Pop Quiz Answers: The Knick/The Pepsi/The TU Center

Oops, we meant to post this yesterday, like we’d promised, but we forgot. Forgive us?

In celebration of the Knickerbocker Arena’s 20th anniversary this past weekend, our Pop Quiz on Friday asked:

“What were the first concerts held in the building under its subsequent names, the Pepsi Arena and the Times Union Center?”

There were no correct answers – hey, aren’t you Nippertown readers as anal-retentive as we are? – so we’re gonna run a new Knick Arena Pop Quiz tomorrow – with a cool prize.

Anyway, here are the answers to Friday’s quiz:

THE PEPSI ARENA: The appropriately romantic Valentine’s Day double-bill of Kenny G and Toni Braxton inaugurated the Pepsi Arena on February 14, 1997. The second concert scheduled for the Pepsi Arena was a much-heralded New Edition reunion concert slated for February 18, 1997, but that show was canceled due to “unfavorable interest and low ticket sales.”

THE TIMES UNION CENTER: Nippertown’s biggest year-round concert venue kicked off its new-name concert season as the Times Union Center with a big Governor Eliot Spitzer inaugural celebration featuring James Taylor, Natalie Merchant, Ben Vereen, Dan Zanes and others on January 1, 2007. Best of all, it was free.