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March 26, 2012
Old Orlando arena dies at age 23 of being insufficiently subsidized
Field of Schemes
by Neil deMause
With the full Atlantic Yards build-out possibly taking as long as 25 years (and that's the official worst-case scenario), it's not a long shot that we might one day witness the controlled implosion of the Barclays Center before the rest of the Atlantic Yards project is even done.
The Orlando Magic's old Amway Arena was demolished yesterday, if "old" is the right word for it: The arena was just 23 years old, and had been targeted for replacement by its NBA tenants pretty much since it opened.
The Magic's owner (Amway kingpin Rich DeVos) complained from the start that the building was economically obsolete, because it lacked the kind of luxury and club seats that other, newer arenas built in the 1990s had.
...In other words, the old arena wasn't making enough money for DeVos' tastes, and spending $75 million on renovations would only make profits go down. But an entirely new arena that cost six times that amount was just what the doctor ordered, so long as taxpayers paid most of the tab and the Magic kept all the revenues.
If you want the template for stadium and arena development over the last 20 years, there it is in a nutshell.
Video by TwinTurboUCF via YouTube
Posted by eric at March 26, 2012 5:51 PM