New Arena In Henderson Underwent ‘Stress Test” With Big Crowd For Silver Knights Game As Confused Security Issues Need To be Cleaned Up
(Publisher’s Note: This story was corrected and updated to reflect the fact that the city of Henderson owns the arena and that Bill Foley’s group has a 20-year lease on the arena.)
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
There was security confusion over whether fans were allowed into the new arena at 5:15 PM or 5:45 PM and security also stopped media from entering the venue for 30 minutes as Bill Foley’s Henderson Silver Knights minor league hockey team played its maiden game at the Dollar Loan Center arena in suburban Henderson Saturday.
The American Hockey League Silver Knights have been playing at Orleans Arena while the $84 million, 6,000-seat arena in Green Valley Ranch was being built. The city of Henderson owns the arena on the site of the old Henderson Pavilion near The District shopping area. Vegas Golden Knights owner Foley’s sports and entertainment group contributed $42 million to help build the city-owned venue. Foley’s group has a 20-year lease on the building and runs the arena.
The arena opened with some bugs as fans outside one side of the arena where the media entered had to wait to get inside as security were trying to power up the metal detectors. Apparently, the team is trying to get fans to enter the arena’s other side where a plaza called a “tiltyard” has activations and kids’ activities. Fans were allowed in on that side at 5:45 PM and a security worker at that main entrance said he believed the doors were also open at 5:45 PM on the other side of the building even though doors didn’t open until 6 PM.
The arena has already hosted a college basketball tournament and indoor football games last month, so it’s unclear why it had problems on letting people in the building at the proper times.
Before the game, there were long lines at the concessions on the main concourse. Here’s a fan reaction:
And on confusion when arena doors were opening:
The Foley folks are hard-core into using medieval terms to describe everything (it’s a tiltyard, not a plaza) about the arena, which also houses Foley’s Indoor Football League Knight Hawks. The hockey arena is referred to as “House Henderson” and the town crier character at the Silver Knights games enjoys yelling a lot.
The opening night of hockey at the pristine arena included lots of pre-game kids activities outside the venue in the suburban setting. The average Silver Knights ticket is about 40 bucks, about one-third of the expensive Golden Knights tickets that cost more in the $120 average range. Two fans from Bakersfield, California who came to watch the Condors play the Silver Knights said they spent about $95 for their tickets including fees/charges.
The Foley group’s top marketing man, Eric Tosi, said Saturday’s event served as a “stress test” to see how traffic, parking, food/bev and security held up during the most-attended event since the building opened a month ago. He noted the confused security and slow internet issues will be cleaned up.
Tosi did like the new female knight character added to the in-game entertainment for the Silver Knights games.
For the record, the team announced attendance at 5,567 and lost, 5-2, to the Bakersfield Condors, the AHL farm team for the Edmonton Oilers. Silver Knights player Paul Cotter scored both of the goals for his team in front of his mom, who attended the game.
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