It’s Showtime 18 Months And $62.2 Million Later, Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Has Become A Reality

It dominates the brick-warehouse neighborhood on the north bank of the Spokane River. It also blends in as the promised extension of Riverfront Park.

The people who planned and built it see it as a realization of a visionary plan, the right building in the right place at the right time.

It has yet to open but praise is already gathering for Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena.

The newest member of the Spokane Public Facilities District board, Roger Paine, put it simply.

“I’m in it almost every day,” Paine said, “and every day I come away impressed. This is nothing like the Boone Street Barn.”

The Barn - the Spokane Coliseum - is dead and buried, its space consigned to parking for the Arena, which opens for public inspection Sunday (Sept. 10).

And gone with the Barn is Spokane’s recent history as an entertainment backwater. Here, finally, is the $60 million facility of brick and soaring windows that is most often referred to by its creators as The Building.

After being voted down once in ‘85 and twice in ‘86, the building finally stands ready for a new era of sports and entertainment.

“I’m fond of an old Eddie Cantor quote - it takes 20 years to make an overnight success,” said Jim Ray, chairman of the board of the Public Facilities District, the five-member group that carried the Arena from concept to reality. “I feel that way about this building. I always knew it would happen. It was just a question of how long it was going to take.”

Long enough to get it right.

“I don’t think there’s any question that this is the right building for Spokane,” Arena general manager Kevin Twohig said. “We got the building program perfect, because we had so many tries at it. We’re going to see a lot of special entertainment, the kind of thing that just didn’t play the Coliseum very well.”

Some weren’t playing the Coliseum at all.

Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus, to name one, refused to appear in the Coliseum. The big top is back this month.

Concerts like Boyz II Men, scheduled for Sept. 24, and sports events like the United States Olympic wrestling trials, June 7-8, would not have booked the Coliseum. “We have a great lineup,” Twohig said of the 142 event-nights booked in the Arena. Huge expectations are not out of line. If you build it, Elton John will come.

“Elton John will be here,” Twohig said. “Not in November but he’ll be here.”

Other shows that never happened in the Coliseum are in sight.

Washington State University and the Arena have landed the 1997 NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament Final Four.

A bid will go out for an NCAA men’s basketball subregional that would bring four opening-round games and two second-round games to Spokane.

WSU officials will bid for a 1999 sub-regional for Spokane, realizing that it’s more likely to land one in 2000 or 2001, Twohig said.

The Western Hockey League Spokane Chiefs will bid for the 1997 WHL all-star game and the 1998 Memorial Cup, major junior hockey’s championship tournament.

The inaugural sports event brings back former Spokane Chiefs Ray Whitney and Pat Falloon with the National Hockey League San Jose Sharks. They’ll meet the Vancouver Canucks on Sept. 17 before a sellout crowd.

The entertainment promise of the building “is something people in Spokane have never had,” said Chiefs owner Bobby Brett, the Arena’s prime tenant.

The Western Hockey League team will play an annual minimum of 36 dates. With a successful playoff run the Chiefs would be in the Arena from September to May.

After more than 40 years in the decaying Coliseum, it will take that long for the novelty of a new building to wear off.

The Arena will seat 12,000 for basketball and 10,000 for hockey. Capacity for a concert from the end stage is 11,500. A center-stage event will hold more than 12,000.

Fans - Twohig and his staff officially refer to them as guests - will see and hear more of every event.

Comfortable seats include plastic cupholders bolted to each - at a total cost of $35,000 - that should cut down on beverage spills.

Viewing is unobstructed. “To me the sight lines are perfect for hockey,” Brett said.

“We have state of the art inside the building,” said PFD board member Carl Lind. “The scoreboard, the lighting and the replay are the latest in technology.”

The video screen, for example, on concert nights will come out on tracks and drop down behind the stage.

“That’s unique,” Ray said. “The reason for it is, so many concerts want their own screen. They haul in this big thing that you rent.

“All we have to do is drop it in and they’ve got it. It cuts down on set-up time, which makes them happy. The happier you make them, the more they’ll want to come back.”

Wrapped around the image on the replay wall is the score and time left in the period.

Two cameras will cover hockey games. The system also has four in-house channels that will beam greetings and information to fans at each entrance.

Arena planners say they learned from mistakes that were built in elsewhere.

“We’re in a lucky time in that we’re following a lot of new arena construction nationwide,” Twohig said. “One thing I heard over and over again was that local architects really don’t know how to build arenas. If you let this thing go totally local you’re going to need awfully good consultants.

“So the (Public Facilities District) board made a good decision to hire Ellerbe Becket out of Kansas City to do the basic design and to assist in all of the initial phases of the Arena - where it sits on the site, where the columns are set, what columns are used, all the basic structural details. They’ve done 50 or more arenas.

“When I walk through this building, then walk through Portland’s building or Boston’s building or Phoenix’s building, there are certain elements I recognize as Ellerbe Becket designs. There was tremendous economy in using them in the structure and structural elements of the building.

“Once that was in place the whole building was turned over to (Spokane architects) ALSC. ALSC was very active in all of this, don’t get get me wrong, but by then it was all pretty much the look and feel and how things work.

“That’s why the building fits the neighborhood so well. The local architect said we’ve got to have a lot of brick on the building. They (ALSC) are really responsible for everything that people notice. Everything people will see they did here in Spokane. It’s been (architect) Jeff Warner’s life for three years.”

