Ice Arena on the Agenda

Todays front page story has put the arena issue on the public agenda. Where to put it and do we even want one?

Not being a sports fan I could care less. As posted below I lament the loss of Dave Hall Plaza and don't want to look at some big ugly box downtown, especially since I won't have a reason to go inside.

So my main concern is that the building look good, be a quality piece of architecture.

Dayton being Dayton, the city of cheapskates, people who want the arena downtown defend the option as being the cheaper solution. This establishes "cheap" as a criterea for the project, not quality design befitting a civic improvement. Historically this was not the case in Dayton as public buildings of substance and style, like the Courthouse and Memorial Hall, were erected here. Probably the nadir in Dayton public buildings was the Convention Center and associated Parking Garage, a truly repellant building esenemble.

Since these two buildings will be on two sides of the proposed arena maybe it isn't that big a deal to add a third dog to the other two.

Comparable Arena Costs:

We've seen the cost comparisons a previous post New data requires some revisions, and one can see the Dayton proposal is the lowest compared to similar arenas. It's interesting the Austin Road proposal estimate is more in line with the Toledo arena, which is under construction. The Bloomington arena comes closest in cost per seat (though these are 2005 prices), so it might be worthwhile to see what it looks like.

Dayton Dave Hall Plaza: $30M, 5700 seats
$5.3K/seat

Dayton Austin Road: $60M to $100M, 7,000 seats,
$8.6K to $14.3K/seat

Toledo: $105M, 8,000 seats
$13.2K/seat

Bowling Green, OH : $36M, 5000 seats
$7.2K/seat

Plus two other arenas:

Youngstown: $42M, 5,700 seats
$7.4K/seat

Bloomington, IL: $37M, 6600 seats (2005 construction)
$5.6K/seat