Luke Bryan concert at Spokane (Wash.) Veterans Memorial Arena.
There is really no other way to put it — Spokane (Wash.) Veterans Memorial Arena officials love their building.
“We have the best looking 20-year-old arena,” said Kevin Twohig, CEO, Public Facilities District, the entity which took over ownership and operations of the once city-owned venue.
Millions of dollars are poured back into the 10,500-plus seating-capacity Spokane Arena every year, including annual painting and cleaning top to bottom. Other funding mechanisms are used specifically to upgrade the building, such as the $2.2 million used to replace every seat in 2012 and the construction of the new Boone Street Tap Room lounge last year.
The building is clean, updated and welcoming, but Twohig is quick to add that the arena’s most significant assets are: “The people. We have hired a group of people who really believe in guest services. Our belief is to create experiences for our guests that will make them say ‘wow.’”
Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, often referred to as Spokane Arena in marketing campaigns, turns 20 years old this year and the successes just keep happening.
Spokane Arena has hosted more Men’s and Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments than any other site in the country since the year 2000, with a total of nine as of 2015. Two additional tournaments have been announced for 2016 and 2018.
Concerts have been extremely successful as well. In 2013, General Manager Matt Gibson, along with Marketing Manager Becca Watters, created what is now known as The Bucket List. They reached out into the community and asked, through an online survey, what acts people would like to see come to the arena. That then became the 2014 Bucket List.
“Every single one of our acts on The Bucket List have sold out so far,” Watters said. “We really weren’t going to do it again for 2015, but it was so successful and people wanted it, so we did.”
U.S. Figure Skating Championships have also been a huge success at Spokane Arena. The building has hosted the championships twice, in 2007 and 2010. Attendance records were made in 2007 and beaten at the 2010 championships. The 2010 attendance record has yet to be beaten anywhere.
“Now, U.S. Figure Skating is looking at a new competition,” Gibson said. “It will be held in April 2016 and will be a huge television event. It is not for sure, but I think we will get that.”
Spokane (Wash.) Arena also has a close relationship with Feld Entertainment, hosting many of Feld’s events such as Disney on Ice, Monster Jam and Arenacross.
The arena’s tenants — the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League and the Spokane Shock, which has been a part of the American Football League but has switched to the Indoor Football League beginning in 2016 — are also success stories.
The Chiefs, owned by Brett’s Sports and Entertainment, has been the primary tenant in the building since it opened. “The ownership of that team believes in quality,” Gibson said. “I work with them on a daily basis. They believe in making things better. If we didn’t have them, we wouldn’t have a building.
“And, the Shock,” he said. “Well, I thought, yeah, that would be great for us. I didn’t really think it would be a long partnership, though. They are now in their 10th year and they have created a tremendous fan base.”
Across the board, Spokane Arena is a great American success story, though beginning somewhat dubiously, in the 1980s. That was when attempts began to replace the out-of-date, crumbling, 1954-built Spokane Coliseum, which was in desperate disrepair.
It took three failed attempts to get voters to approve a new building in those years.
Twohig was there through the failed attempts, then the successful attempt and through all the successes. Twohig began working for the city after Expo ‘74 Spokane World’s Fair.
At that time, there was only Spokane Coliseum; no Spokane Convention Center and no INB Performing Arts Center, both of which are now under the PFD. Twohig also was there during the formation of the latter.
“There was a group of people, of which I was one, who came up with the idea of the Public Facilities District,” Twohig said. “That concept was taken to the voters in 1989 and was approved. The board of the PFD was formed in 1990.”
The PFD concept was approved by voters and it took an act of legislation to make it complete.
“In fact, it was legislation written just for our situation,” Twohig said. “It was written so it couldn’t be copied by another building.”
The financial plan finally approved for the arena construction costs included a mix of sales tax and hotel tax. It was placed on the primary election ballot in September 1991 and received the approval of Spokane County voters, thus completing the financing needed to construct the arena.
The ballot proposition specified the cost of the facility at $44.8 million and stated that all funds would be used for the arena project. Both taxes were imposed on Jan. 1, 1992.
In early 1992, the PFD issued an RFQ to hire a project manager to oversee construction of the facility. Gerald R. Schlatter, former project manager of the Seattle Kingdome, was selected. Schlatter proceeded to work with the architects to refine the building program.
In November 1992, after issuing a Request for Proposals for management services, the District entered into an Interlocal Agreement with the City, known as the Arena Operating Agreement.
In December 1992, following months of work to refine bond documents and resolve mutual issues, the PFD, City of Spokane and Spokane County issued an aggregate total of $44.8 million in tax-exempt bonds, as follows:
* City $15,400,000
* County $15,400,000
* District $14 million
In December 1992, the PFD Board approved the design development phase of the project, and work began on the construction document phase. A ceremonial ground-breaking occurred on March 5, 1993, complete with a confirmed Elvis sighting.
Twohig was named as the first general manager when the building opened in 1995. But, that opening didn’t go without a hitch. In fact, after officials spent quite a bit of effort sequencing the grand opening weekend and securing one of country music’s hottest stars at the time, John Michael Montgomery, arena officials had an eye opener. Three days before the opening weekend, Montgomery canceled his show due to illness.
The opening weekend was then cut to just one event, a sold-out game between the San Jose Sharks and the Vancouver Canucks, both of the National Hockey League. However, because it was this one event, it put the arena’s ice floor front and center. A new concept at the time, the floor was made of a special Type K expansive concrete able to endure repeated freeze/thaw cycles. It had to be installed in a single seamless pour of 449 cubic yards.
After 20 years, Twohig realizes there are some updates and/or expansion projects that just might not be feasible any longer for the building. But, he also believes the arena has a lot of life left.
In addition, he believes the formation of the PFD all those years ago has directly resulted in a very simple operating plan for the three buildings under its auspices, Spokane Arena, Spokane Convention Center, with a 120,000-square-foot exhibit hall within 500,000 square-feet total meeting space, and the 2,700-seat capacity INB Performing Arts Center. The convention center underwent a $55-million expansion two years ago.
“Our job is to run three buildings,” Twohig said. “That is it.”
The PFD contracted Centerplate as the arena’s food and beverage concessionaire. There are four restaurant/lounge areas, the Boone Street Tap Room, the Absolut Grill, the Red Tail Lounge and the Jameson. There are two food courts and five standard concession stands. Twohig said there are plans to add some square-footage to the concourse to expand one of the food court areas.
Ticketing is handled by TicketsWest, a company with a Spokane tie and with 20 outlets, a national pay-by-phone service and an online service.
ISS handles janitorial services. StaffPro handles security, ushers, etc. Diamond Parking takes care of the parking.
The Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena is hosting a 20th Anniversary Open House free to the public Sept. 25.