New Orleans Arena

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="002285a1erlcgo.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>The World of Sports Venues</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The World of Sports Venues"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="NBA.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="NBA"><U><B>Back to NBA</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="001d2c00dkelyh.gif"> <div> <A HREF="http://www.nba.com/hornets/" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.nba.com/hornets/"><U><IMG SRC="Hornets.gif" border=0 width="95" height="95" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <div> Seating Chart</div> <div> Photo 1</div> <div> Photo 2</div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>New Orleans Arena</I></div> <div> Address- 1501 Girod Street</div> <div>                   New Orleans, LA  70113</div> <bR> <div> Team- New Orleans Hornets</div> <bR> <div> Year Opened- 1999</div> <div> 1st Season in Arena- 2002</div> <bR> <div> Capacity: Basketball- 18,500</div> <bR> <div> It's still looking for a company that will pay big bucks to have its name attached to the building, but the recently opened New Orleans Arena has had no trouble finding paying customers.</div> <bR> <div> In the three months after it opened with a New Orleans Brass hockey game Oct. 29, more than 303,000 spectators have passed through the arena's turnstiles at 40 events, putting attendance well ahead of projections. Before the building opened, officials had forecast a turnout of 677,000 at 124 events during the first year.</div> <bR> <div> "We're very pleased, needless to say, and hope to build on this good start," said Doug Thornton, general manager of the arena and the Superdome. Both the Brass and the Tulane University basketball team have attracted significantly larger crowds at the arena than at their previous homes, and two major concerts -- the Backstreet Boys and Shania Twain -- were sold out.</div> <bR> <div> The arena, just across Girod Street from the Superdome, seats between 17,200 and 17,800 for concerts, hockey and basketball, with another 1,000 seats available for boxing and wrestling matches.</div> <bR> <div> During its first three months, the arena was host to 22 Brass games, five Tulane basketball games, a Sugar Bowl basketball double-header, six concerts and six other entertainment events, including wrestling and "Champions on Ice."</div> <bR> <div> The Brass, the building's only full-time tenant, has averaged more than 6,300 fans per game, including more than 7,200 at seven dates in January, after the Saints season ended. The two largest crowds were 12,247 for the Oct. 29 opening game against the Baton Rouge Kingfish and 10,639 on Jan. 22</div> <div> for a contest with the Jackson Bandits.</div> <bR> <div> During the 1998-99 season, the Brass averaged 3,900 fans a game at the Municipal Auditorium.</div> <div> Brass marketing director Alan Raphael attributed part of the increased attendance to a "team that is more competitive this year," but he said the change in venue "has certainly helped. People are used to going to the Superdome for games and feel quite safe there, so why not experience the same thing at the new arena?"</div> <div> Tulane's five games at the arena, including a preseason NIT match against Fordham, have averaged more than 4,800 fans, arena spokesman Bill Curl said.</div> <bR> <div> Tulane is playing only six of its 17 home games this season at the arena. The rest are in Fogelman Arena, a campus facility that seats about 3,200, although crowds usually have been much smaller than in recent years. By the time the arena opened, all of its 44 available luxury suites and 1,400 upgraded club seats had been sold out on two- or three-year contracts, and there now are waiting lists for both, Curl said.</div> <bR> <div> Besides the Backstreet Boys and Twain, concerts during the arena's first three months headlined acts such as Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffett and ZZ Top. After the Backstreet Boys' Nov. 20 arena concert sold out in less than 20 minutes, their managers booked a Feb. 26 return visit in the much larger Superdome.</div> <bR> <div> Upcoming concerts in the arena include Korn, Feb. 21; Britney Spears, April 4; and Bruce Springsteen, April 19.</div> <div> Curl said the Backstreet Boys, Twain and Spears ranked 1, 2 and 3 among 1999 touring concert acts, determined by gross sales. He said they are the kinds of acts that might have skipped New Orleans until the opening of the arena, which gives the city a concert venue midway in size between the giant Superdome and the 10,000-seat University of New Orleans Lakefront Arena. But three other acts on the list of 1999's top 10 touring performers played at the Superdome: 'N Sync, the Dixie Chicks and Cher.</div> <bR> <div> Other scheduled arena events include 13 more Brass regular season games, plus likely playoff games; a Tulane game against Memphis, Feb. 9; the Harlem Globetrotters, today; WWF wrestling, Sunday; a Xavier-Dillard cross-town basketball game, Feb. 26; and "Target Stars on Ice," March 18.</div> <bR> <div> Despite the building's success, officials with SMG, which manages the arena and the Dome for the state, have yet to line up a naming-rights sponsor. Thornton said in October that he hoped to have a deal concluded by the end of 1999. But negotiations have yet to produce an agreement on a deal; four months ago, Thornton said he hoped a deal could bring in $650,000 a year in cash or in-kind services or products.</div> <bR> <div> Thornton said opening the arena has not cut into business at the Dome. In fact, during the arena's first three months, major events at the Dome increased from 18 during the same period a year earlier to 23, and performance days from 27 to 38.</div> <bR> <div> On 15 occasions, events were held in both buildings on the same day. "We've proven the two buildings can coexist," Thornton said. The Dome set attendance records during the same period for the Nokia Sugar Bowl (79,280, plus another 5,000 watching on large screens in the arena) and the Gatorade Superdome Classic-LHSAA Football Championships (61,900 for two days).</div> <bR> <div> The pool of part-time event workers on SMG's rolls increased from 800 to 1,000, Curl said, not counting those who work for the two buildings' food and beverage concessionaire, Volume Services. SMG draws workers from the pool to staff events at the two buildings, Curl said.</div> <bR> <div> Volume Services reported per-capita spending on food and beverages of $8.43 at arena events, about the same as for Saints games and other Dome events</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>