Arenas are learning that it pays to be multi-faceted.
The days of baseball stadium also serving as football fields … and vice versa … seem to be coming to an end. But such is definitely not the case in the world of small towns arenas. The cost of running the places … even such mundane things as keeping the lights on … are forcing a lot of smaller towns to finding as many uses as possible for their arenas.
Sartell, MN is a small town of 14,000 plus near St. Cloud (about an hour north of the Twin Cities). The days of the local hockey arena taking out the ice and, in essence, closing up shop for a few months are over. This story from the St. Cloud Times tells what lengths the locals are going to find a way to keep the arena.
You could replace the name with a thousand arenas around the country and you would probably find the same story — a sign of the times.
