The city’s arena is 75 years old.
The arena game could be coming to Syracuse, New York very soon. The city’s 75-year-old arena is antiquated but still usable for the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch franchise. But the building is 75 years old and that is a problem. Howard Dolgon, who owns the Crunch business, said in July that his business could have a new, “state-of-the-art” arena. But he did not provide any details other than to say he thought the stars are “beginning to align.” Syracuse hosts the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning business’s top minor league affiliate. Syracuse has two major sports teams, Syracuse University’s men’s basketball team and the university’s football team. Major League Baseball’s New York Mets business’s top farm team is in Syracuse. There are people in town pursuing a low-level soccer franchise. Syracuse is not a destination city for entertainment. There are about 650,000 people who live in the Syracuse metropolitan area.
On May 12th, a CNY Central poll published showed that a majority of people would support the construction of a new arena in Syracuse. CNY Central asked, “Would you support a new arena in Syracuse?” Of the 1,205 respondents 54 percent of people voted “yes” while 46 percent of people voted “no”. That poll though may not mean all that much when it comes to the nitty gritty of building a venue. There are little things like who will pay for a building before getting to other details such as architectural drawings, zoning, infrastructure and those opposed to spending taxpayers money on an entertainment center. The preliminary price tag of the construction of a Syracuse venue is $250 million. Syracuse area politicians know that a minor league hockey team will not generate enough revenue to cover arena debt and that is problem one. Someone has to pay for the construction and maintenance. The Syracuse arena game is coming.
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