The arena developer is entering new territory by proposing a 6,000-seat arena and entertainment complex for East Tennessee State University.Global Properties is entering new territory by proposing a 6,000-seat arena and entertainment complex for East Tennessee State University.
New territory because the arena developer traditionally works with municipalities to develop new arenas, usually in partnership with a Global-owned hockey team in the Central Hockey League. And new because traditionally universities work by themselves on facilities development.
But ETSU officials see a need to replace the Mini-Dome, a facility originally designed to house 13,000 for football games but gradually downsized to hold 5,740 because of state fire codes. The 31-year-old facility need to be replaced, they reason, and one potential way to do that is in partnership with Johnson CIty and Global.
It doesn’t sound like there’s a lot of enthusiasm or money to pull this off, according to this story; Global would act purely as a contractor and not invest anything in the project. And with the economy in the tank, there’s little appetite amongst Johnson City officials to raise taxes for a new arena.
