Lightning Owner Jeff Vinik "has no immediate plans to ask Hillsborough County to reimburse him, not even in part, for the $40 million renovation to the St. Pete Times Forum he is financing," according to Damian Cristodero of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES. Fans during last night's home opener against the Panthers "got their first full-scale look at the cleaned-up Times Forum that has, among other things, new seats, fresh paint, a gut-shaking organ and not-yet-operational Tesla coils that are supposed to shoot 20 feet of lightning to celebrate goals." Vinik said the renovation has "blown away my expectations." Vinik, who owns the lease to operate the arena, added, "This building has great bones. But it needed money put into it, and it needed to have a soul and it needed to be such that everybody who is in this place knew it was in Tampa Bay, so putting money into the facility is the right thing to do and right for the community and for all our constituencies." As part of the renovation, the building is "losing two 300-level sections for a party space and organ and eight suites to create sight lines from the lower concourse into the arena bowl." That "dropped the Times Forum capacity to 19,204 from 19,758" (ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, 10/18).
TO-DO LIST: In Raleigh, Jason deBruyn reports a new plan "highlights 108 arena projects" for RBC Center at a total cost of $108M in the coming years. Centennial Authority Exec Dir Jeff Merritt, whose organization oversees the arena, said that "many of the projects focus on the guts of the building." Though a scoreboard upgrade "is budgeted, it's not expected to happen any time soon, given that the one in use is just two years old." Two-thirds, or $71M, of the $108M in projects is "allocated for work in a category called architecture or interior." These are "maintenance issues or structural items that must be addressed to keep the building operational" (TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/14 issue).
