New arena becoming hot ticket for big concerts
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Ironworker Bob Beatty, of Wexford, puts together a portion of the video display last month inside the new Consol Energy Center.
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The Consol Energy Center won't open until late August at the earliest, but it's already a hit with the concert-going crowd.
Just as 'N Sync christened Heinz Field -- much to the dismay of hard-core Steelers fans -- the new Penguins arena likely will open with a hot musical act. The first show announced for the new building, Lady Gaga on Sept. 5, sold out within minutes. The same pattern is expected next month when tickets go on sale for a 30th-anniversary performance of "The Wall" by onetime Pink Floyd mastermind Roger Waters.
Those are two tours that are certain to be among the hottest tickets for the late-summer, early-fall concert season. They are also the kind of high-profile tours that have skipped Pittsburgh and its aging Mellon Arena in recent years. In addition, Rush is playing its first indoor show here in more than a decade.
"We've got the new car smell," says Jay Roberts, general manager of SMG, which will manage the new building. "A lot of people want to be involved when an arena first opens because there's extra excitement. It's an immediate jolt to the system."
Most of the people buying tickets for these shows have seen the Consol Energy Center only from the outside, but the expectation is that, despite lacking the visual drama of the old dome, it will be a better venue for concerts, games and events involving elephants and furry puppets.
Among the promised improvements will be more comfortable seating with more leg room, unobstructed views throughout the hall, more restrooms -- which may ease those endless ladies' room lines -- more concessions with better variety, a better HVAC system and, to keep the artists happy, more plush dressing rooms. In the Mellon, they've had to use Gate 5 women's bathrooms and visiting-team locker rooms on occasion to accommodate artists.
Those aren't the only amenities driving the concert surge. On a nuts-and-bolts level, Consol Energy will be better equipped to handle major concerts by artists like Lady Gaga, who is arriving with a fleet of 30 trucks and "massive stage spectacle."
"There's a possibility that we couldn't have put that show in [Mellon]," Mr. Roberts says. "Consol Energy is going to have loading docks and a rigging grid -- things that most people take for granted in the industry, we've never had in Pittsburgh. It will make it a lot easier for shows to move in and out.
First Published April 18, 2010 12:00 am
