Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The MassMutual Center is an arena and convention center. Springfield's NBA Development League team, the Springfield Armor, play home basketball games here, as do Springfield's AHL hockey team, the Springfield Thunderbirds. The arena's capacity is over 7,000.
The MassMutual Center is a multi-purpose arena and convention center complex located in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, in the city's Metro Center. The arena opened in 1972 and the convention center opened in 2005. It serves as a venue for meetings, conventions, exhibitions, sporting and entertainment events.
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A remarkable cultural grouping that consists of 5 museums, several of which are considered "world-class", the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden, and the palatial Springfield City Library. The Museum of Fine Arts features a vast collection of European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including works by Monet, Degas, and Gauguin; and also, a large collection of American painters, including Springfielders Whistler and Harding. The Museum of Science features the United States' first-ever planetarium (built in 1937), a large dinosaur exhibit, and replicas of exotic ecosystems. The George Walter Vincent Smith Museum is known worldwide for having the largest collection of Chinese cloisonné outside of China. It also features sets of ancient, Asian armor.Museum of Springfield History tells the story of "The City of Firsts": where the first American-English dictionary, first gasoline-powered automobile, first motorcycle, first modern fire engine, first commercial radio station, and first UHF television were invented (among other innovations). The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum shares the history of Dr. Seuss himself.
The site that George Washington hand-selected for America's first armory, where the first American musket was made, and where the famous Springfield Rifle was made for several centuries. Half of the site is now a scenic United States National Park and museum, featuring one of the largest collections of firearms in the world. Behind the National Park is the reasonably scenic campus of Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), which occupies several former Armory buildings.
formerly The Hippodrome
Equipped with state of the art sound, lighting, and video production facilities, this is the most technologically advanced club north of New York City. It features live performers, club nights, and movies.
Along the Connecticut River, in a stunning (and quirky) steel structure, it's a shrine to basketball in its birthplace.
featuring the Forest Park Zoo and Bright Nights
One of the largest urban parks in the United States at 735 acres (295 ha), Forest Park was established via the donations of Springfielders like skating blade magnate Everett Hosmer Barney (whose family mausoleum is in Forest Park.) Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead of NYC's Central Park fame, Forest Park offers amenities including a sizable zoo, America's first public swimming pool, picturesque gardens, hiking and walking trails, athletic fields, whimsical sculptures (one can see where Dr. Seuss got his inspiration), and camping facilities. During the winter it serves as the venue for Bright Nights, a nationally known holiday light display.