Buffalo Shares Their Favorite Memories Of The Aud
It's hard to believe that it's been 26 years since the Sabres played their last game in the Aud. But lots of Buffalonians have memories to last a lifetime.
It was actually named the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium but we've called it "The Aud" forever. For a lot of people, the Bills stadium is the oldest sports stadium that they can remember in the Buffalo area. But The Aud was here long before "Rich Stadium" was even a thought.
The Aud opened up in 1940 and at the time was the home to a bunch of Buffalo sports teams including the Canisius Golden Griffins, the original AHL hockey team called the Buffalo Bisons, a basketball team in the NBL also known as the Buffalo Bisons (they went on to become the Atlanta Hawks), Buffalo's basketball team - The Buffalo Braves, The Buffalo Sabres, The Buffalo Stallions (an indoor soccer team), The Buffalo Bandits, The Buffalo Blizzard (another indoor soccer team), and the Buffalo Stampede which was a Roller Hockey Team.
They did a ton of stuff at the aud.
Add all of those teams in with the endless concerts that have passed through and you can imagine how many memories were made in that building. They hosted artists like Elvis, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and AC/DC there.
The last Sabres game was played at The Aud on April 14, 1996 which was 26 years ago today. The Sabres moved over to a new building that was then called Marine Midland Arena. It changed names a few times and is now known as Key Bank Center. After sitting vacant for years, The Aud was finally demolished in 2009 and the area is now what we know as Canalside and The Buffalo Waterfront.
I remember going to all kinds of events there. I went to a WWF (yes...it used to be the WWF) event and got to high five people like the Junkyard Dog, Ricky The Dragon Steamboat and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. I saw the Bulls play an exhibition game there once. It was the only time I ever got to see Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippin play together. And my favorite was when my dad got tickets to the Bandits game. We sat in the box and had a blast!
Do you have favorite memories from The Aud? Here are some of the responses that we got today when asking people about their favorites.