Monroe Eyes New Arena

Officials in Monroe, La., have enlisted a Mississippi consulting firm to study whether the city’s dream of a building a replacement for the 45-year-old Civic Center holds water.

The city council inked a deal with M3A Architecture Nov. 27 to determine the feasibility of such a project, which the city says is a necessity.

The 7,600-capacity Civic Center has hosted everyone from Elvis Presley to Garth Brooks and still reportedly holds more than 400 events per year, but officials have complained the arena is losing big acts to larger venues such as the 14,000-capacity CenturyLink Center.

“That’s a large number of events at the complex, but we are losing out on a number of larger conventions and conferences and other events because of the size of our arena,” Monroe Mayor Jamie Mayo told the News Star.

M3A’s study will outline funding sources for the arena and scout possible locations for the development, the paper said.