On Aug. 16, 1980, thousands of fans saw Queen perform the first show at the newly opened Charleston Civic Center coliseum. On Aug. 14, 2025, almost exactly 45 years later, a sold-out crowd watched Luke Bryan “play it again” — in the exact same seats.

The Luke Bryan concert marked the final event at what is now called the Charleston Coliseum with the orange, blue and purple seats. The next morning, crews began a $5.2 million, 85-day process of taking out the old seats, cleaning the Coliseum and installing 9,876 new dark gray seats. Kanawha Valley

New councilmember, coliseum seats, auditorium study taken up at City Council

By Ashley Perham aperham@hdmediallc.com

3 min to read

The fixed seats were original to the arena while the telescopic seats — the section closest to the floor

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