>According to todays Bangor Daily News, plans are progressing toward building >a 7,500 seat arena in downtown Bangor... > >http://www.bangornews.com/editorialnews/article.cfm/ID/401312/cfid/5688503/cfto > en/89900732 That's an I'll believe it when I see it project, IMHO. Bangor can't do it ($40M) without state support ... and try to squeeze such a project out of the state in the next few years! Bangor voters won't go for it either, IMHO. Such an ice surface is a huge capital and operational expense. I don't see how they're going to keep it busy, or even afloat. :-( I do believe there will be a convention center built. I'd like to see that and a major hotel as anchor to the waterfront development ... but that project has been stalled for a couple of years now. Really old folks (like me) remember when the Bangor Auditorium had an ice surface! :-) >Which Alfond events could be shifted to this arena ? Certainly not matches >like the out-of-conference games next year against the Little Sisters of the >Poor, but certainly you could punch out the extra seats for games against >the Univ. of Nocturnal Hijinx With the improvements to the Alfond and extra costs of staging an event off-campus and likelihood of poor student turnout, I can't see the University using a Bangor Arena any more than they now use CCCC! >I fear the Alfond skybox revenue stream might be impaired by the new arena >marketing their luxury boxes to the same clients as now occupy the Alfond >heights. Not enough deep-pocket firms in greater Bangor I think could >afford two sets of these, and the ticket revenue from only 2,000 +/- extra >seats in a new Bangor venue might not be enough to compensate for Alfond losses Guess I see the Arena as primarily a performance (music, etc.) venue and not a competitor to Alfond (except for perhaps high school hockey tournaments and the like. cheers, wayne