Friday, October 29, 2010

October 29

Ice Ice Baby! What a horrible song but it does sum up what’s been happening in the arena this week. If you like us on Facebook you’ve probably seen the photos as we transform the arena floor from its’ traditional concrete form to a regulation-sized hockey rink. As I type this our crews have applied the base coat, painted the surface white, and laid out the hockey lines. The final step is to cover the painted surfaces with more water to build the ice thickness to ½ to ¾ inches.

All of this preparation is in anticipation of our first hockey games of the season next November 5 & 6 featuring Mississippi State University and Auburn University. Tickets for those games are on sale now here . We’ll also be offering public ice skating over the next few months. Weekend sessions in November will be Nov. 6, 7, 13, and 14. Specific times are available on our website . New this year will be a ten session discount pass available for $50 (a savings of $20!). Individual rates will remain the same as 2009 - $7 per skater per session. Feel free to contact us to schedule private parties as well based on availability.


May all of your trick or treating go well this weekend…

Until next time,

Todd

Friday, October 22, 2010

October 22

Last weekend’s event featured lots of bikers. This weekend: a women’s religious conference. Can you say diversity? We’ll hosting another returning event this Friday and Saturday as the Extraordinary Women event makes its second visit to the arena. Onsite registration will be available beginning at 6PM Friday for anyone wishing to attend. Featured guests include Stormie Omartian, Chonda Pierce, NewSong, and MercyMe.

This week’s blog details how sometimes the best laid plans can go awry. Last Friday we placed tickets on sale for a December 11 appearance by WWE. Advance sales were very strong and we anticipated a great turnout for the event. On Tuesday we got a call from the good folks at WWE stating that there might be a problem with our scheduled show, as they had a performance for returning U.S. troops and their families in Fort Hood, Texas, that was being rescheduled, possibly to the same day as our event. Not exactly what we wanted to hear!

Late Wednesday afternoon we were notified that our December show was being rescheduled for Sunday, May 8. Again, not what we wanted to hear but we’re not going to complain about a benefit performance for our service men and women. They certainly deserve it as a small token of appreciation for the sacrifices they make on behalf of our country. So, anyone who has already purchased tickets for the December 11 WWE event in the arena can use the tickets for the Sunday, May 8 appearance. If for some reason you have tickets but are unable to attend on the new date you may return your tickets to the point of purchase for a refund. Tickets for the new show date are on sale here.

Other events slated for the arena in the coming months include MSU vs. Auburn hockey on November 5 and 6, public skating November 6, 7, and 13, Rodney Carrington November 11, Memphis vs. LSU basketball on November 21, Disney on Ice Princess Classics November 24-28, and the first performance in our Broadway series (Grease) November 30. What a month!

Until next time,

Todd

Friday, October 15, 2010

October 15

If you notice a few more motorcycles around town this weekend, odds are they’re here with the Gold Wing Road Riders Association. This is our second year to host this group and we’re quite happy to see them again. If you get a chance, be sure to make these visitors feel welcome in the All-American City.

We’ve just completed our fiscal year and I wanted to share a bit of good news with you. For the year we hosted 240,512 guests, which is the second largest total in our 17 year history (256,549 is the record set back in 1999). To put that in perspective, our average annual attendance is 171,388. This marks the third consecutive year that we have topped the 200,000 mark, a feat that has only been accomplished once before (1995-97). We’ve never had four consecutive years of 200,000+ attendance but that is our goal for this year. Thanks so much for your support!

This weeks’ show announcement was the return of WWE on Saturday, December 11. Tickets go on sale today (October 15) at 10AM and are available here. Look for more event announcements soon.

Have a great week!

Until next time,

Todd

Friday, October 8, 2010

October 8

I’m back from a two day trip to Nashville where I was attending the annual IEBA (International Entertainment Buyers Association) meeting. While I was there I had the chance to meet with the agents and promoters who are responsible for bringing many of our shows to the venue. Believe it or not, country music wasn’t the only genre that was discussed. The meetings went well and we should have a few more shows to announce soon. Stay tuned…

Speaking of shows, the Chris Tomlin Christmas tour will be making a stop in Tupelo on December 17. This will be the final date of his 2010 tour and tickets go on sale Friday, October 8, at 10AM here . Can you believe that Christmas is only a little more than two months away? Where has this year gone?

To get prepared for the Christmas season, we’re doing some maintenance on the equipment for our ice skating rink. We’ll have a couple of public ice skating sessions in early November but will turn the arena into ice skating central during the Christmas break. Expect daily sessions December 20 through January 2 with a few other dates scattered in December and January.