Debate stretched for a decade on CT arena $145M renovation. Here’s what you’ll find when it reopens.
Event-level bunker suites have been carved out of space once occupied by the arena’s ice-making equipment. A glitzy club for premium ticket holders that can hold 700 has replaced storage areas and meeting rooms. And a 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall — basically rendered obsolete by the construction of Hartford’s convention center 20 years ago — is now the nerve center of the building’s mechanical systems and most storage.
Ben Weiss, OVG general manager for the arena, said concert bookings for the current fiscal year are on a pace to reach 15 or more, 30% more than the typical 7 to 10 concerts a year. OVG said it is possible to eventually reach 30 or more annually.
“We have a different story to tell,” Weiss said. “We have a great story to tell.”
The big-ticket renovation focused on the lower half or “bowl” of the arena.
A major thrust was moving patrons closer to the action with new premium spaces. These include five bunker suites, nearly 50 loge boxes with four to six, cushy armchairs; and the new club with its quartz bar countertops, aluminum paneling and cool, hip lighting.
The renovation included the addition of more modern rigging systems that can handle the increasingly complex concert sound and lighting systems. An automated moveable section of seats for concerts will now allow the stage to be set farther back, which also required carving out a section of the arena.
The change increased the number of seats with views to the stage by 1,500 to about 13,000. That number, OVG has said, will make Peoples Bank Arena the largest concert venue in Connecticut with those views and make it competitive with arenas across North America.
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