By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The NCAA Division II Women's Elite Eight presented the perfect opportunity to show off the new and improved amenities at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph.
A refurbished and redesigned basketball court, new LED lights donning the arena, new basketball hoops, new seats, and a center court suspended video scoreboard were shown off during the opening games on Monday.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Scott Nelson attended the games and says the improvements are a sight to see.
"You put the floor down, you look at the new scoreboard, you look at the seats that they're all there, good color, crowd was 900 to 1000 people," Nelson tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "And that's pretty good for that cause those teams had to travel, there was really no local flavor."
Nelson says the only thing missing from the new setup was a brand-new scorer’s table, which has not arrived yet.
Nelson says he knows there were doubts about whether Civic Arena should be renovated or just replaced.
"For the money that you had to spend, I think they've done a good job," Nelson says. "And the outside, the sidewalks look great and it's wrapped, it looks good down there."
Nelson says despite having no local teams playing, the event drew several fans to the arena from all around the nation.
The remaining four teams will play for a chance at the championship game in Dallas, Texas this evening. Games will be played at 6 and 8:30pm.
Nelson hopes though that these renovations will help draw more events to the arena.
Nelson says that in the past year the Civic Arena was holding events or had people working 180 days out of the year
"Now a lot of that's prep, breakdown, get ready for the next event, so there's a lot going in there," Nelson explains. "Can there be a lot more in there? Sure, but staffing is an issue."
Nelson says to fill those jobs it takes the right person with the right desire to work what could be considered an odd job with an odd work schedule.
