Memorabilia From Van Andel Arena Heading To Museum

Van Andel Arena had tons of great concerts and sporting events over the years. Memorabilia from many of those events will find a new home at GR Public Museum.

Van Andel Arena has been a Grand Rapids, Michigan, staple for many great concerts and sporting events that goes back all the way to 1996. Music legends such as Metallica, Kiss, Prince, Tool, Elton John, Aerosmith, Paul McCartney, Prince, Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, Bob Seger, AC/DC, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen and hundreds more have graced the stage. Let's not forget all those Grand Rapids Griffins games and players from over the years.

According to WOOD, photographs of concerts, sporting events along with other events that have been held at the Van Andel, plus artifacts and Griffins championship rings will now be on display for everyone to see at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The company that manages Van Andel arena is ADM Global. Their regional general Richard MacKeigan said, "in 25 years, we've been ranked no lower than sixth relative to Billboard magazine and Pollstar on top arenas capacities (10,000 to 15,000) in the world."

Even before I moved to Grand Rapids, I used to drive from across the state to see shows at Van Andel and continued to do so even when I lived in Indiana. Its not only a great venue, but the city of Grand Rapids makes it even that more appealing of a place to go.

The folks that have put this memorabilia move from arena to museum are the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention/Arena Authority, the museum and the City Archives and Research Center.

This is all being done in order to celebrate 25 years of Van Andel Arena. This way having all the memorabilia at the Grand Rapids Public Museum, all of the community can now relive these incredible moments.

Now getting all these items together, organized and logged into a computer is no simple task and will take about three months to accomplish, but in the end it will be worth it.

There has not been a date set for when the artifacts will be on display at the museum yet, and there is also talk of displaying some of the memorabilia at some other locations around Grand Rapids and even at Van Andel Arena.