It’s an inanimate object, to be technical, but the bowl inside WesBanco Arena has, well, several different faces depending on the mood inside the structure.
The arena can appear as cold as ice one day, hard and colorful the next, soft and muddy another day, or plush and grassy when necessary.
Leaving the arena one night as a hockey rink, someone can return the next and it’s a basketball court or a football field or a bull-riding ring. It might feature a monster truck track or a boxing ring or a concert stage or the venue can be set up for a number of other events that take place on the corner 14th and Water streets.
Wesbanco Arena has been a multipurpose civic center since it opened in the late 1970s, and today it’s home to minor-league hockey in the ECHL and indoor football in the National Arena League. On May 22nd, though, Drusky Entertainment will bring in national signer/ songwriter Brantley Gilbert and his “Tattoos Tour.”
But, as event time arrives, patrons enter to see a beautifully manicured facility with the appropriate ‘arena’ in place without seeing all the nuts, bolts and physical labor that goes into placing it. That is, after all, exactly how it is supposed to be.
“When people come in to see our shows, we look for a healthy dose of cleanliness. When they come in, we want the show to look like the environment that it’s supposed to be in,” WesBanco Arena Operations Manager Scott Griffith said. “If it’s a monster truck show, we kind of dress it up to be where it’s supposed to look like the monster trucks are here. If it’s a hockey game, we get it prepared enough to where it looks like a hockey game.
“When we go from monster trucks to hockey, our conversion usually consists of specific people doing specific tasks; from putting in the dashers to putting in the glass, taking up the floor, putting the nets in and having the Zamboni drivers taking over the ice to clean up and get it ready for hockey.”
Often, these arena alterations are necessary sooner rather than later, and while fans are watching an exciting athletic finish or one final song of an encore, operations employees are mentally preparing to swap out for the next event. That transition, in fact, often occurs minutes after an event concludes and often the work continues through the night.
For instance, on Sunday, March 9, West Liberty University and Fairmont State University battled into the evening in a MEC men’s basketball championship game with Fairmont State winning in triple overtime. Those overtimes delayed the start of a transformation from a basketball arena to an indoor football field, which was needed the next night for the Wheeling Miners’ home opener. But walking into the arena Monday morning, the turf was already down, and hours later the Miners played their first game of the season.
It didn’t stop there.
Once football was completed, the arena needed to become a hockey rink for the Wheeling Nailers. They had a game on Wednesday, March 12; it wasn’t just any game, it was the Nailers Education Day game, meaning the start time was 10:45 a.m. to accommodate the thousands of students coming for a school-day field trip.
Tuesday afternoon, March 11, around 3-4 p.m., the Nailers were on the ice for a light practice leading into that game.
After Nailers games March 14-16, arena operations converted the bowl into a dirt-filled bull-riding ring for PBR on March 21-22. That meant hauling six metric tons of dirt and spreading it on top of the rink, which was covered by insulating boards. After hauling all the dirt out, it was back to hockey weekends March 28-30 and April 4-6, closing out the home regular-season schedule.
Was it then time for a slow week, right? Nope.
Following the Nailers’ Fan Appreciation game on Sunday, April 6, it was time to turn the arena back into a basketball court for a visit the Harlem Globetrotters on April 8. Then, just three days later, the Toughest Monster Trucks Tour visited the arena, so that meant the basketball court was dismantled and tucked away, and all hockey dasher boards and glass were stored.
Only then was the dirt, junk cars and monster trucks brought onto the arena’s floor. For that event, the staff had to double the amount of dirt from what was needed for PBR.
“I always say I would put this team up against any team actually in the nation,” said Kelly Tucker, the executive director for the Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority. “It’s unbelievable what they can accomplish even in 24 hours.
“To turn it from basketball court to dirt back to ice is really remarkable and unbelievable,” she said. “It’s how we can accomplish so much here.”
With an arena operations staff willing and capable of such massive changes so quickly, how does Tucker find that impacting her abilities to attract different and diverse shows?
“It’s made a huge difference because they will never go against a challenge I give them. There have been times where we’ve gone from ice to a concert back to ice back to a floor. . . and they never say no,” she explained. “And they’re always willing to jump in and get the job done which allows me much more access to do different events here.”
The operations department at the arena includes Griffith and three other full-time employees in Jim Hench, Amanda Brown and Ed Anderson, Sr., and 19 part-time employees. Additionally, Griffith said he utilizes the Stagehands Union Local 64 from Wheeling “for the heavy part of tear-downs and installs.”
“When the stagehands come in, they’re addressed to do specific tasks, and when they’re done with their tasks, they usually do the heavy lifting,” Griffith added. “And we take over and we start to do all the cleaning of the facility, the management of the ice, or preparing for the next show.”
