The team is now without a home for next season, with rumors of a relocation to Houston, Texas.Īs a concert-first building, The RoFo could boost its profile and impact on surrounding businesses by assembling a diverse array of events to host. Usually, it’s the teams that decide to abandon a venue and not the other way around. In Glendale, Arizona, the city recently decided not to renew its annual lease with the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and instead renovate its 18,000-seat arena as an entertainment and live events building. Its 2022 events schedule features WWE and concerts by Elton John, Twenty One Pilots and others. The building also hosts the Big 12 Conference basketball tournament and other NCAA Division 1 games. Other than briefly hosting an Arena Football League team for two seasons, it’s been nearly all concert events. The first arena to venture down this route was the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, which opened in 2007. The focus on making The RoFo a concert-first building could be a growing trend. In looking ahead to arena events, Steve Collins, COO for OVG, was recently quoted in the Baltimore Business Journal as saying, “We want to be doing Drake and Lady Gaga and all that good stuff right after CIAA and start to get a return on our investment.” Climate Pledge Arena, formerly Key Arena, opened the same year as The RoFo. The arena also uses Amazon’s grab-and-go technology to enable customers to quickly shop and pay for items seamlessly without having to wait for a cashier. At a second OVG arena property, the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle and home to NHL expansion club The Kraken, it achieved carbon-neutrality with solar power and mechanisms in place to capture and recycle rainwater. For example, recently reported that OVG invested $2M in germ-killing air filtration systems at the UBS Arena which opened in New York in November and is home to the NHL’s Islanders. Based on other OVG properties, other improvements could center around sustainability and grab-and-go technology. Renderings of the renovated arena show improved concourses and new premium seating experiences. Early postseason exits can be costly, not just to the arena but the surrounding entertainment district. This is more likely in the months of April, May and June when arenas that are home to NBA and NHL teams have to keep their schedules more clear in the event that its teams advance in the playoffs. With the renovation and freedom of many more open dates to choose from, acts could opt to play The RoFo in addition to or even instead of DC. Until recently, major acts would naturally aim to book the much larger Capital One Arena in the much larger DC metro area. The RoFo Arena, it’s nickname and Twitter handle, will be back and potentially usher in a new era of arenas that serve as ultimate Live performance spaces instead of the traditional arena model of relying on anchor sports teams as tenants. Richmond’s arena is still technically standing, but it is fenced off, awaiting demolition, similar to RFK Stadium. 2018 after the Harlem Globetrotters played there. Baltimore will not be placed in the same category as Richmond, VA which saw its primary arena, the Richmond Coliseum (opened in 1972), shuttered since Dec. The renovation ensures that the historic arena, opened in 1962, one-time home to too many teams to count and concerts going back to The Beatles, will not be shuttered permanently. Thanks to a $150M renovation by Thirty Five Ventures, an affiliate of the Oak View Group (OVG) that includes Kevin Durant as one its investors, the arena will close following this February’s CIAA basketball tournament and re-open in time for the same event a year later. Baltimore’s historic arena will close, but only for one year.
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