Ray said, “One of the don’ts we picked up had to do with how you get trucks in and out - the importance of putting up and breaking down a show quickly. We visited a $110 million complex in the Southwest and watched the semis coming down a ramp. They spent 15-20 minutes backing around columns to get to the floor. It was poorly designed.

“We have a straight shot to that floor, on and off,” Ray said.

“The other don’t we picked up had to do with acoustics,” he added.

That’s don’t, as in don’t ignore the value of sound acoustical design.

Day One of the campaign that worked goes back to September 1989, Ray said, when the Public Facilities District was created.

A private economic development organization in Spokane, Momentum, was “singularly responsible” for getting the PFD off the ground, Ray said.

The concept evolved in the Washington Legislature.

“There were no guidelines for a public facilities district,” Ray said. “We had to create this thing from the direction the Legislature gave us. We started from scratch.

“They’ve changed the legislation so that now essentially every county in the state can have a public facilities district. I happen to think that’s an offshoot of our success.”

Once defined, the PFD went to work with $500,000 from the state and a board consisting of Lind, Ray, David Robinson, Jim Williams and Tanya Guenther. Guenther stepped down upon completion of her first term. The others - Ray and Robinson from the city, Williams and Lind representing Spokane County - remain on board. Paine is the hotel-motel industry’s representative.

“The seed money was critical,” Ray said. “We had to show people what it is we wanted to do. Unless you can afford an architect there’s no way to do it. We spent money on studies and preliminary architectural designs so that when we went to the public we could show them what they could get for their money.”

That’s when the bargaining got harder.

“There were so many hurdles,” Guenther remembers. “Is it too big? Too small? We had people fighting us on both sides of that one.

“Where should we put it? I’m sure there are people who still disagree with the site selection. These are some of the issues that kept us from having a new arena for so long. If you let it divide a community you have nothing.

“Someone has to step up, make a decision, put it somewhere and make it happen.

“We made our selection,” Guenther added. “Not to say it couldn’t have worked somewhere else, but you have to get past it and go on. That’s what makes this such a nice time for Spokane. People who weren’t sure they wanted it, weren’t sure they could support it, are going to love it.”

Voters were asked to say yes twice to a new building in 1990. They said yes once, approving a 2 percent increase in the hotel-motel tax but turning down added real-estate tax. A year later voters approved a one-tenth of 1 percent sales-tax increase and the PFD had its green light.

Spokane attorney Bill Hyslop was active in support of a new arena, co-chairing the 1985 drive.

“Lots of people over the years supported the Arena, personally and financially,” Hyslop said, “but I hope everybody appreciates the thousands of volunteer hours the five members of the PFD put in. They are truly responsible for this facility.”

Truly, but not solely. Names of all the forces at work at different stages of the project are too numerous to mention but board members and the Arena manager say project manager Jerry Schlatter was a good hire.

“They needed a hired gun, a strong-willed project manager. They had the vision but they couldn’t execute it, Twohig said. “Jerry has the experience in public projects and an understanding of what a contractor or architect has to do to get it done. He understands design and design change.”

Design changes, Twohig said, were at 3 percent (of the total budget).

“Our Ag Trade Center change order was 10 percent (of the whole budget),” he said. “This will be well under 5 percent. It’s an impressive use of resources.”

Although Ray says that each election failure, each delay, meant more was spent to get less, Robinson suggests that the timing today is right.

“In a sense I’m glad it failed in ‘86,” Robinson said. “Nobody really wanted it out at the Fairgrounds, except the county commissioners, and eventually we got the go-ahead for the sales tax that gave us more latitude. Sometimes defeat turns into victory, ultimately.”

Latitude, meaning money.

“I don’t think we could have accomplished what we did for less,” Robinson said, “and more money would not have accomplished a great deal more.”

The Arena, in other words, is tailored for the market.

When Paine came on the board in 1994, late in the game, he was impressed with the attention to detail.

“We spent an awful lot of money on inspection,” he said. “I’m overwhelmed by the inspection fees. Consequently, we have very high quality. I think you’ll find nothing slipshod.”

The price - originally $44.8 million - is $62.2 million, including the land purchase, Coliseum demolition and renovation of two nearby buildings.

Projections are that “We won’t have any problem paying off bonds prior to maturity,” Robinson said.

“We’re the right size for where we are today,” Twohig said. “I’m a supporter of a 12,000-seat building. It’s twice the size of the old building and there is a cost to every unused seat.

“Two years should tell us whether it’s big enough. If it’s not we have the flexibility to add 2,000 seats. That’s not going to be inexpensive but if we need a 14,000-seat building we don’t have to move the roof or the walls. We can do it and the basic building will stay intact.”

Bigger is not always better, Brett said.

“Tacoma wanted a building that would do everything and it (the Tacoma Dome) is good for nothing,” he said.

Ray says he’s proud of the board for winning the public trust.

“We promised the voters we’d start the facility with a $500,000 capital maintenance reserve fund,” he said, “which we will.

“Fifteen years from now you’ll have a nice chunk of money set aside that’ll take care of this building so it can serve a long and useful life.”

Call it a legacy.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (2 Color); Graphic: “Inside Spokane’s new Arena”

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story: 1. OPEN HOUSE Here’s your chance to see the Arena in showroom condition. An open house is scheduled for Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

2. ARENA REGULATIONS Here are some of the rules and regulations at the Arena: Smoking - Not allowed anywhere in the building. There is a “smoker’s court” outside, at the northwest corner. Outside food and beverages - Not permitted. Cameras, video cameras and recording equipment - Not allowed at concerts, as a general rule. However, this is up to the individual artist.