A $193 million renovation has made Atlanta’s State Farm Arena a venue for a new generation. Looking to the right, the portion of the bowl formerly dominated by a suite wall has been completely redone. (Courtesy Atlanta Hawks)
ATLANTA — Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin finds himself searching for the right words to describe the $193 million overhaul of State Farm Arena, which is fine, considering the overwhelmingly positive feedback he has received from season-ticket holders and other stakeholders.
“If anything, we failed in trying to invent a term that’s different than ‘radical transformation,’ because every time we brought people into the building, they said, ‘Wow, have you undersold this,’” said Koonin, the former Turner broadcast and Coca-Cola executive and a lifelong Atlanta resident. “From roofline to baseline, all the phrases we coined, none of them describe how radical and different the building is than what it was.”
At one time, “radical” best described the facility, known as Philips Arena until State Farm Insurance took over naming rights in August. The arena opened in 1999 with about 100 suites, all stacked across four levels on the west side. (At the time, the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers were a tenant alongside the NBA’s Hawks. The Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 2011).
Almost 20 years later, no other big-league arena has copied the design model and for good reason. Over time in Atlanta, suites at the highest levels and the corners went unsold because of their views. In addition, critics said the concept sent a bad message by further separating the high-end corporate crowd from those sitting on the east side without the perks that premium-seat patrons enjoyed. The result was worse for concerts, where the sound would bounce off the suite wall, resulting in poor acoustics for touring shows.
“It wasn’t relevant,” Koonin said. “That was one of the biggest data points for us is if this was a [modern] design, why hasn’t anybody opened an arena with all the premium stacked on one side? The truth was because it doesn’t work. The NBA talks about the center six sections in the lower bowl as your premium. That’s where the value is. The suite wall spread premium across just one side. You could be sitting behind the basket and it was called premium, but it wasn’t a premium seat and therefore you weren’t selling them.”
To eliminate the suite wall, a critical piece of the two-year renovation, officials removed five structural columns on the west side and hung a massive support truss stretching 150 feet along the sideline. Structural adjustments on the east side included removing three center sections of regular seats and creating a mezzanine level with bars looking out over the main concourse for the younger crowd. All told, the reconstruction efforts freed up roughly 100,000 square feet of space for new premium options, plus general seating and a true upper deck concourse, all within a 680,000-square-foot arena.
“When we first started looking at the building, it immediately became a process of deletion and simplification,” said Ryan Gedney, vice president and senior project designer for HOK, the architect of record for State Farm Arena. “It was about trying to create a new canvas and delicately and intentionally insert new experiences … strip away to the bones and build back in a way that’s smart and suited to today’s trends.”
To improve acoustics, a thick wood ceiling now covers the west side over where the suite wall once stood and wood walls frame both ends. To further accommodate concert tours in a strong market for live entertainment, the arena’s rigging structure was upgraded to handle 200,000 pounds, with new star dressing rooms and improvements to the artist catering operation. The Hawks consulted with Bon Jovi’s sound engineers as part of resolving the acoustics issue.
“We’re a basketball-first building, but we’re a very close second on concerts,” said Thad Sheely, the Hawks’ chief operating officer. “The wood ceiling visually reminds you of more of a concert hall than an arena. The rigging is getting more sophisticated and heavier, and we want to make sure every show wants to play this building. They have in the past, and we know they will again after being closed two summers for construction.”
Apart from the suite wall, the old layout for the arena, which is attached to CNN Center — home to the cable network as well as a food court — had walls blocking 360-degree access around the main concourse. That’s no longer the case after the renovation. Fans can now walk the concourses with no obstacles in their path, which improves flow and encourages them to explore multiple destinations.
“Everyone has their pinhole through which they view the project,” Sheely said. “The old Philips Arena was very much a time capsule after it was initially designed. This project is a reinvention. Other than getting a new name on the building, which was huge for us, we didn’t change the exterior or the footprint.”
Because the exterior stayed the same, the arena renovation remained the best-kept secret in a city whose attention has been focused on new stadiums for the Braves and Falcons, said Brett Stefansson, State Farm Arena’s executive vice president and general manager.
This new club is steps away from a bar beside the court. (Courtesy Atlanta Hawks)
“We were blessed to have this odd-shaped building, and it forced us to get creative and it spawned an amazing product that will pay dividends for the fans,” Stefansson said. “(Hawks principal owner) Tony Ressler took a tour and we were standing in one spot and Tony said, ‘Remind me again where we are?’ It was unrecognizable what we’ve done to this place. People will be amazed what we’ve been able to get for our money.”
The suite wall tops the list. It’s been replaced with premium offerings unique to the NBA, notably the Topgolf Swing Suites, two group spaces in the corners equipped with golf simulators. The suites have given the Hawks a spike in corporate business on nonevent days and extended the stays for bookings for games and concerts, team officials said.
