During a recent visit to my cousins’ Christmas tree farm in Robbinston, the conversation turned to basketball — and the future of the Bangor Auditorium, a venue quite familiar to fans of the nearby Calais Blue Devils.
I suggested to my cousin’s son Kyle, a promising eighth-grade guard, that he’d play in the tournament at a new Bangor arena by his senior year in 2015.
Of course, that prediction was greeted with sarcasm by one of the elders in the room who said that for it to be true, first Kyle’s team would have to make the tournament. So I suggested that at least he’d be able to see the Shrine Circus at a new Auditorium by the time he’s a senior, and that’s not bad, either.
But whether Kyle winds up playing in the tournament or just feeding the elephants, I’m hopeful it will be in a new Bangor arena, for the time is now to replace the aging edifice and conditions likely will never be better.
Considerable funding already is in place from income generated by Hollywood Slots. Interest rates for construction bonds are low, and Cianbro Corp. already has offered a hometown discount of sorts. There’s also potential access to tax increment financing district money that combined with the other revenue sources could narrow the gap between the amount the city can borrow and the estimated $71 million cost of the project — I can do without the skywalks and meeting building that would push the cost to $80 million — to as little as $7 million even before private funding sources are identified or parking fees and ticket surcharges are considered.
It seems like a modest amount given the arena’s potential as an economic engine for Bangor’s future, along with the fact that the current Auditorium was obsolete a generation ago.
Numerous events that could have been held in Bangor in recent years were turned away because the current facility was deemed inadequate — heck, the Auditorium’s roof has leaked periodically at least since February 1986 when the basketball tournament was delayed for 90 minutes so a blue tarp could be installed to prevent water from reaching the court during the Eastern B finals — a night of hoops that ultimately ended after midnight when the Dexter boys outlasted Rockland in five overtimes.
A study commissioned by a group supporting a new arena complex found that a new arena could generate $26 million annually for the local economy while creating 405 full-time jobs — just two more numbers that suggest that the proposal is more investment than mere expenditure.
Some will say that anyone who lives outside the city has no right to encourage Bangor city councilors elected by the taxpayers to represent them that they should invest in any difference between the revenue streams and eventual cost of the arena proposal. But it’s also the thousands who travel Routes 15 and IA and 9 or up and down the Interstate to work in Greater Bangor each day and spend much of the money they earn there at local businesses — much to the chagrin of their hometown merchants — that also is crucial in enabling the city to remain Eastern Maine’s economic hub.
And it’s many of those same people who return to the city for concerts, RV shows, the high school basketball tournaments and the Shrine Circus, leaving plenty of their discretionary money behind.
No matter your geographic perspective, it seems, there’s great benefit to be derived from a new arena in Bangor.
