As Milwaukee’s minor league hockey team nears the end of its first season back at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena in decades, team President Jon Greenberg says investing in an upgraded facility was well worth it.
The Milwaukee Admirals originally played at the historic downtown arena from around 1973 to around 1986, at which point they made the transition to the Bradley Center along with other local teams.
Now, the Admirals are back at the arena, which was recently renovated with a host of new features and upgraded fixtures.
“When we decided to come over, and they had been recruiting us for a couple years to make the switch, we realized at some point we were going to have to go, because the Bradley Center’s not going to exist anymore,” Greenberg said. “We engaged in negotiations, and as part of negotiations, we agreed to be partners in the renovation of the building.”
Of the $6.3 million put into the effort, the Wisconsin Center District threw in $4.3 million, while the other $2 million came from the Admirals and their owner, Harris Turer.
“We are happy that those things came together very quickly,” Greenberg said. “Together, we did about 15 months worth of work in about three months, so it was really a sprint from the middle of June until right around October 1st.”
WCD President Russ Staerkel gives the Admirals a lot of credit for the makeover.
“I want to make it clear, that we couldn’t have done that without the Admirals helping — Harris Turer, John Greenberg…” Staerkel said. “We’ve built brand-new locker rooms — I’m talking state-of-the-art locker rooms — and I’ve heard from some of the players on the Admirals that our locker rooms and our amenities in the Panther arena rival some in the NHL.”
Work was completed just in time for the beginning of the Admirals regular season, which started in mid-October and concludes April 15 of this year.
Renovations entailed replacing all 8,684 permanent seats, putting in new external digital signs and video monitors, and installing all-new LED lighting in the arena bowl, among other things. The new lights have programmable colors and effects, and are projected to save about $70,000 in annual energy savings.
But with all the new technology and comfortable additions, Greenberg says one improvement stands above all others.
“It’s funny — frankly, the most important one, I think, was the restroom upgrades,” Greenberg said. “We actually talked to one of our former players named Joe Piskula, his wife is an interior decorator. Harris Turer called and brought Lauren Piskula in, and the first thing she identified which really would make an impact was restrooms — and she was 100 percent correct.”
He says he hears more positive comments about the restrooms than anything else, adding the automatic features of the restrooms were particularly well-received.
“As Lauren said, if you make the women’s restrooms nice, and mom comes to the game and has a good experience, the rest of the family gets to come back,” Greenberg said. “So restrooms were a huge deal.”
In terms of financial impact, doubling the size of the facility’s retail merchandise store was “a huge win,” Greenberg says.
“We play 38 home games during the regular season, and knock on wood, hopefully lots of playoff games too,” he said. “Being able to come back for the first time in a long time has brought a lot of nostalgia back for people, and I think they’re having a good experience when they’re in the building, so it’s been a really positive thing so far.”
–By Alex Moe
WisBusiness.com
