THE BRANDON SUN • WESTMAN BUSINESS • OCTOBER 26, 2024
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Designing a better fan experience
“Both designers were absolutely fan- tastic to work with and brought incred- ible breadth of expertise in rearranging and designing arena spaces,” he said. McKenzie also credits Jacobson Com- mercial, project lead for the seat re- placement for a smooth execution. “They were absolutely incredible for turnaround on the seat replacement,” he said. “They removed the old seats, installed the new seats and the loge boxes. They contracted the people to do the decal work for logos, images, section and seat numbers, and made sure all the deadlines were met. “They started right after PBR (profes- sional bull riding) at the end of May and we were game-ready for the pre-season game in early September. The old arena seats were famous- ly secondhand from the old Winnipeg arena — so where did they go? “The old arena seats still have life in them so we reached out to local are- nas around Manitoba and some ap- proached us, so you’ll find that a lot of them have found homes in smaller community rinks around the prov- ince,” he said. “Some seats went to tick- et holders as souvenirs.” The 50-year mark is a good time to consider a refurbishment for a venue, but McKenzie says the building had good bones to start with, so planned changes were made with an eye to ex- tend the life of the building, expand event capacity, upgrade fan/audience experience, and fix one big “quirk” in particular. “We’re also currently completing a new air conditioning and dehumidifi- cation system, which is a huge deal to anyone that remembers the “Fog Bowl” fiasco,” he said, laughing. McKenzie is referring to the Wheat Kings 2016 home-opener that had be rescheduled because fog settled on the ice when hot weather and humidity met cold air above the rink. “Because it’s so technical and it’s a retrofit in an older building, the air conditioning and dehumidification systems upgrades are complicated. Brandon Heating and Plumbing are hard at work on the system and they’re living up to the high standards they’re known for.” The addition of the system means the venue can now book more events over the summer. “The new AC system will help to at- tract family events like Sesame Street Live in the summer when it’s hot. We can properly regulate the temperature to meet the requirements of perfor- mance companies and to keep our au- diences comfortable,” he said. Change was already in the air for the Keystone Centre and things seemed to come together from all directions.
The Keystone Centre in Brandon as seen from above. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
BY WENDY KING W HEAT Kings fans will be on the edge of their brand new seats during home games at Westoba Place at the Keystone Centre. And those comfortable ac- commodations also come with cupholders ... which means hands are free to do the wave when the team shoots and scores. “Over the course of the summer, we have seen major improvements at the Keystone centre in Westoba Place,” said Jared McKenzie, director of marketing and ticketing at the Keystone Centre. “Westoba Place now boasts new, larger single seats, more accessible options, and premium loge boxes, which seat four to six fans. The loge boxes also have bar tops and stools and feature in-suite service.” The Keystone Centre worked with TBD Architects and Orange Crow Lead- ership for the consultation and design.
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