Arenas Around the League

Amerks6:

"Actually, the Amerks lowered their capacity and season tickets are up 30%. So tickets will be harder to get than before"


What is the seating capacity at BCA?

I never understood why they build such large venues. Albany has seating capacity for 20K. They're luck to draw 2k. Looks like a ghost town even with the curtains over the upper bowls.

That is why we will never see a new arena. The attitude is like go big or go home.


I see no problems with a 7-8,000 seat multi-use facility. Think of the concerts and other sporting events it would draw. Many concert promoters and things like WWE vowed to never go to the WM ever gain. And who could blame them? Far too out dated.

I think the return on a new arena would be 10 fold.

The Amerks capacity prior to this season was around 11,000. Obviously way too big for an AHL team not named Hershey.

What the Amerks are doing is closing sections 211-217. Those are the massively huge sections behind where the Amerks shoot twice. So the new capacity at the War Memorial will be around 7,600. Around where it was prior to the renovation in the 90's.

It's a great decision because it will keep the crowd much closer and make the arena seem much fuller. The Amerks drew a crowd of 4,800 for the Panthers preseason game and it was a great atmosphere and the arena seemed pretty full.

You know I love the old barn, but thanks to the stupid decisions of our local government we will probably not see a new arena anytime soon. Instead of building the Oncenter they should have built a new arena. Don't get me wrong the Oncenter is a nice facility but it's obviously limited on the events you can host there.
I know the local veterans have a say with what happens with the WM but who is to say we can't honor our
veterans in a new building?

lettucehead wrote:

You know I love the old barn, but thanks to the stupid decisions of our local government we will probably not see a new arena anytime soon. Instead of building the Oncenter they should have built a new arena. Don't get me wrong the Oncenter is a nice facility but it's obviously limited on the events you can host there.
I know the local veterans have a say with what happens with the WM but who is to say we can't honor our
veterans in a new building?

I agree. They could transfer Memorial Hall to a new arena.

They really should have re-thought the OnCenter. Aside from car shows, which could be held in the basement of a new arena, I see no exclusive use that justifies it over a new arena.

Who's to say they couldn't have added whatever space they needed in the plans to accommodate reunions, meetings, conference etc?

Oh well. It is what it is. I too enjoy the old barn, but compared to the rest of the league (aside from the "old school charm") it just doesn't measure up.