How’s this for irony? At the very crossroads of history where Baltimore decides to tear down its biggest indoor entertainment complex — the 1st Mariner Arena — workmen in West Baltimore are finally finishing the demolition of a vaguely recalled relic on North Monroe Street called the Coliseum.

Things being how they are, this one has only taken about 45 years to come down.

Once upon a time, the Coliseum was the best we had around here to get us through the winter months. You walked into the dank and rickety old joint to watch the original cast of the Baltimore Bullets, or some pretty decent boxing, or the likes of the Zebra Kid wrestling Rocco the Acrobatic Italian.

But the place ceased all sporting entertainment back when Lyndon Johnson was president — and it’s been sitting there ever since, all but forgotten, on a scrawny little block between a couple of used-car dealerships a few streets below Mondawmin Mall.

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With the 1st Mariner Arena, we will have no closing the doors and then waiting 45 years for demolition. Last week, the Baltimore Development Corp. and a bunch of city and state officials announced plans to tear down the building and build a new facility on the same site.

You want to talk about the march of time — and the march of economics?

The new arena, we’re told, will seat 18,500. The original Civic Center (now 1st Mariner Arena) opened in 1962, seated maybe 12,000 – once considered big-time for Baltimore but now considered too small for a top-notch 21st-century facility. The Coliseum, opened in the late 1930s, seated about 4,500.

The new arena, we’re told, will cost about $300 million to build.

The Coliseum, which opened in the 1930s, cost $150,000 to build.

Maybe it’s more proof that you get what you pay for. The new area, we’re told, will help bring Baltimore more fully into the modern era of indoor entertainment: concerts and circuses and maybe, say the naïve, even pro basketball or hockey.

From its earliest years as the Civic Center, the 1st Mariner Arena had some pretty impressive days and nights — in spite of itself.

“The thing was built by committee,” said Ed Hale, president of 1st Mariner Bank and one of several civic leaders behind the new facility. “It was like the horse that was built by committee and became a camel. It tried to be all things to all people, and wound up not really pleasing anybody.”

Hale’s indoor soccer teams have called the place home. He’s talked about building a new arena near Canton, but has accepted plans to tear down the current arena and build on the same site — despite three to five years in which the place will be closed while the city draws no revenue.

“It’s definitely time for something new,” Hale said. “Tourism is way up here. The only missing ingredient is a world-class arena. This arena’s been outmoded forever.”

Still, it had its grand moments. The Beatles played there, and so did Presley and Pavarotti. Sugar Ray Leonard started his pro boxing career there. The Bullets of Earl Monroe and Wes Unseld and Gus Johnson had some marvelous nights there.

And it’s made money. The latest figures show an estimated annual economic impact of $47 million for Baltimore and $3.7 million in annual tax revenues.

But the Bullets fled the place 35 years ago, and big league hockey stayed away. The arena suffered from a downtown that was dangerous and/or deserted for a lot of years. Would a new arena, and a crowded downtown, mean a shot at basketball or hockey now?

Unlikely. Both sports are entrenched in Washington, whose team owners would raise hell over territorial rights. What’s more, Baltimore fans would be shaken to their wallets over the price of tickets today, and there aren’t enough big corporations here to support luxury suites.

We’re a long way from the days of the ancient Coliseum, finally reduced to piles of rubble on North Monroe Street. But there were some good times there: “See ’em at the Coliseum,” they used to say.

The original Bullets of Buddy Jeanette and Paul Hoffman were there and, later, the Eastern Basketball League Bullets of 7-foot Bill Spivey and Tarzan Spencer. Some pretty good fight nights, too. Archie Moore won there, and one time Harry Jeffra beat the world featherweight champ Joey Archibald.

Now the Coliseum will be replaced by a $5 million nonprofit Center for Fathers, Family and Workforce Development. It’s a big change from watching the Zebra Kid wrestle there.