Athens arena ‘rocks’ on after delays

ATHENS’ VERY OWN: Akins Ford Arena’s primary tenant, the Athens Rock Lobsters, kicks off its home slate on Friday. The team’s logo is shown at center ice for a venue that seats about 6,000 for hockey. (Facebook)

B-52s theme for hockey, concert

After multiple construction delays, Akins Ford Arena opens this week, one year after it was targeted to debut in Athens, Georgia.

The Athens Rock Lobsters, a member of the Federal Prospects Hockey League and named after the B-52s’ most famous song, will be the first ticketed event on Friday. The quirky rock band itself, which formed in Athens in 1976 and still includes original members Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, performs on Saturday.

The initial events come 32 months after the project’s ceremonial groundbreaking in April 2022.

At that time, city officials said the 8,500-capacity arena would open in November 2023. But a complicated site situated on a steep hill in downtown Athens that sits over an old railroad line was made more difficult by an excess of what arena architect Don Dethlefs described as “gravestone granite,” which slowed construction down considerably for JE Dunn, the general contractor.

“It’s taken longer after they hit more granite than expected,” said Dethlefs, a principal with Perkins & Will and leader of the firm’s sports practice. “They did soil samples, but once they started digging, it was far worse than we thought.”

Last weekend, the arena, which doubled in cost to $150 million due to the delays, was supposed to open its doors for a pair of hockey games, but the project hit another snag after its fire prevention system was not approved, preventing the city from getting its certificate of occupancy.

The arena seats about 6,000 for hockey. The University of Georgia’s club hockey team is another tenant with six home games and a tournament scheduled. The new venue is part of the Classic Center complex, which extends to a convention center that opened in 1995, and a theater that opened one year later, playing host to Broadway productions.

Arena financing is tied to a special purpose sales tax, approved by local voters in 2020, with the balance supported in part by the sale of municipal bonds and revenue from the sale of naming rights and founding partners. The vision is for the arena to spur further mixed-use projects downtown, Dethlefs said.

Akins Ford, a local car dealer in business since 1966, paid $6 million for naming rights over 10 years. Coca-Cola and First American Bank and Trust are among the founding partners.

Apart from the delays, the good news is Athens now has a modern arena to book concerts in a town rich with musical talent. Apart from the B-52s, R.E.M., Widespread Panic, Drive-By Truckers and Pylon all got their start in a college town that’s home to the University of Georgia. The lobby walls inside the arena’s main entrance showcase a custom mural and a collection of music memorabilia recognizing recording artists that called the state of Georgia home.

Athens sits 220 miles northeast of Savannah, where Perkins & Will designed Enmarket Arena, which opened in February 2022. Similar to Savannah, Akins Ford Arena was developed for music with a focus on acoustical quality. Dethlefs said both arenas have “bass traps” in the roofline, a special acoustical treatment designed to capture and absorb low-frequency sound waves, reducing reverberation to provide higher quality sound in general.

In Savannah, the Eagles performed to a sold-out crowd of 8,000 at Enmarket Arena shortly after that arena opened. It was their first stop of the “Hotel California” reunion tour and they rehearsed for a week at the venue before hitting the road. Lead singer and drummer Don Henley told officials with Oak View Group, which runs Enmarket Arena, that it was the best-sounding building they had performed in their 50 years as a rock band.

“We’re hoping for the same thing in Athens,” Dethlefs said. “Live music was always one of the big aims of this building. For all of the bands in Athens, there’s not a whole lot of places (this size) to play in town. This is the next step.”

OVG is responsible for booking the arena and selling premium seats and sponsorships. The premium seat mix encompasses 16 suites, four mini-suites, 20 club box seats and 560 club seats.

The arena’s premium inventory is 90% sold, said Doug Higgons, a senior vice president with OVG360.

Pricing runs from a high of $85,000 annually for the suites with three, five and seven year terms, to a low of $1,750 a person for club seats with two, four and six year terms.

There’s a club lounge at center ice on the west side exclusive to premium seat patrons. The east side features a club open to the public. Both clubs face stage end.

Levy, which was already in place at the convention center, runs the arena’s food service. The arena’s kitchen is attached to the historic 130 Foundry building across the street, which was transformed into a restaurant bar and live music venue in 2005, and is part of the Hotel Abacus Athens.

“For a 6,000-seat building, we have a lot of amenities that’s helped them sell it,” Dethlefs said. “We expect it to be successful. It’s intimate. The worst seat in the house is closer than State Farm Arena in Atlanta, a much bigger building.”