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Ocean Bank Convocation Center

arena belonging to Florida International University in Westchester

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ7863118
Source-derived summary

Ocean Bank Convocation Center (formerly known as Sunblazer Arena, Golden Panther Arena, Pharmed Arena, U.S. Century Bank Arena, and FIU Arena) is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena at Florida International University (FIU) in University Park, Florida. It was opened on February 1, 1986, and is home to the FIU Panthers basketball and volleyball teams. It was originally named Sunblazer Arena, but was renamed Golden Panther Arena when FIU's athletic teams changed their nickname from Sunblazers to Golden Panthers in 1987. It was renamed Pharmed Arena in 2004, and then was briefly named FIU Arena in 2008 before being renamed to U.S. Century Bank Arena. The facility reverted to the FIU Arena name again from 2014 to 2018 before being renamed the Ocean Bank Convocation Center in 2018.

The 94,000-square-foot (8,700 m2) arena contains a 19,000-square-foot (1,800 m2) wooden arena floor. It is also used for banquets, conventions, concerts, trade shows, and graduations including FIU's own commencement ceremonies.

The main court is a Cincinnati Robbins perma-cushion maple wood basketball floor, made up of some 19,000 square feet (1,800 m2) of wood. Four retractable basketball backboards allow for the floor to be divided into two practice courts, while Hydra Goal II portable basketball standards are used for intercollegiate competition. Nevco scoreboards are found at either end.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ocean Bank Convocation Center” is arena belonging to Florida International University in Westchester. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ocean, Bank and Convocation, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1986, 1987, 2004, 2008—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1980. For this dossier, Ocean, Bank and Convocation is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “arena belonging to Florida International University in Westchester” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7863118. Authority coordinates are 25.757, -80.380. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986, 1987, 2004 and 2008.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ocean Bank Convocation Center”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ocean Bank Convocation Center primary sources, Ocean Bank Convocation Center archive and Ocean research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ocean Bank Convocation Center”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ocean Bank Convocation Center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.