As the Pittsburgh Penguins' wound down their final regular season at Mellon Arena, I had the opportunity to tour the new Consol Energy Center. The new arena will be ready to host events in August and will be the home of the Penguins beginning with the 2010-11 NHL season.
A shot of the "glass side" of the Consol Energy Center, offering some great views from inside.
Coming through one of the three entrances on to what will soon be the ice surface.
The massive jumbotron and speaker clusters. The four main screens will each be 25'x15' and high-definition all the way. When the scoreboard is finished it will weight 70,000 pounds.
Workers installing the seats. The gold-backed seats are for looks, forming gold rings around the arena. Sure beats the orange and blue of Mellon Arena.
This is the Penguins' new oval-shaped locker room, much bigger than the one in Mellon. A new players' lounge, trainers' area, gym, equipment and shower rooms are all attached to this.
The hydro-therapy room, located in the trainers' area.
The main concourse, above the lower bowl. You can see the "open concourse" design of the arena here. The upper bowl also has an open concourse around it. This should make plenty of room for fans to move around, unlike the situation at Mellon, with it's one, narrow concourse.
The new Igloo Club, with the old Mellon Arena in the background. This room is huge, and will be available to rent out for events like parties and wedding receptions.
A view from the upper-bowl concourse. There truly will not be a bad seat in this arena, no balconies or poles obstructing views.
This will be an area open to all ticket holders, not just those in the Igloo Club. There will be food and a "brew pub" located here. This area has the best views from the new arena.
The view. The windows are a little dirty right now, but the city lit up at night for a game should be a great sight from up here.
In Penguins News...
The team had a day off on Monday. They will return to practice on Tuesday and I'll be there to find out the Penguins' thoughts on the upcoming series against Ottawa. We should also find out the status of any injuries then.
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