Overall, the arena redevelopment theme ties to innovation, inclusion and authenticity, with a nod to the Beltline, an old railroad line that’s been converted to a 22-mile walking and bike trail connecting many of Atlanta’s neighborhoods.
The Veranda Suites, situated midlevel on the west side, have 12 to 16 seats and carry a Southern hospitality theme, featuring shutters, ceiling fans, white marble finishes and brass fixtures. It’s a fresh look in the big leagues for what comes closest to the traditional suite model.
Most of the 20 suites sold out at a cost of $320,000 to $360,000 a year, said Michael Drake, the Hawks’ senior vice president of corporate partnerships and premium sales. The biggest Veranda unit comes with 27 seats and sold for $485,000 a year, Drake said. The all-inclusive pricing covers food and drink and access to most events, including Hawks games and concerts.
“We’ve had a tremendously successful push of selling premium tickets to businesses for hospitality,” Koonin said. “We went from over 100 traditional suites to 20 [Verandas]. That’s what I’m using the word radical to describe.”
One level above, the 20 Loft Suites, inspired by a similar product at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, come with eight to 12 seats. They’re all-inclusive and designed for networking with one big communal dining space behind them, costing $250,000 to $280,000 a year. Four remained for sale a few days before the Hawks’ Oct. 24 regular-season home opener.
Apart from the suites, the club seat experience now ties into three-event level lounges designed by local restaurant architects ai3 and Smith Hanes. Previously, there were virtually no club spaces where fans could eat and drink. It was a glaring omission considering the arena business has evolved to a great night out.
“Our clubs are unique in sports because they look like they belong on the best street in the city,” he said.
Atlanta Social comes with its own hospitality space. (Courtesy Atlanta Hawks)
The arena’s east side, which had no premium seats before the upgrades, features Atlanta Social, a mix of couches, terrace tables and lounge suites in the seating bowl on the new mezzanine level. The design was influenced by Las Vegas-style cabanas plus Club Purple at U.S. Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings.
The three products are sold in groups of two and four seats, and most of the 600-seat inventory is sold, including all 27 terrace tables and nine of the 10 cabanas, Drake said. Those patrons get exclusive access to large bars and lookouts on two bridges overlooking the main concourse within the 18,000-square-foot space that was the old Philips Experience zone.
The arena renovation drew some star power from two high-profile Atlanta recording artists, culled from Koonin’s vast network of local connections. The centerpiece of the main concourse is Zac Brown’s Social Club, a hangout branded after the country rock artist and accessible to all patrons. The 10,000-square-foot space sits in the north end, decorated with multiple chandeliers hanging above the main bar and dark stone countertops adorning the two concession stands.
Brown created Southern Ground, a lifestyle brand devoted to his passions for food, art, music and merchandise, and it now extends to State Farm Arena through the social club. Rusty Hamlin, Brown’s tour chef, developed a menu showcasing items such as his signature fried shrimp po’boy sandwich. Hamlin works in tandem with Levy, the arena’s concessionaire.
The view from the chair at Killer Mike's SWAG Shop. (Don Muret / Staff)
Killer Mike’s SWAG Shop near Gate 2 also speaks to local culture. Run by rapper Michael Render, the barbershop overlooks the basketball court, allowing customers to get a haircut and a shave while watching the Hawks game. It’s a spinoff of Killer Mike’s original location near the Atlanta airport. The idea came from Chuck Reece, editor-in-chief of The Bitter Southerner, an online newsletter, during a brainstorming session the Hawks organized among local food writers for blending Atlanta brands into the facility.
“We won’t serve food where we cut hair, but we loved the idea,” Sheely said. “It was a ‘mic drop’ moment.”
Said Koonin: “The homage to the Atlanta barbershop scene has been around forever … but it’s not about the business of cutting hair. It’s about signifying to the fans that we understand the market and that we’re part of the fabric of the community.”
Both artists worked directly with HOK to design their respective spaces, and the result is a “warm living room for Atlanta,” Gedney said.
The Hawks considered eliminating the center-hung video board in favor of four corner board towers, an idea proposed by HOK, whose architects designed corner boards at MetLife Stadium and Hard Rock Stadium. In an arena setting, the Hawks went with both concepts. Combined, all those screens provide more than 12,000 square feet of video space in the seating bowl.
Getting rid of the center-hung was “really interesting and engaging,” Koonin said, “but then we realized one of the reasons we had to redo the building is because there was such a radical design that wasn’t congruent with the consumer. We kept the four video towers.”
Those towers have standing room platforms and are branded for some of the team’s biggest sponsors, including Kia, Verizon and Budweiser. Prismview, a division of Samsung, produced the videoboards. As of late October, a fourth tower sponsor had not been signed.
“We have a next-generation building,” Koonin said. “It’s about sociability, amenities and ease of circulation. We ripped out most of the portals in the building. You can watch the game from anywhere.”