The Henderson Events Center in Henderson, Nevada is a new $84 million multi-purpose facility which seats 6,000 spectators for hockey events and accommodates over 8,000 for concerts and other events. Now named Dollar Loan Center, the venue is known to locals as “The Buck” or “The Stronghold.”

The Henderson Silver Knights, an AHL team affiliated with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, co-own the venue with the City of Henderson, and are the primary tenant. The Center is also home of the Vegas Knight Hawks of the Indoor Football League and the NBA G League Ignite. The Big West Conference also conducts their annual men’s and women’s basketball championship tournaments at the Center.

• The 150,000-sf venue is capable of accommodating basketball, concerts, graduations, banquets, and motocross events. For the City of Henderson, the new multi-purpose events center was the result of over two decades of effort and planning to get it exactly right.
• The $84 million construction budget is about 16 percent lower per square foot than comparable arenas recently constructed in other cities and presented a substantial challenge for the team. State-of-the art engineering analysis was used to optimize every structural element.
• The project had a tight schedule of 18 months between notice-to-proceed to first event. Full digital workflow was used for all phases between concept and opening.
• Multiple structural options were proposed and reviewed with both owner entities to confirm which one best satisfied their sometimes-competing criteria. A flexible long-span structural system with an oversized and adaptable rigging grid met all criteria and both owner aspirations and was determined to be the best solution.
• The design build team took advantage of an existing depression in the site to save excavation and cost for the basement between the Event and Concourse Level.
• To resist the unbalanced lateral forces from the soil on three sides, the engineer designed the concourse as a large O-shaped diaphragm. No expansion joints were provided for the 350 ft by 310 ft floor. Instead, sophisticated shrinkage and thermal analysis was used to design the slab reinforcing to resist thermal forces, avoid cracking and make the entire concourse work as a system. The concourse slab is unfinished and exposed to view, so crack limitation was essential.
• The City of Henderson issued their Request for Qualifications for the project in January 2020, two months before the first wave of the pandemic hit the United States. The design build team had to adjust normal construction practices to ensure COVID-19 did not delay or compromise the project or the team’s safety.