Business View Magazine - June 2016 35
us from a so-so exhibit player to a much bigger regional
player – number two in the state of Indiana,” he adds.
“In 2000-02, we did a $34.5 million renovation of
the arena and we actually raised the roof – a 41-foot,
10-inch raise,” Brown continues. “It took our seating
capacity to nearly 13,000. We added 24 suites and
318 club seats – a total, top-to-bottom modernization
of the facility.” Other renovations continued. “We’ve
gone through every rest room in the arena and taken
them down to the studs,” he says. “LED lighting; touch-
less fixtures; Corian countertops; tile floors; stainless
steel toilet partitions. There’s one last expansion that
we just finished in December 2015. We added a con-
ference center with a gross square footage of 60,000
square feet. The big room is just over 27,000 square
feet with 18,000 square feet of pre-function lobby
space. It has a 29-foot ceiling, LED lighting, and very
high-tech theatrical lighting. It’s another type of facility
within our arsenal.”
