GLENS FALLS — The Glens Falls Civic Center’s reputation as the bridesmaid of city arenas will shatter this week with the biggest event of its 10-year life.

The Who, a rock band that hasn’t toured since 1982, will open its 36-date summer stadium tour Wednesday in the relatively small 8,000-seat arena of this city on the edge of the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York.

Why Glens Falls and not New York, Los Angeles or Chicago?

Because that’s where The Who is spending more than a week rehearsing, getting its mammoth stage and show ready to take out on the road. In a sense, the band’s organization considers the Glens Falls show a dress rehearsal for the summer. For the civic center, it’s a payoff for the arena’s growing reputation as a place where many big names of the entertainment industry go — to rehearse, if not necessarily to perform.

“It has a great value to our building,” said Jack Kelley, executive director of the civic center.

“Every promoter, every agent in the business has to know that The Who are rehearsing in Glens Falls and they’re having their first show here. That has to whet their appetite for wanting to know what’s here.”

Roger Daltrey, left, and Pete Townshend of the group The Who performing in Syracuse on the group’s 1982 tour.

The civic center was able to establish its reputation as a rehearsal mecca for acts like Billy Joel, Def Leppard and Judas Priest because there isn’t much in this quiet city of 20,000 people.

The civic center keeps busy much of the winter with the minor league Adirondack Red Wings hockey team and various circuses and ice shows. But summer is generally quiet on the arena circuit, except for traveling rock shows. And an act that wants to play eastern New York will usually head to the popular and larger Saratoga Performing Arts Center, only a half-hour south of Glens Falls.

With a lot of free time on his hands, Kelley said, he started six years ago to actively recruit bands that needed rehearsal space.

For an arena to develop a reputation as a prime rehearsal space, it’s usually an indication of creative marketing built out of necessity, said Walter Schatz, executive director of the International Association of Auditorium Managers.

Two nice advantages for Glens Falls are the Adirondack Scenic Co. and the Adirondack region itself, he said. The Adirondack Scenic Co., near the civic center, designs sets for concerts and Broadway plays and is always handy if technicians run into snags, he said. The mountainous area filled with lakes is also attractive for summer recreation.

Bands pay a fee to rent the rehearsal space and the fee can be substantially lower if the acts agree to play a public concert, Kelley said.

Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and the rest of the band will actually show up only briefly to practice songs like My Generation and Baba O’Riley.

The huge stage, built for outdoor shows, dwarfs the tiny arena. To fit all the equipment, the civic center is able to use only about 5,000 of its seats. The show is expected to be a scalper’s paradise.

“They’re very pleased and proud,” Kelley said of city residents. “For one day of the year the entire concert industry will be focused on Glens Falls.”