights. The Arena Operating Company entered into a five-year, $900,000 per year deal with then Houston-based Compaq Computer Corporation to change the name of the venue from "The Summit" to Compaq Center, keeping that name even after the acquisition of Compaq by Hewlett-Packard in 2002. (There was another arena named the Compaq Center in San Jose, California around this time, but has since been renamed the HP Pavilion). The length of the agreement was significant, because in 2003 the lease that Arena Operating Company held on Compaq Center would expire, and the tenants of the building were lobbying vigorously for the construction of a new downtown venue to replace the aging and undersized arena.

When the sports teams moved to the new Toyota Center in 2003, the City of Houston leased the arena to Lakewood Church, a megachurch, which invested $75 million in renovations to convert the arena into the current configuration of seats and rooms for its needs; the renovations took over 15 months to complete, and the renovations included adding five stories to add more capacity.^[1] Lakewood Church has an exclusive lease agreement with the City of Houston and is the only tenant allowed to use the venue.^{[citation needed]} In 2001 the church had signed a 30 year lease with the city.^[2]

In March 2010 the church announced that it would buy the campus from the city of Houston for $7.5 million.^[3] The sale nullifies the 30 year lease. Marty Aaron, a real estate appraiser, said that while an "untrained eye" would "wonder how Lakewood Church purchased the Compaq Center for $7.5 million, when this is not really an arms-length sale from the city to Lakewood Church." Aaron explained that the church "put a phenomenal amount of money into the facility after the lease was initially structured, and it's really not fair that someone else would get the benefit of that." Aaron added that converting the property to a stadium-oriented facility "would probably cost as much or more than it took to turn it into a church, and right now there are probably not very many organizations that would be willing to step forward and do that."^[2] The Houston City Council was scheduled to vote on the matter on Wednesday March 24, 2010.^[4] City council delayed the vote.^[5] On March 30 of that year, Ronald Green, the city's chief financial officer, said that he approved of the sale of the building.^[6]

See also

References

1. ^ "Nation’s largest church opens in stadium." Associated Press at MSNBC. Retrieved on March 22, 2010.
2. ^ ^{a b} Olson, Bradley. "Lakewood to buy former Compaq Center." Houston Chronicle. March 22, 2010. Retrieved on March 22, 2010.
3. ^ Shelnutt, Kate. "Lakewood to buy arena- Thoughts on today's worship spaces." Houston Chronicle. March 22, 2010. Retrieved on March 22, 2010.
4. ^ Sarnoff, Nancy. "Lakewood's home poised to become permanent." Houston Chronicle. March 22, 2010. Retrieved on March 23, 2010.
5. ^ Sarnoff, Nancy. "Not so fast, Lakewood." Houston Chronicle. March 24, 2010. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
6. ^ Sarnoff, Nancy. "City controller endorses Lakewood sale." Houston Chronicle. March 30, 2010. Retrieved on March 31, 2010.

External links

Categories: Churches in Houston, Texas | Megachurches | Trinity Broadcasting Network | Pentecostal churches in Texas | Former music venues | Defunct indoor soccer venues in the United States | Defunct basketball venues | 1975 architecture