Facility Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena

1 facility

1.1 construction
1.2 building facts
1.3 2012 expansion/future

facility
construction

with aging spokane coliseum, along need larger facility more twice coliseum s capacity, spokane city council , board of spokane county commissioners formed spokane public facilities district (spfd) acquire, construct, own , operate sports , entertainment facilities contiguous parking facilities. in 1990, spfd board members unanimously agreed on following recommendations made economic feasibility/market study. recommendations were:

to build arena opposed domed stadium
an arena seat 12,000 14,000 expansion capabilities
to build new arena on city-owned land located adjacent old coliseum on-site parking 2,000 automobiles

voters rejected spokane arena 4 times in 6 years before agreeing build in 1991.

in fall of year, 2 ballot measures put out voters, , passed:

one, publicly finance construction of arena through property tax bond issue worth us$38 million
two, measure validate spfd. validation important, because allow district implement 2% hotel tax further fund construction.

in fall of 1991, funding measure put out voters , passed. involved 0.1% raise in sales tax. passage of 3 measures completed $44.8 million financining needed build arena.

ground broken on march 5, 1993, , spokane arena opened 2 years later, in september 1995.

building facts

the spokane arena has capacity for:

12,638 end-stage concerts
12,494 center-stage shows
12,210 basketball
10,771 arena football
10,759 ice hockey
6,951 half-house shows

the arena has state-of-the-art audio , video system. consists of 15-by-20-foot (4.6 6.1 m) viacom sports 12 mm led display, capable of being used 2 separate units. video board has exceptional color reproduction , best off-angle viewing available led format. can moved forward approximately 100 feet (30 m) , down approximately 20 feet (6.1 m) off arena floor. arena features 350° color led ribbon board, mounted on fascia of spokane arena bowl. capable of displaying text messages, animations, logos, scores , statistics.

powered crown amplifiers, audio system driven community rs880 speakers in arena bowl, altec lansing satellite speakers upper seating areas, , bose speakers serve concourse, dressing rooms, , backstage hallways.

large public areas 1 of greater features of spokane arena. arena floor 32,000 square feet (2,970 m), , 14-foot (4.3 m) high concourse spacious 35,000 square feet (3,250 m). 16 luxury suites contain total of 146 seats. in addition, there 6 meeting rooms located @ spokane arena, totalling 10,050 square feet (930 m) of meeting space.

on events level, there 5 truck docks 8-foot (2.4 m) x 10-foot (3.0 m) loading doors, 1 8-foot (2.4 m) x 10-foot (3.0 m) drive-in door, , 1 20-foot (6.1 m) x 24-foot (7.3 m) drive-in loading door, allowing large shows load , unload 8 trucks simultaneously. trucks can load , unload unobstructed, directly marshalling area @ arena floor s west end. backstage 3 star dressing rooms, 2 promoter offices (located in marshalling area), , 7 team dressing rooms, dressing room officials.

the elevation @ street level approximately 1,900 feet (580 m) above sea level.

2012 expansion/future

incorporated original design area designated future expansion of arena. expansion of upper bowl raise seating capacity of arena on 15,000. in 2011, spokane public facilities district became concerned ncaa may tighten criteria , require true minimum of 12,000, no allowance seats lost due tournament infrastructure. in 2012, spokane public facilities district had measure 1 put on april ballot, proposing extend 1/10 of 1% sales tax , 2% room tax pay 91,000-square-foot addition convention center , other projects, including adding 750 seats arena.

measure 1 voted yes, , 750 seats added arena. however, seats added may have sight obstruction video wall, on same side facing away. after phase of new seating, full expansion of arena including center hung scoreboard , full seating expansion cost $3,547,000.

it unknown whether pfd max out arena s capacity.