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February 22, 2021

Blue Arena at The Ranch Looks to Re-Open Facilities With New State Of the Art Sound System and NHL Quality Hockey Glass

BY COMPLETION, ROUGHLY $420,000 WILL BE INVESTED IN RENOVATIONS AT THE BUDWEISER EVENTS CENTER

(Loveland, CO) – The Blue Arena at The Ranch will be making three notable renovations before its re-open to the public this year. Continuing to re-invest in the arena, Larimer County has approved the renovations which will cost roughly $420,000 and will focus on the experience of guests, in-coming tours, and athletes. Completed mid-January, the improvements to the building will offer an enhanced, world-class, entertainment venue to the residents of Northern Colorado.

 

“We recognized an opportunity to revitalize the fan experience and made a decision to use the time we had to improve,” says District General Manager for Spectra Venue Management, Keller Taylor. “Optimizing safety and event quality will be our top priorities upon re-open.”  

 

The upgrades to the building will include a new state-of-the-art sound system, NHL quality acrylic hockey glass and a SoftCap rail system for the hockey dashers that will mitigate force at player impact. The full cost of the upgrades will be roughly $420,000; a breakdown of cost can be seen below:

 

2020 BEC Upgrades Cost Breakdown

 

  • L-Acoustics A10 Series Loudspeaker - $300,000
  • Athletica Sports Systems Acrylic Glass - $100,000
  • Crystaplex SoftCap rail system - $20,000

 

The new sound system is a product of L-Acoustics, an international leader in sound technologies, and will be installed by Brown Note Productions, a production company with specialization in concert and tour system integrations, based in Denver, CO. The system design will focus on even coverage over the audience listening area and will feature the addition of subwoofer arrays for added impact to the audio system. The previous sound system was installed during initial building construction over 16 years ago and had limits in listener range, quality, and capability.

 

The new acrylic ice hockey glass and SoftCap dasher rail system will both be supplied by Athletica Sport Systems, the only dasher board manufacturer recognized as the preferred rink equipment supplier to the NHL. The new ice hockey glass boasts better visibility, flexibility, and durability than the previously used glass, all of which will improve the fan and player experience.

 

Leading engineering firm Martin/Martin tested the acrylic glass system and deducted that, “from a spectator perspective, the deflection of the Athletica acrylic system towards spectators is approximately 8% - 33% less than existing acrylic systems with polycarbonate posts.”

 

The SoftCap® dasher rail system is designed to help reduce the likelihood and potential severity of injury to players, by providing a more forgiving surface at the caprail location of the boards, the most likely point of player contact, where injuries to the head, chin, mouth, and elbow can occur.

 

The Ranch Campus Director, Chris Ashby, speaks on the renovations by acknowledging that, “2020 wasn’t what any of us were anticipating, but by remaining productive, we’re ecstatic we’ll be able to re-open to our community with a higher caliber venue.”

 

Although the official date for re-open to fans is unclear, The Colorado Eagles will have their first home game this Wednesday, February 24th versus the Tucson Roadrunners. As more information on re-open becomes available, we’ll be posting to our social media channels and our website, TREventsComplex.com.

 

Check out our re-open hype video here.