Blue Jackets arena in a state of disrepair? No, that's dramatic. Just needs some work

[White Out 403]

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/columb...-major-rapairs

When Nationwide Arena opened in 2000, it was a state-of-the-art facility and was widely regarded as the best arena in the league. Fast forward 24 years, and it's time to make some major, much-needed repairs.

Did the team simply not keep up with the facilities required maintenance over the years? This is shocking to me. I always thought of this facility is fairly state of the art even though it's older.

[SportsJunky]

I took in a game there this past season and was quite impressed with the facility. Of course, when comparing to calgary's building everything else feels like the Taj Mahal.

[Toonage]

Everything about the Jackets and how they go about their business feels like one giant shoulder shrug.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Meanwhile, Minnesota's arena remains one of the best in the NHL. Opened same year.

[alan21]

nvm.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Meanwhile, Minnesota's arena remains one of the best in the NHL. Opened same year.

Right. Which is why the Wild are estimating $200 to $300 million to renovate it and are preparing to ask the State to help subsidize that cost.

https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cit...-state-funding

https://www.myvillager.com/news/gene...g%20are%20done.


IIRC most arenas go under some kind of major renovation around 20 years into their life.

[Yeah_Baby]

When reached for comment Johnny said: "Oh I didn't notice. I played at the Saddledome before this"

[Locke]

That doesnt even seem remotely old by Arena standards.

[White Out 403]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Right. Which is why the Wild are estimating $200 to $300 million to renovate it and are preparing to ask the State to help subsidize that cost.

https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cit...-state-funding

https://www.myvillager.com/news/gene...g%20are%20done.


IIRC most arenas go under some kind of major renovation around 20 years into their life.

My uneducated opinion on the two arenas seems to be that Minnesota just wants to make their Arena fancier and competes with brand new facilities, meanwhile, the Columbus Renovations seem to be structural and not so much cosmetic as necessary to safety and life of building

[getbak]

Sounds like someone's laying the ground work to go asking for millions in public subsidies.

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

My uneducated opinion on the two arenas seems to be that Minnesota just wants to make their Arena fancier and competes with brand new facilities, meanwhile, the Columbus Renovations seem to be structural and not so much cosmetic as necessary to safety and life of building

The only structural and safety items seem to be the roof, cooling and fire alarms.

Not really big expenditures when you consider the cost to build a new building in today's economy.

The costliest upgrades would be improvements to the roof ($9 million); cooling towers ($7.5 million); a new scoreboard ($8.5 million); fire alarm replacement ($2.5 million); suite renovations ($1 million); club level renovations ($1.7 million); overhauling concession stands ($1.5 million); and improvements to the party tower LED displays ($675,000).

The article also says that the reason that these need to be addressed is because they were put off due to COVID and they invested a lot of money into completing a new Hilton Hotel.


edit: BTW the cost estimated to repair the Saddledome roof was $48 million in 2018.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...p%20it%20going.

[PepsiFree]

“Disrepair” seems dramatic

[topfiverecords]

Blue Jackets relocating to Phoenix in 3…2…

[The Yen Man]

I mean, if you read the actual article, all it's saying is it's time for some bigger renos after 24 years of use. Unlike office buildings, arenas get a lot of foot traffic with lots of people passing through and using the facilities. I'd say this is normal renovations required after 20+ years of use? Seems misleading to say it's in "disrepair".

[White Out 403]

There. Fixed the title

[Aarongavey]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Right. Which is why the Wild are estimating $200 to $300 million to renovate it and are preparing to ask the State to help subsidize that cost.

https://www.axios.com/local/twin-cit...-state-funding

https://www.myvillager.com/news/gene...g%20are%20done.


IIRC most arenas go under some kind of major renovation around 20 years into their life.

Yes, it is just continued grift. The Flames arena will “need” to be renovated about 20 years after it is completed.

[dustygoon]

This seems like a nothing burger. They deferred some work because of COVID and the hotel. Arena is still good but needs some basic upgrades/maintenance. They built that thing for $175m!

I wonder how much our arena design will try to factor in thinking through what upgrades might be needed/wanted down the road and hopefully try to build in some flexibility.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Locke

That doesnt even seem remotely old by Arena standards.

It seems like these days arenas start to show their age after around 30 years or so. When the Saddledome was built, wasn’t it given a life expectancy of like 35 or something like that?

[Bandwagon Surfer]

Sports arenas are such a scam. We take hunders of millions of tax payers money, gift it to billionaires to subsidize their toys, and get practically nothing in return.

They are promoted based on the idea that they will bring economic benefits to the region. When actually measured we repeatedly see that those economic benefits never materialize and are a tiny fraction of what was promised. But corrupt politicians ignore the economic realities, ignore all the real data, promote fantasies and lies about the project's economics so that they can funnel money to their friends while ignoring the hard problems they should actually be working on.

[memphusk]

Was there a couple years ago. Funny that this came up. I was just telling my kid today that I really enjoyed the Blue Jackets barn.