New Arena for Bangor, ME

The thought of Bangor getting a new arena before we do makes me want to vomit
on my keyboard. That is all.
 
Having been to both the Civic Center and Bangor's Civic Center, i can safely say both are in dire need of replacement. Portland's doesn't fit the area well at all, and feels like a small concrete box, but Bangor's is worse. It's awful. it's understandably small, but those wooden seats and weird "V" shape give it a horrible layout. The place is a joke. Good for Bangor, hopefully Portland will get the same treatment soon.
 
Good for Bangor. As a University of Maine (THE University of Maine, not USM) student for 2 years (between 2005 and 2007) I recall Bangor being a very depressing place. They need a lot more than a new civic center, but they have to start somewhere. I assume that most concerts and events that come to the area will still go to the university though, which has their own area and a very nice auditorium. And a lot of college students with extra money.
 
In today's Bangor Daily News www.bangordailynews.com there is an article and conceptual drawings for the proposed New 70 to 80 million dollar Bangor Civic Center / Convention Center. I will be surprised if the folks in Bangor spend that amount of money even though a good portion of the cost will come from money that the City gets from Hollywood Slots.
 
You can view the drawings and layouts at www.arenayes.com Click on; Explore The Facility. Impressive facility.
It's a shame that Portland can't build a NEW Arena. Renovating the Civic Center is not the way to go. I doubt the voters of Cumberland County pass the 28 million bond issue to renovate next November.
 
Looks smaller than the civic center, but it has more seats?
 
Patrick said:
Looks smaller than the civic center, but it has more seats?
Click to expand...
It has 5,800 fixed seats, retractable seating that seats another 1,000+ and an overall stated seating capacity of 8,050 (that would include floor seating for concerts).
 
I'm happy that the arena passed, but the arena seats 5,800......period. Arenas don't list seating capacities based on folding chairs on the floor or "possible" concert capacities based on certain configurations. I think that a complete oval with permanent seating all the way around would have been the way to go. $65 million for 5,800 seats seems a bit high.......7,500-8,000 seats with ice making capability from day 1 would have been the way to go. I think that they will regret going as small as they did.........but Maine never seems to have much of a vision for the future.
 
mainejeff said:
I'm happy that the arena passed, but the arena seats 5,800......period. Arenas don't list seating capacities based on folding chairs on the floor or "possible" concert capacities based on certain configurations. I think that a complete oval with permanent seating all the way around would have been the way to go. $65 million for 5,800 seats seems a bit high.......7,500-8,000 seats with ice making capability from day 1 would have been the way to go. I think that they will regret going as small as they did.........but Maine never seems to have much of a vision for the future.
Click to expand...
Without a full time hockey tenant (AHL or QMJHL) the ice would be far to expensive and wouldn't be used enough to pay for itself. It is very doubtful that the Greater Bangor area could support either an AHL team or a Quebec Major team. Also, UMaine has very little reason to play at a new Arena in Bangor when they already have the Alfond that has similar seating capacity. Why would UMaine pay substantial $$ to play at the Bangor Arena. Financially it would make no sense. So without a full time hockey tenant, it is doubtful that you will see them put in ice making anytime in the near future.
I agree as far as the full time seating capacity is concerned. I would have liked to have seen at least 7,000.
 
Here's an updated picture of the progress that has been made on this facility:

bangorsteel2.jpg
 
^Looking good! The Cianbro webcam for the project is here. I've always enjoyed keeping up with the construction of buildings, especially sports areas. Is anyone on this forum in Bangor? We could use a correspondent in Maine's 3rd largest city (Lewiston is #2).
 
Well.......the Cross Insurance Center is complete and the Bangor Auditorium is gone (not in the pic below though).........

981232_459629647457254_2081044891_o.jpg


977836_462707603816125_924151529_o.jpg


922801_10151487267863387_1880263371_n.jpg


On a side note, it was recently announced that Ocean Properties will construct a new 130 room hotel across from the CIS (behind the Irving station for those of you familiar with the area). The City of Bangor is selling the 3+ acre parcel for $585K. Surprisingly, they are not opting to keep the property which is currently a sizable and fairly new paved parking lot. This will in effect make the new parking being developed on the footprint of the Bangor Auditorium.....replacement parking rather than additional parking. I guess that the additional revenue/tax dollars were more important to the city.

Additionally, this hotel development replaces what would have been built on the site of the Bangor Daily News building........poor BDN, they were ever so close to dumping their white elephant before the deal fell through.

The 2 sites offer positives and negatives:

Current site:

- closer/better access to the CIS and Bass Park grounds.
- larger parcel
- higher elevation

- located behind gas station
- not on Main Street

BDN site:

- on Main Street

- smaller parcel
- located "behind" CIS
 
This is completely unrelated to the new arena but related to Bangor - I attended a concert at the new Darling's Waterfront Pavillion last week. Nice venue. It's a giant sloped lawn that can fit up to 16,000 people. They've added more permanent structures and built a new more permanent stage. They still need to work on improving foot traffic flow inside the venue, but I feel like Maine finally has a legit outdoor amphitheater for summer concerts that can somewhat compete with the likes of Great Woods and Meadowbrook. Sure, I'd rather have it closer to Portland, but it might actually be better that it doesn't compete directly for the same people as Great Woods and Meadowbrook.

Also - Downtown Bangor seems to be coming into it's own. They need more taxis, though. We were stranded downtown for quite a while after the show with our hotel 3+ miles away.

Between the new arena, casino, amphitheater and hotel projects, I feel like Bangor is poised for a bit of a population boom (relatively speaking for Maine, of course). It has a lot going for it right now, and I wouldn't be surprised if it passes Lewiston as the 2nd largest city in the state in the next 10-15 years.
 
Thanks for the photos mainejeff. The inside of the arena is very attractive and I like the placement of the luxury boxes around the upper level. Reminds me of a smaller version of Lowell's arena. I agree with your earlier opinion that a complete oval configuration would had made more sense than the horseshoe and would have added another 1000 permanent seats to the capacity.

I also agree that Bangor is poised for modest population growth during the next decade. Might have a difficult time surpassing Lewiston for the number 2 slot if the twin cities get their way and merge into one municipality. That would give the new city close to 60,000 individuals which would be only 7000 behind Portland!
 
Yes, thanks for the photos, mainejeff! It looks really nice. I haven't been to Bangor in about 6 years, nice to hear Dr. Strangehat's report that the downtown area is doing well. It would be great to have some more Bangor people on this forum to keep us up to date with stuff.
 
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