One Last Look at Detroit's Cobo Arena

DETROIT (WJBK) - Unless you count its appearance in the upcoming action flick "Reel Steel," you've seen the last of the old Cobo Arena, the circular concert venue next to Cobo Hall.

When it reopens two-and-a-half years from now, it will feature a banquet space with panoramic window views of the river and Canada. You can have your wedding reception in the same spot where Kiss once performed.

In its concert heyday on the back of the "Kiss Alive" album, you can see the arena in all of its glory.

Bob Seger's live bullets are still echoing inside the time capsule with its 12,000 seats, unique, semi-circle layout and loudness factor.

If you sat in Cobo Arena back in the day in Section A-15, Row O, Seat 1 and you cheered on Seger or the J. Giles Band or Kiss, we're sorry to say your seat is going bye-bye. In fact, they're going to put a concrete slab over the entire lower bowl creating 80,000 square feet of convention space.

"I watched my first Pistons game here," said Cobo spokesperson Gary Brown. "It was a great place to come."

An animation shows how dramatically different the new Cobo Center will be in time for the 2014 auto show.

"Cobo will no longer be backed up to the river. It will be incorporating the river. The promenade will incorporate Hart Plaza," Brown said.

At Melodies and Memories in Eastpointe, the guys marked the end of an era by looking through ticket stubs and playing albums recorded there.

"The kids today are going back to buying vinyl, and those albums are at the top of their lists," said Dan Zieja with Melodies and Memories.

"All the artists that played there loved playing there because the sound was just superb to just about anything else that was around for its size," said Kevin Ernst, who worked as a stagehand at Cobo.

On our last visit, we watched a graduation rehearsal. It will be followed by some roller derby on Saturday.