Over $3.6 million in SNHU Arena upgrades move forward on Aldermanic docket

SNHU Arena. File photo

MANCHESTER, NH – The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen Special Committee on Baseball and Civic Center Activities met this week to review a request for $3,646,780 in renovations at SNHU Arena.

This request was the first half of a $7,060,280 request to the arena’s capital expense budget to update infrastructure at the facility, now over 20 years old.

According SNHU Arena Senior General Manager Tim Bechert, the arena’s lack of a dedicated videoboard system is preventing it from obtaining certain events. The arena currently has a scoreboard rather than a videoboard in the middle of the arena, which Bechert described as “a glorified light bright on a good day.”

The videoboard system would also include messaging ribbons at the edges of the arena bowl and a replacement for the outside marquee, which Bechert says still runs on Windows 7. The end of technical support for Windows 7 came in January 2020, and Bechert added that parts for the systems are no longer made. This system would take up $1,208,507 of the $3,646,780 request.

Also under discussion during the committee hearing was $271,077 for emergency repairs to the ice plant. Bechert said that $75,000 in emergency repairs were needed to help save a recent Disney on Ice show that had sold $2 million in tickets.

The committee unanimously recommended the proposal and the full board accepted the recommendation, which will now be taken up by the board’s Committee on Finance in November.