In today's WALL STREET JOURNAL, John Helyar writes on
the "new wave of arenas ... aiming to restore a sense of
intimacy and to get rank-and-file fans back in the game by
giving them a better view." Helyar: "The Pacers may be the
boldest players in this movement, having broken ground on a
throwback arena designed to look like a high-school field
house." Yesterday in Atlanta, TBS announced plans for a new
arena "that will confine all suites to one side of the bowl
and thereby offer much better seats to the suiteless on the
other." In Toronto, the Maple Leafs "have ordered their
architect to create 'the Camden Yards of hockey.'" Janet
Marie Smith, the design chief behind Camden Yards, "has now
turned her attention to arenas, heading up the planning for
Atlanta's and consulting on Indiana's." Helyar writes that
the Indiana Fieldhouse "will ooze nostalgia" from the '20s,
with "metal seat-section signs printed with an old-style
font; vintage-looking advertising signs; a scoreboard with
an old-fashioned nondigital clock; even a section with
pullout bleachers" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/10).
