By Brandon Brown for Phoenix Business Journal
The Phoenix Suns on Thursday revealed the first images of how Talking Stick Resort Arena will look like after it gets an extensive facelift, at the price of $230M, over the next two years.
The renderings focus on the upgrades for the fans, but behind all the glitz and glam, extensive work will be done on the plumbing, roof and electric systems.
Okland Construction is serving as the general contractor and the architecture firm is HOK.
Fans will have a whole new experience when entering the arena. The Casino Arizona Pavilion will be completely redesigned and will include 8.5KSF of LED screens and a centerpiece sports bar with views directly into the inner bowl.
The other eye-catching element will be a 3,550-square-foot center-hung scoreboard. It will be six times larger than the current video board and improve image resolution by 600 percent.
In addition, the arena will have new communal bars throughout.
While many of the bars will be accessed by all fans, a number of amenity upgrades will be included at the club and suite levels for the higher-paying customers.
The Suns have already started building a $50M practice facility in Phoenix’s Arcadia neighborhood. Once the team moves its practices and training to that new building, it will be able to convert 40KSF of space to what the team says will be premium fan experiences.
The revamped arena will have eleven different club and suite experiences, including 55 total suites, eight theatre boxes, new VIP clubs and an exclusive two-story club called 1968. There will also be three new bunker suites that will be situated adjacent to the main court and the players will pass right by these suites as they run out onto the floor before each game.
Construction is going to start in January, starting with behind-the-scenes infrastructure work and on building a new 15KSF kitchen.
Read more at Phoenix Business Journal.