The Wenatchee facility, which opened in October at 1300 Walla Walla Ave., is home to the Wenatchee Wild hockey club, which will take the ice in January. And while the dust settles on the Town Toyota Center transaction, two other arenas are currently under construction.
The 6,200-seat Allen Events Center at US Highway 75 and Stacey Road in Allen, TX; and the 5,800-seat Independence Events Center in Independence, MO, just east of Kansas City, broke ground during summer 2008. Both will be on line for the 2009-2010 hockey season.
According to Global Entertainment Corp. president Richard Kozuback, there will be more arenas to come, each going vertical at a cost of between $44 million and $55 million. "When we began the league in 1995, we went into existing facilities, but eventually ran out of facilities," comments Kozuback, who says he's finalizing papers on construction on another arena.
"We started this venture in building our own arenas, then putting our teams in the buildings," he adds. "We build it, offer all the business related to it, and find a major tenant."
He tells GlobeSt.com that likely areas for the arena require at least four acres for the building, then specs can vary from there. If a Global Entertainment arena were to be built in the middle of a cotton field, Kozuback says he likes to see an additional 12 to 14 acres available for parking.
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