Golden Knights Will Build 6,000-Seat Arena At Henderson Pavilion Site To House New AHL Team Games
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The Vegas Golden Knights’ new American Hockey League team will play in a new 6,000-seat hockey arena that will be built at the Henderson Pavilion site off South Green Valley Parkway, a main artery in the city of Henderson.
The new Knights’ new AHL team, which will play at the 8,000-seat Orleans Arena while the new AHL arena is being built in Henderson, will start play in the Las Vegas market in 2020-21.
“The Henderson arena will be a public/private partnership but we are in the very preliminary planning stages and don’t yet have all the details. Our preliminary design concept calls for enclosing the current Pavilion facility, which already has a seating capacity of 6,000,” said Kathleen Richards of the city of Henderson. How much public money will the Golden Knights be receiving from the city of Henderson for the AHL arena project? No answer on that one.
“Again this is only preliminary, but the concept is to enclose the existing facility,” Richards said.
Golden Knights owner Bill Foley bought the AHL team in San Antonio and plans to re-locate the franchise to Henderson. The Golden Knights are already building a community ice center called Lifeguard Arena on 3.2 acres on Water Street in Henderson where the AHL team will practice and be based.
The VGK say they have already received more than 4,000 season ticket deposits of $50 to pick seats to watch the new AHL team.
The Knights issued this statement: “We are proud to announce that the American Hockey League version of The Fortress is coming to Henderson. We will work with city officials on developing a second hockey facility in Henderson, which will be a new state-of-the-art, 6,000-seat arena for our AHL team.”
It’s unclear what the team means by saying the Golden Knights “will work with city officials” on the 6,000-seat arena. Is the city of Henderson giving the land for free or providing a public subsidy? LVSportsBiz.com reached out to the city of Henderson and the Golden Knights Thursday afternoon hoping for answers on that topic.
Another unknown is the price of the tickets for the AHL games. The Golden Knights’ average ticket is more than $100 for a game at T-Mobile Arena and it’s the fourth most expensive average ticket in the 31-team National Hockey League, according to Team Marketing Report, which tracks major league team fan cost data.
The typical AHL ticket price is in the $16-$35 range, so it will be interesting to see how much the Golden Knights charge for tickets for the AHL games. Plus, will there be a charge for parking at the AHL games in Henderson? Another unknown.
The Golden Knights are already generating tens of millions of dollars in VGK ticket revenue, merchandise sales and corporate sponsorships. It will be interesting to see how much they try to make a profit on the AHL games in Henderson and how much the city of Henderson will have to contribute to the AHL team arena deal.
The city of Henderson is already giving the Golden Knights $10.75 million to build the $25 million community ice center on Water Street.
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