Facility Notes
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Fenway Park May Host The NHL's Annual
Outdoor Game On January 1, 2010 |
In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont reported Bruins Exec VP Charlie Jacobs and NHL COO John Collins met Thursday at NHL HQs, and Jacobs "came away with added hope that the league will stage its annual outdoor game" in Boston on January 1, 2010. The site "could be Fenway Park, but it also could be Gillette Stadium." Jacobs said, "There's an upside to both venues. Fenway, of course, has the intimacy of the park itself, while Gillette would be without some of the seating restraints of a baseball park." Gillette, "with nearly double the capacity of Fenway, would stand to generate at least double the revenue." However, "would upward of 70,000 puck lovers make the journey to Foxborough to see a hockey game, no matter how rare the experience?" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/22).
SAVE THE DATE: Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission Exec Dir Bill Lester said that Dallas-based HKS Architects on April 16 "will unveil its design for a redeveloped Metrodome, including how it could be used for a new stadium, how much it would cost and how long construction would take." Lester: "You'll be able to see how it would handle basketball, how it would handle these other sports." Lester said that "it takes 2 1/2 weeks to put up and take down the stands for the basketball setup now being used" to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 3/22).
JOB SECURITY: In Vancouver, Derrick Penner reported the "750 unionized concession workers at GM Place secured job guarantees during the 2010 Olympics along with substantial wage increases and other gains in a tentative contract settlement reached with Aramark Sports and Entertainment." Union spokesperson Michelle Travis said that the parties "reached the tentative deal early Friday morning; retroactive to Dec. 11, it will last for a three-year term" (VANCOUVER SUN, 3/21).
ICE BREAKERS: In Cleveland, Dennis Manoloff reported the AHL San Antonio Rampage-Lake Erie Monsters game Saturday night at Quicken Loans Arena was "suspended after the ice became unplayable between the first and second periods." The "culprit appears to be pink paint that has been applied under the surface as part of breast-cancer awareness night." Workers "could only apply the paint after the Stars On Ice Show concluded Friday night" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 3/22).
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