charliemike

:

Seems like a wasted opportunity for the city and the school.

mainejeff

Don't even get me started.........

LittleMike

This is the Penn National Hollywood Casino agreement with the City Bangor. The old Bangor Raceway is next to the new facility and will remain intact. It will be a gambling complex with a new hotel and casino.

Not sure why you are all excited about this new arena. This has ZERO to so with the University of Maine. There will be concerts and events and maybe one game a year when they bring in powerhouse Southern Maine. On the other hand, the new UVM and SBU arenas will be a replacement for their schools current gyms.

Quickdraw62

Speaking of new gyms, when will the UVM and SB gyms be ready? I've only seen them on tv, but clearly both need to be replaced (although I would imagine both offer a strong homecourt advantage)...

mainejeff

Thanks for the heads up BU Mike!

You know NOTHING. The casino/hotel has existed for 4 years already and is across the street. The new arena is in City of Bangor owned Bass Park. And it DOES have something to do with UM since they are planning on moving hoops to Memorial Gym which will have a seating capacity of 2-3K. The new arena will seat 5,800 for hoops.

Stick to Commonwealth Ave., Mikey!

mainejeff

New pic from a couple of weeks ago.........

UVM Hoop Cat

That lumberjack statue is amazing. Bangor is making the right decision to feature that and build everything around it.

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

Nostrajimus

Hollywood Slots Arena look to be quite the facility, and with table games on the way, this place should be hopping

mainejeff

This picture is actually a couple of weeks old, but shows the progress that has been made during this mild winter......

mainejeff

Too bad that everyone hates Bangor so much.

Oh well........everyone in AE has a new arena with a casino and 200 room hotel across the street and downtown restaurants and bars 1/2 mile away...........

TerrierNation

Is the arena going to be used by the Black Bears or is it just a once a year thing?

And do they have any long term plans for a sports team to occupy? Minor league hockey?

ccd494

No ice. I have no idea how they plan to fill that white elephant's many, many open dates without an ice sheet. Bangor is a weird market though- VERY old population, I don't know how a pro team would do there (two independent league baseball teams failed). They tried to revitalize the waterfront with a summer concert series, but all of the acts that sell are geared towards geezers. They build concert infrastructure and an arena to appeal to young people trying to get them to move home, then they fill those dates with the Beach Boys and Journey. Schizophrenia.

No plans for UMaine to be a permanent tenant at the moment- but Steve Rowe did say that UM downgraded the number of seats in the new Pit partially because if they outgrow the 2,000ish there they can probably work something out with the City. I don't know that I agree with that thinking, if there is one thing UMaine's 8,000 students have shown it is that they have no interest in traveling the 10 miles to Bangor to participate in anything down there.

LittleMike

MJ, Just give thanks to the few hundred old geezers that blow their Social Security checks on nickel slots to finance this arena so you can go watch the Black Bears against UMaine-Farmington.

Without that money you would be forever holding up the rafters at Alfond with your cane while standing on the head of your beloved mascot Bananas T Bear.

umainealum

I know they can be guilty of that, but the summer concert series coming to the Bangor waterfront this year is actually really good and fairly diverse:

May 18th - Godsmack, STAIND, Hellyeah & Brook Royal (definitely not a geezers show)
May 27th - Gary Allan, Justin Moore, Josh Thompson, Corey Smith, Sonny Sweeney (country?)

June 2nd - Zac Brown Band, Nic Cowan & Sonia Lee (Zac Brown Band is pretty popular)
June 21st - moe & Gov't Mule (no clue what this music is)
June 22nd - The Beach Boys

July 6th - Rascal Flatts, Little Big Town, Eli Young & Eden's Edge (huge concert - I have seen Rascal Flatts & they are awesome in concert)
July 8th - Styx, REO Speedwagon & Ted Nugent
July 27th - The Happy Together Tour (no clue, but something about Mickey Dolenz, former lead singer for the Monkees)

August 19th - Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveler, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Cracker
August 22nd - Def Leppard, Poison & Lita Ford
August 31st - Big Time Rush (every 11-18 year old girl in the area will be here to see the boy band)

September 1st - Keith Urban & David Nail (another major act)
September 2nd - Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan & DJ Silver (another pretty big act)
September 28th - Journey, Pat Benatar & Loverboy


I don't know what people expect, but for a community of that size in Maine, that is a pretty damn good list of concerts! There are hundreds of communities across this country that would kill to have that many good shows coming to their area. There is something for everybody...and a LOT of good money coming into the Bangor market.


Edit:

Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland:

June 24th - James Taylor
August 25th - American Idol Live Tour

That's it as of right now...nothing else in the state has this amount of quality shows.

__________________
UMaine - the epitome of mediocrity

Proud supporter of an AMERICA EAST team that made a coaching change...

mainejeff

So yeah.........show me an AE town with a brand new arena and a casino with 200 room hotel across the street.......and decent restaurants, pubs, and breweries within a half a mile. Anxiously awaiting response, but more than likely just wise ass replies because we all know the answer to that..........